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PAST AND PRESENT 



OF 



SALINE COUNTY 
MISSOURI 



By 
HON. WILLIAM BARCLAY NAPTON 



ILLUSTRATED 



B, F. BOWEN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 

INDIANAPOLIS. IND., CHICAGO, ILL. 

1910 






'4-1^ 



.Sas"//^ 



THAT'S MISSOURI 



Where the sun's a Httle brighter, 
And the skies are more serene ; 
Where the bloom's a little sweeter 
And the grass a bit more green; 

Where nature is not just a loving Mother, but a C een, 
And a Queen of perfect beauty, 
That's Missouri. 

Where kindness is proverbial. 
And honesty's the same ; 
Where hearty hospitality 
Has won a well earned fame; 

Where right down meanness isn't even known, except by name, 
And friends are friends to count on. 
That's Missouri. 

Where big hearts, true and tender. 
Yet staunch and strong, abound; 
Where God so gives his blessings 
That proofs of them are found 

In the glory of the harvest, and a people hale and sound, 
In contentment, peace and plenty, 
That's Missouri. 

R. B. CALDWELL. 



PREFACE 



All life and achievement is evolution ; present wisdom comes from past 
experience, and present commercial prosperity has come only from past exer- 
tion and suffering. The deeds and motives of the men that have gone before 
have been instrumental in shaping the destinies of later communities and 
states. The development of a new country was at once a task and a privilege. 
It required great courage, sacrifice and privation. Compare the present con- 
ditions of the residents of Saline county, iMissouri, with what they were one 
hundred years ago. From a trackless wilderness and virgin prairie it has come 
to be a center of prosperity and civilization, with millions of wealth, systems 
of railways, grand educational institutions, splendid industries and immense 
agricultural productions. Can any thinking person be insensible to the fas- 
cination of the study which discloses the incentives, hopes, aspirations and 
efforts of the early pioneers who so strongly laid the foundation upon which 
has been reared the magnificent prosperity of later days? To perpetuate the 
story of these people and to trace and record the social, political and industrial 
progress of the community from its first inception is the function of the local 
historian. A sincere purpose to preserve facts and personal memoirs that are 
deserving of preservation, and which unite the present to the past, is the 
motive for the present publication. The work has been in the hands of able 
writers, who have, after much patient study and research, produced here the 
most complete biographical memoirs of Saline county, Missouri, ever oft'ered 
to the public. A specially valuable and interesting department is that one de- 
voted to the sketches of representative citizens of this county whose records 
deserve perpetuation because of their worth, effort and accomplishment. The 
publishers desire to extend their thanks to these gentlemen who have so faith- 
fully labored to this end. Thanks are also due to the citizens of Saline county 
for the uniform kindness with which they have regarded this undertaking, and 
for their many services rendered in the gaining of necessary information. 

In placing Napton's "Past and Present of Saline County, Missouri," be- 
fore the citizens, the publishers can conscientiously claim that they have car- 
ried out the plan as outlined in the prospectus. Every biographical sketch in the 
work has been submitted to the party interested, for correction, and therefore 
any error of fact, if there be any, is solely due to the person for whom the 
sketch was prepared. Confident that our efforts to please will fully meet the 
approbation of the public, we are. 

Respectfully, 

The Publishers. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I — Missouri, the Heart of the Louisiana 1'urchase. . 17 
Wealth and Resources — The Louisiana Purchase — Livingston, Mon- 
roe and Napoleon — President Jefferson's Instructions — Spain Ob- 
jects and England not Pleased — Opposition to the Purchase — 
Treaty Stipulations — Message of the President — Permanent Peace 
With England — Louisiana in Possession — l^'irst Territorial Officers. 

CHAPTER n— Missouri Territory 36 

Saline County Created — Initial White Population, 1804 — Lewis and 
Clark — The Boone's Lick Country — The Pioneers — Jesse Cox, the 
Eirst Permanent Settler in Saline County — Other Early Arrivals — 
The First Exports — The New Madrid Claims — Wild Game — Indians 
Show Friendship — High A^^ater — Early Milling — Domestic Econ- 
omies — The Settlement of Edmondson's Bottom — The First School 
— Jesse Lankford — Settlement of the ]\Iiami Bottom — Trouble 
With the Indians — Salt Pond Settlement — Settlement of the Sap- 
pington Neighborhood — Early Settlement of the Petite Saux Bottom 
— The Indians of Saline. 

CHAPTER III— Lands and Surveys 60 

Ordinances for Surveys of the Public Domains — A Restrictive Policv 
— The People Remonstrate — Establishment of Principal Meridians 
— General Land Office Established — Surveys Made — Public Land 
Sales — The Pre-emptioners — Land Titles and Litigation. 

CHAPTER IV — \\'iLD Animals and Fish 70 

Fish of a Superior Quality — Turkeys of Prodigious Size — Disap- 
pearance of Elk — Bear Hunts — A Voracious Panther — \\'olves — 
Old "Bob-tail" — Deer Formerly Abundant — Deer Driving — A Good 
Field for Trappers. 

CHAPTER V — County Organization "jy 

Legislative Enactment — First Judges — Benjamin Chambers. Clerk 
— School Land Commissioners — Transactions of the First County 



CONTENTS 

Courts — Township Boundary Lines Established — Settlement of the 
County From 1820 to 1840 — Permanent Settlers — Heavy Immigra- 
tion Into the County — Salt Manufacture — Visit By Washington 
Irving and Party. 

CHAPTER VI — Early Historical Events 90 

First Circuit Court — First Indictments and Convictions — Negro 
Slavery — Events from 1822 to 1832 — Murder of John Starkley — 
A Laughable Sequel — The First Steamboat to Pass Up the Missouri 
River — Arrow Rock — The Presidential Election — The Cold Winter 
— The Blackhawk War in 1832 — Settlers Greatly Alarmed — Early 
Marriages — Early Schools — First Contract with School Teacher. 

CHAPTER VII— The Santa Fe Trade and Santa Fe Trail 100 

Its Importance in Early History of Saline County — Great Profits 
Realized — Trading Parties Bothered by Indians — Alany Saline 
County People Engaged in the Trade — Other Public Roads and 
Highways — State Roads Authorized by Legislature — Highways 
for Western Immigration. 

CHAPTER VIII— Events From 1834 to 1840 no 

Severe Winter of 1834-35 — Presidential Election of 1836 — Saline 
County Volunteers in Seminole War — Establishment of a Perma- 
nent County Seat — Commissioners' Report — Platting of Marshall 
and Sale of Lots — Court Held at Arrow Rock^— Contract Let for , 
Building of Court House — Early Records — Incidents From the Early 
Records of the Circuit Court Held at Old Jonesboro. 

CHAPTER IX— Affairs From 1840 to the Mexican W1\r 116 

Presidential Campaign of 1840 — Much Excitement — First Session 
of the County Court at Marshall — Overflow of Missouri River — 
Mexican War — Saline County Volunteers — Presenting of Flags — 
Roster of Company D — Capt. John W. Reid — Company D Acquits 
Itself with Great Credit — A\'elcomed Home. 

CHAPTER X— From the Close of the Mexican War to 1850 126 

Removal of Sac and Fox Indians — Maj. Thomas H. Harvey, Su- 
perintendent of Indian Affairs — Presidential Campaign of 1848 — 
The Question of Slavery — The Jackson Resolutions — Emigration 



CONTENTS 

to California in 1849 — Importation of Thoroughbred Cattle — Hemp 
Culture — Cholera Appears, with b'atal Results. 

CHAPTER XI — The Decade of the Fifties 1:54 

Crops Good and County Prosperous — Efforts to Secure Railroads — 
Presidential Contest of 1852 — Recognition of Squatter Sovereignty 
— Public Meetings in 1859 — Big Meeting Held in the Interest of 
State Rights — Legislature Memorialized — County Election of 1859. 

CHAPTER XII — Events of i860 and Subsequent Years 141 

Presidential Campaign of i860 — Its Results and Effects — Tabulated 
Vote — Popular Feeling Stirred — Mass Meeting at Marshall — Reso- 
lutions Adopted — The State Convention of January, 1861 — Legis- 
lature Meets and Passes Militia Law and Other Measures — Saline 
County People Preparing for War — ^^Mass Meeting at Marshall in 
May — First Organization of Military Companies — Presentaticm of 
Flag to Jackson Guards — The Union Men of Saline — Camp Mar- 
shall — First Battle of Boonville — First Federal Troops in the Countv 
— Capture of Robertson's Regiment — Other Events of the First 
Year of the Civil \^'ar — Second Battle of Boonville — State Offices 
Declared Vacant and New Appointments Made — First Federal 
Troops Stationed in the County — Major McKee's Order — First Fed- 
eral Troops Raised in the County — Fighting Begins in Earnest — 
Fight at Meadow Springs — W'ar During 1863 — Federal Rule (Ob- 
noxious — The Hand of ^^'ar Felt Heavily — Shelby's Command in 
Saline County — Major John X'^. Edwards — Tlie Fight at Marshall — 
Gen. Thomas Ewing — Fight at Salt Fork. 

CHAPTER XIII— The Civil War in 1864-5 ^^i 

Guerrilla Warfare — Robbery and Pillage — Burning of Old Saline 
County Court House — Arrest of Citizens, Male and Female — Courts 
Martial and Executions — General Price's Last March Through ]\Iis- 
souri — Col. Lachlan McLean — Battle of Lexington — Presidential 
Election of 1864 — Close of the Civil War — Minor Fights and Skir- 
mishes — Fight With Guerrillas and the Killing of Grove and (lilliam 
— Fight at Arrow Rock — Fight on the Blackwater — Fight at X. J. 
Smith's — Guerrillas at B. Thomas' — Killing of Judge Smart by the 
Federals and of Ricehouse and Walker by the Confederates — Killing 
of Capt. Ed Brown — Murder of James Boyer — Killing of Ingram 



CONTENTS 

and Bogamire — Killing of Park Woods — Execution of Dr. T- W- 
Benson — Killing- of Re^'. Ka\anaugh — Killing of James E. Elson — 
Execution of .Vsa Huff — Killing of Charles Flannegan — Col. Samuel 
Boyd — Seven Federals Shot hy Price's Men— Killing of Howerton 
and Allen McReynolds. 

CHAPTER XIX — Saline County Soldiers in the Civil War 203 

Confederate Soldiers' Record — Saline Mounted Rifles — Saline Jack- 
son Guards — Company G, Second Cavalry — Capt. Robert Ruxton's 
Company — Saline Guards — Company D, First Cavalry — Titsworth's 
Company — Company E, First Cavalry — Miscellaneous — Federal or 
L'nion Soldiers' Record — Company B, Seventh Regiment — Com- 
pany H, Seventy-first Regiment— Company F, Seventy-first Regi- 
ment — Company G, Seventy-first Regiment — Company F, Seventh 
Regiment — Miscellaneous. 

CHAPTER XX — Events Following the Civil \\\\r 239 

^Missouri and Saline County Reconstructed — Election Under Pro- 
visional Government — Constitutional Convention — Constitution Sub- 
mitted and Adopted — County Election of 1866 — Subsidence of Po- 
litical Excitement — Break in the Republican Party — Elections of 
1872 and 1874 — Constitutional Convention — Election of 1876 — 
Events of 1877 — Surveys for Railroad — Events of 1878 — Chicago 
& Alton Railroad Completed to Marshall — Events of 1880 — A Se- 
vere Winter — Court House Destroyed by Fire — High \\'aters. 

CHAPTER XXI — Historical Events From 1880 to 1900 250 

Proposition to Build K[ew Court House Endorsed by Popular Vote 
— County Election of 1882 — Cyclone at Brownsville — Destructive 
Fire at Marshall — Corner Stone of Missouri Valley College Laid — 
Political Excitement of 1896 — Failure of Citizens' Stock Bank at 
Slater — Public Improvements in Marshall — Street Fair in ^Marshall 
— The Disastrous Drought of 1901 — Disastrous \\'reck on the Chi- 
cago & Alton Road — City of Marshall Acquires Water \\'orks. 

CHAPTER XXII — Official Roster of Saline County 259 

Representatives — Probate Judges — Coroners — County Attorneys — 
Public Administrators — Assessors — Sheriffs — Treasurers — County 
Clerks — Commissioner of Schools — Recorders — Surveyors — Circuit 
Clerks — Collectors — Judges County Court. 



CONTENTS 

CHAt'TER XXIII — Plj3Uc Schools, School Houses, Teachers, etc. 265 
Marshall Public Schools — High School — Benson School — Eastwood 
School — X^orth School — Xi^egro School — Saline County Public 
School Statistics — County Schools of Saline County. 

CHAPTER XXIV — The Sappington School Fund 291 

Dr. John Sappington, Saline County's Greatest Philanthropist — 
His Care for Poor Children — Disbursements for the Education of 
Indigent Young People — Sketch of Doctor Sappington. 

CHAPTER XXV — Missouri Valley College , 294 

Articles of Association — Marshall Gains Location Ijy Liberal Dona- 
tion — Twenty Years of Eventful and Successful History — Statistics 
— Faculty. 

CHAPTER XXVI — Xewspapers of Saline County 297 

Saline County Herald — Saline County Progress — Saline County 
Democrat — The Marshall Daily X^ews — Saline Citizen — Marshall 
Republican — Sweet Springs Herald — Miami ^^>ekly X'ews — Other 
X'^ewspapers. 

CHAPTER XXVII — Agricultural Associations and Fairs. 303 

Early Agitation Initiated by the County Court — Association Organ- 
ized in 1856 — Saline County Central Agricultural and Mechanical 
Association Organized in 1871 — A Successful Career — A Xew Asso- 
ciation. 

CHAPTER XXVIII — Religion, Preachers and Churches 305 

Early Settlers Religious and Devout — Pioneer Preachers — X'otable 
Conference of Methodist Church at Arrow Rock — The Baptist 
Church — Methodist Church South — Smith's Chapel Church — Cath- 
olic Churches — Episcopal Church at Marshall. 

CHAPTER XXIX— Authors of Saline County 311 

Judge Nathaniel B. Tucker — Author of the Great Seal of the State 
of Missouri — Description of Seal — John B. Jones — Perry Scott 
Rader, Official Reporter of the Supreme Court — James de Ouincy 
Donehoo. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXX — Distinguished Men of Saline County. ., 319 

Brig.-Gen. Thomas A. Smith — Claiborne Fox Jackson — Judge W. 
B. Napton — Gen. George C. Bingham, the Missouri Artist, State 
Treasurer and Adjutant-General — Dr. Matthew \A'. Hall — Gen. 
Richard C. Vaughan — John G. Miller- — Thomas Crutchfield Dug- 
gins — Col. William A. Wilson — John Locke Hardeman — Gov. M. 
M. Marmaduke — Col. T. W. B. Crews — George G. Vest — Col. John 
Smith T. 

CHAPTER XXXI — Incidents of Early Times in Saline County. . 357 
Memories of the Author — Primitive Methods and Conditions — 
Lewis and Clark's Account of Saline County — The Town of Jones- 
boro — Annual Militia Musters — First Things — Dr. George Penn — 
Malta Bend — Traces of Prior Occupants in Miami Township — 
Earthquake of 181 1 — Town of Miami — Saline County Soil Good — 
Cambridge — Slater — Saline City — Orearville — First Bank in Mar- 
shall. 

CHAPTER XXXII — Miscellaneous Items of Interest. . . ., 377 

Missouri Colony for the Feeble Minded and Epileptics at Marshall — 
The Missouri River, Steamboats, River Trade, and Transportation 
— Assessed Valuation — Taxes Levied for the year 1909 — School 
Funds. 



INDEX 



A 

Academy of Notre Dame de Sion.. 411 

Adams, James Preston 512 

Adams, Thomas 715 

Alexander, Edwin T 502 

Alexander, James M 502 

Allison, Alfred J 794 

Allison, Alfred T 793 

Althouse, George H 620 

Armentrout, P. C 815 

Auer, Joseph H 788 

Auer, Martin 788 

Avitt, Isaac W 734a 

B 

Bagnell, Robert Oscar 774 

Bailey, Hardin D 603 

Baker, John 514 

Baker, John D 514 

Barbee, Joshua 615 

Barber, Merrill J 841 

Barr, Richard 507 

Barr, Thomas 511 

Baskin, James 664 

Bernthal, Conrad 580 

Berry, Thomas C 567 

Berry, Tyre 568 

Bingham, George C 335 

Black, John L 624 

Black, Samuel L 624 

Blackburn, Churchill J 929 

Blair, John 927 

Booker, Pink D 854 

Booker, William S 854 

Botts, Daniel M 693 

Bradford, Charles E 751 

Bradford, Charles H 769 

Bristow, James J 902 

Brockway, Frank H 797 

Brown, Asbury Fletcher 398 

Brown, Edmund L 851 

Brown, Henry J , 881 

Brown, John Preston 733 



Brown, Mason George 578 

Brown, Peyton A 880 

Brown, Robert L 420 

Brown, William 424 

Buck, John 867 

Buck, John R 864 

Buck, William D 867 

C 

Caldwell, Charles Wright 730 

Calmes, D. Fielding 437 

Calmes, Fielding 437 

Campbell, Robert, Sr 605 

Carson, James G 613 

Chandler, William J 460 

Chappell, Logan Ballentine 490 

Chastain, M. T 390 

Cheatham, Madison C •' 482 

Cochran, George W 517 

Cochran, Samuel D 516 

Connell, William Joseph 752 

Cook, Louis 686 

Corder, Elias 723 

Corder, Jeffries P 722 

Craig, Hugh 746 

Craig, Stephen 746 

Crews, T. W. B 347 

D 

Daniel, Samuel V 457 

Davis, Andrew J 764 

Davis, Guilford 760 

Davis, Samuel 400 

Davis, William 759 

Deal, George 529 

Deal, Julius Howard 528 

Deis, Henry C, Jr 491 

Deis, Henry C, Sr 459 

Dierker, Lewis A 708 

Dillon, Albert W 451 

Donehoo, James de Quincy 318 

Downs, C. W 810 

Duggins, Thomas C 340 



INDEX 



Duncan, Charles B 784 

Duncan, George W 784 

Dunlap, Edmond J 469 

Dunlap, John N 922 

Durrett, W. G 592 

Dyer, Israel Grant 662 

E 

Edmonds, Augustus R • • 911 

Edwards, Freel Sanders 702 

Edwards, James R 547 

Edwards, John Newman 164 

Elliott, Oren M 671 

HJubank. Reuben Blakey 856 

F 

Field, Henry W 526 

Field, Joseph 524 

Field, Percy C 526 

Fisher, James A 453 

Fisher, W. G ^24 

Fizer, James W 790 

Floyd, Monroe 589 

Flynn, Andrew J 836 

Foree, Asa T 433 

Foree, John Peter 432 

Fowler, William G 680 

Francisco, Harry C 844 

Franklin, Philip H 630 

Fristoe, J. D 924 

Fulkeson, Joseph M 555 

G 

Garrett, Isaiah 798 

Garrett, James D 799 

Gauldin, John A 601 

Gauldin, John S 601 

Godman, William C 712 

Gordon, James A 416 

Gordon, William Catron 406 

Grayson, Henry M 597 

Grayson, William A. J 597 

Green, Edward E 808 

Green, Leland B 806 

Gregory, Archibald 800 

H 

Hahn, George J 725 

Hains, Robert Lee 492 

Hall, John Randolph 418 



Hall, Mathew 521 

Hall. Mathew Walton 337, 425 

Hall, Mathew Walton, Jr 520 

Hall, Melvin H 682 

Ham, Robert T 743 

Hamill, Joseph 679 

Hancock, William Larkin 673 

Hardeman, John Locke 343 

Hardin, John 1 781 

Harrison, William 845 

Harvey, Thomas H 126 

Harvey, Thomas Hudnall 812 

Harvey, Thomas R. E 813 

Hawkins, William N 474 

Haynie, Edwin H 62S 

Haynie, Edwin Moore 821 

Haynie, James C 920 

Hays, Robert Samuel 449 

Hedges, Warren 562 

Henley, Benjamin Franklin 704 

Hering, Louis, Jr 706 

Herndon, William James 859 

Hill, Claybourn 484 

Hitt, Jackey Spencer 697 

Hobbs, Abner . 543 

Hooker, James E 563 

Howard, Francis A 545 

Hubbard, William R 748 

Huff, James M 718 

Huff, Virgil V 641 

Hupp, Ormond 727 

Huston, John Percy 808 

J 

Jackson, Claiborne Fox 324 

Jackson, George N 901 

Jennings, M. P. X 826 

Jeter, George A 651 

John, John 626 

^ Johnson, Daniel H 887 

Johnson, James M 788 

Johnson, Joseph A 786 

Johnston, O. W 581 

Jones, John B 314 

Justice, J. A 544 

Justice, Mrs. Elizabeth 543 

K 

Katlender, August 691 

Keithley, Jacob 618 

Keithley, Jacob Carter 610 



INDEX 



Keithjey, Levi 619 

Kemper, James Granville 470 

Kennedy, John 839 

Kerr, Mitchell D 454 

Keys, John W 757 

King, June K 532 

King, Will R 533 

Kitchen, Cromwell C 466 

Koch, Gerhard 550 

Kramer, Levi 654 

Krumsiek, Henry F 885 

L 

Lail, Francis M 818 

Latimer, Frank M 629 

Lawless, Benjamin F 763 

Lawless, Charles L 763 

Lawless, Thomas R 762 

Lee, Edward S 645 

Leininger, Philip 656 

Leonard, Abiel 632 

Letcher, Isaac Addison 872 

Letcher, William Hamilton 872 

Lineberry, Joseph 462 

Long, Jackson 599 

Lynch, James Lewis 842 

Mc 

MacLean, Lachlan 185 

McCormick, Erskine S 892 

McMahan, Robert J 636 

McMahan, William 475 

McMahan, William H. C 720 

M 

Marmaduke, Henry Hungerford. . . 415 

Marmaduke, John Sappington 393 

Marmaduke. Meredith Miles.. 343, 402 

Marr, Daniel , 869 

Marr, Jesse . ., 869 

Marr, Thomas i. 870 

Martin, Samuel E 494 

Miller, Calvin J 553 

Miller, John G 339 

Miller, John Gaines 381 

Mitchell. James J 709 

Mitchell. Patrick 710 

N 

Napton. W. B 899 

Napton, \V. B.. Sr 326 

Neel, Louis Calhoun 609 



Neff , Isaac 339 

Newell, Whipple Spaulding 446 

Newton, Charles Dana 353 

Norvell, Daniel S 435 

Nuckles, Robert H 343 

Nye, Louis O qqi 

O 

Odell, Caloway Franklin 499 

O'Neill, Francis J 396 

Osborne, James H 477 

Osborne, Oliver G 479 

Owens. John H 576 

Owens. William 575 

P 

Page, Chastain Garland 644 

Page, Edgar Rives 633 

Parrish, William 423 

Patterson, John Charles 464 

Penn, George 367, 538 

Peterman, Marion 905 

Petry, Charles 505 

Pfleger, Calvin 659 

Phillips, James R 504 

Phillips. Lewis T 537 

Powell, Andrew J 530 

Prigmore, Miles F 642 

Prior, Jerome B 733 

R 

Rader, Perry Scott 315 

Ratisbonne, Marie-Theodore 413 

Reavis, Mark 572 

Reavis. Overton 573 

Reavis, Wade Hampton 571 

Rector. John T 735 

Reid. John W 121 

Renno, James Alexander 883 

Reynolds, Robert M 744 

Rhoades. John R 486 

Rhoades, Littleton 484 

Rich, John A 731 

Rigney. Francis E., Jr 772 

Roberts, James L 749 

Robertson. Albert Gallatin 551 

Robertson, .John W 878 

Robertson, Thomas J 430 

Ruff, James A 607 

Ruff, Robert Burns 607 

Runge. Ernest 690 

Russell. James L 834 



INDEX 



S 

Saltonstall, Samuel R 549 

Saltonstall, William M 548 

Sandidge, Robert S 849 

Sappington, Cardwell Wyan 894 

Sappington, Erasmus Darwin 384 

Sappington, John 292, 385 

Sappington, John C 895 

Sappington, William B 388, 895 

Scott, Leonidas Winfleld 638 

Scruggs, Pallis L 558 

Scrutchfield, Guthrie E 742 

Seibert, George Balthaser 700 

Senges, Charles A. . 653 

Shannon, Elias D 527 

Sharp, George E. C 740 

Sharp, James Edward 736 

Shelby, Richard Pindell 586 

Shepard, Thomas 480 

Smith, Crawford 408, 537 

Smith, George P 407 

Smith, George Washington 565 

Smith, George W 574 

Smith, John Jacob 930 

Smith, .Philip M 535 

Smith, Thomas A 926 

Smith, Thomas A., Gen 319 

Smith, Thomas Austin ....'. 611 

Smith T, John 350 

Snoddy, William Addison 669 

Spencer, John W 675 

Stafford, John R 795 

Stafford, William C 791 

Stivers, Thomas J 778 

Stolberg, Henry C 560 

Stolberg, John Peter 456 

Storts, Commodore Perry 487 

Sullivan, A. H. W 908 

Swlnney, James 472 

Swinney, William Thomas 472 

Swisher, Adam Tabler 639 

Swisher, Henry 443 

Swisher, Vinyard Barnes 443 

T 

Taylor, Thomas Jefferson 897 

Tennill, John M 776 

Terrell, Henry Clay 695 

Thierfelder, Charles 677 

Thompson, Burell L / 803 

Thompson, John 754 

Thompson, Samuel B 754 



Tliurnton, Andrew Jackson 769 

Thornton, Daniel 766 

Thornton, Elisha E 768 

Thornton Family 766 

Thornton, Isaac 767 

Thorp, James T 540 

Thorp, Richard B 540 

Tillotson, Jacob \V 648 

Tipping Brothers 489 

Tipping, Fred B 489 

Tipping, William V 489 

Trout, George B. . 780 

Tucker, Frank \V 834 

Tucker, Leonidas Henry 831 

Tucker, Nathaniel B 310 

V 

Van Dyke, Jacob 621 

Vanmeter, David P 593 

Vanmeter, David P., Sr 594 

Vanwinkle, Jesse 440 

Vanwinkle, John H 440 

Vaughan, Richard C 338 

Vest, George G 349 

W 

Walker, James A 635 

Wall, John 496 

Wall, Samuel 496 

Waller, James 649 

Webb, Samuel 658 

West, John B 688 

Wheeland, James Verni 685 

Wheeland, John A 683 

Wheeler, Amos A 914 

Wheeler, Joseph Franklin 828 

Wheeler, William H 917 

Widder, Abraham 556 

Wilson, John W 569 

Wilson, Jonathan 436 

Wilson, William A 341 

Wilson, William N 427 

Winslow, Henry B 508 

Winslow, Thomafe W. . 508 

Witt, John Jacob 838 

Wood, Louis K. . . 467 

Wood, William Henry 584 

Wright, Frank J 666 

Y 

Yancey, Charles F 668 

Young, Henry Claude 816 

Young, George 861 



HISTORICAL 

CHAPTER I. 

MISSOURI, THE HEART OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

The State of Aiissouri embraces within its boniularies the most valuable 
area of the Louisiana Purchase, the vast region purchased by the United States 
from France in 1803. That is to say, Missouri excels any other part of it in 
its vast and various natural wealth and resources. No other part of this 
great domain equals it. Look at the great mineral wealth of Missouri, the 
gTeat timbered resources, her immense area of fertile soil — in all of these 
she excels. low-a perhaps equals her in productive soil and Montana perhaps 
in mineral wealth, but the former does not compare with Missouri as a tim- 
bered state nor the latter as an agricultural state. 

Saline county, Missouri, is unsurpassed as an agricultural region, being 
perhaps the most favored in this respect of the entire state of Alissouri, or of 
the vast Louisiana Purchase. Therefore, we believe the history of the Louisi- 
ana Purchase a proper prelude to the "Past and Present of Saline County." 

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

At the present time, 1909, there are none to question the propriety of 
the Louisiana Purchase nor the immense advantages that have accrued to 
the people of the United States through its acquisition. It was, in reality, 
one of the rare accidents of international intercourse, without precedent or 
example, brought about by a very complex political situation existing in 
Europe, such as had never existed before and in all probability will never 
exist again. No government had ever before made the disposition of a vast 
region of valuable territory a matter of bargain and sale : such changes of 
ownership having hitherto been the result of conflicts of great armies. 

Louisiana has this signal value : It was not won at great cost of human 
blood and tears, as many another country of far less value has been won. 

The consulate of France was unique, unlike any government of modern 

2 



1 8 PAST AND PRESENT 

times, and existing under circumstances and surroundings the most remark- 
able. Napoleon Bonaparte, the master spirit of this consulate, had no regard 
for precedents, and the idea of selling Louisiana originated in his brain, and 
in his only. 

a\Ir. Livingston, the resident American minister at Paris, had been, for 
two years, talking and writing about arranging for an exit, from the Missis- 
sippi river to the Gulf, for the commerce of our western people of the Ohio 
vallev ; but the purchase or acquisition of Louisiana, in its entirety, had never 
occurred to him. Li this matter, as in other mercantile transactions, the 
party desiring property belonging to another must, as a rule, have some inti- 
mation of a disposition or desire on the part of the owner to sell, before be- 
ginning negotiations as a purchaser. No "David Harum" ever undertook 
to purchase a horse without some intimation from the owner that he would 
sell the animal. 

When Marbois, the minister of the treasury, therefore, told Li\ingston 
that his master, the First Consul, would sell the whole region, his surprise 
was complete and his astonishment great. It was so sudden and unex- 
pected. He had no immediate answer when he was asked how much he 
would give for Louisiana. The New Yorker, true to his trading education 
and instincts, and the disposition to purchase at the lowest price, thought 
his government might pay twenty-five million francs for the country. This 
offer struck Marbois as being entirely too low ; for his master, the First 
Consul, had fixed or estimated the value at one hundred and twenty-five mil- 
lion francs. So, at first, they were not "very close together in the transac- 
tion." But the longer the matter was considered by the First Consul, the 
more anxious he became to sell Louisiana. 

It is evident from all the authorities on the subject that the main trouble 
with Air. Livingston was, where the money was to come from and how it 
was to be obtained ; and it is easy to imagine how a civilian would feel when 
trading with a great military chieftain, who was then rapidly developing 
into the most powerful warrior and statesman of modern times. Li\'ingston 
thought, and it was a reasonable conclusion, that it would be highly injudi- 
cious and dangerous for him, as the representative of his countr}\ to enter 
into any contract for the payment of a large sum, without knowing- where 
and how the money was to be obtained to make the payment. He knew 
that it would be impossible for his government to pay any large sum in cash, 
and the ordinary expenditures of the country were about equal to the rev- 
enues, while the credit of the country was neither very strong, good nor 
extensive, as was soon afterwards fully disclosed during- the war with England 
in 1812-T4. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I9 

From all the historical accounts, it appears that the First Consul did not 
discuss the subject personall}' with the American minister at first, the nego- 
tiations being conducted solely by the two heads of departments, Tallerand 
and Marbois, and therefore, everything we know concerning it is derived at 
second hand, mainly through Tallerand and Marbois on the part of the 
French, and Mr. Monroe and Mr. Livingston on the part of the United States. 

Marbois, nearly twenty years afterwards, gave to the public, in his 
"History of Louisiana," his account of the con\ersations of the First Consul 
on the subject of Louisiana and the cession of the country to the United 
States. Mr. Livingson had been, as our resident minister at Paris, negoti- 
ating mainly for two years for indemnity for maritime spoliation, or, in 
plainer language, for the destruction of the property of Americans on the 
high seas and in their ports; the matter reaching the ear of the First Consul 
mainly through his brothers. Joseph and Lucien Bonaparte, both of whom 
were ver}- much opposed to the sale of Louisiana. Mr. Monroe was sent to 
assist Mr. Livingston in his efforts to adjust and settle the spoliation claims, 
and, in addition, to purchase New Orleans and a part of the adjacent terri- 
tory, so as to enable the people of the United States to own and control an 
outlet to the sea at the mouth of the ]Mississippi. 

Napoleon had, about this time, been thrown into a violent fit of exasper- 
ation, an involuntary, irrepressible storm of passion, by the message of the 
King of England to the British Parliament, conveying information that. "As 
considerable military preparations are carrying on in the ports of France and 
Holland, he had deemed it expedient to adopt additional measures of precau- 
tion," thereby conveying a want of confidence in his. Napoleon's, professed 
desire for peace and the continuance of peaceful relations between the French 
and Fnglish. 

The First Consul was then, in fact, exercising all the powers and func- 
tions of an emperor. The second day after the reception, at Paris, of this 
message of the King — the news reaching there on the nth dav of ^Larch. 
1803, it being the day on which the First Consul received the diplomatic 
body — he gave vent to his anger in a personal conversation with the English 
minister, saying to him, in a loud voice, easily heard by all in his presence. 
"You are bent on war then ; we have been fighting these ten vears ; do vou 
desire that we shall fight ten years longer?" He regarded England his most 
formi(la1)le opponent, and it is highly probable that while so enraged at the 
English, the idea occurred to him to dispose of Louisiana by ceding it to the 
United States, as one of the numerous measures conceived in preparation 
for the war he thought then inevitable and unavoidable. He could see from 



-30 PAST AND PRESENT 

the King's message that he would not be permitted to send the troops to 
occupy Louisiana, and, although these troops were then on board ships, they 
were ordered to be disembarked. 

Just before Mr. Monroe had arrived at Paris, Napoleon, the First 
Consul, who had already probably come to a decision in his own mind, said 
to Marbois, "I know the value of Louisiana and I have wished to repair the 
error of the French negotiator who abandoned it in 1762. I have recovered 
it on paper through some lines in a treaty ; but I have hardly done so, when 
I am about to lose it again. But if it escapes me, it shall one day be a dearer 
cost to those who force me to g^ve it up, than the cost to those to whom I 
shall surrender it. The English have successively taken from France, Canada, 
the Isle Royal, Newfoundland, Acadia, and the richest territory of Asia. 
They are intriguing and fomenting disturbances in San Domingo. They 
shall not have the Mississippi, which they covet. Louisiana is nothing in 
comparison with their aggrandizement in all parts of the globe. I contem- 
plate turning it over to the United States. I should hardly be able to say I 
ceded it to them, for we are not yet in possession. But even a short delay 
may leave me nothing but a vain title to transmit to these republicans, whose 
friendship I seek. I need money to war on a nation which has it in abund- 
ance. 

"Perhaps it will be objected that the Americans will be found too pow- 
erful for Europe, in two or three centuries. But my foresight takes no 
account of terrors at a distance. Moreover you may look to the future for 
dissensions in the bosom of the Union. The confederations, which are called 
perpetual, only endure until one of the parties to the contract finds reason to 
break it. I know the value of what I abandon. I renounce it with the 
greatest regret." 

"To emancipate nations from the commercial tyranny of England," 
Napoleon said further, according to Marbois, "it is necessary to balance her 
influence by a maritime power that may one day become her rival. That 
power is the United States. The English aspire to dispose of all the riches 
of the universe. I shall be useful to the whole world if I can prevent their 
dominating America as they dominate Asia." In short, Napoleon took a 
more comprehensive view of the cession of Louisiana than any one connected 
with the transaction on either side of the Atlantic. But he conducted his 
government from a standpoint altogether different from that of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, the President of the United States. 

Continuing, he said to Marbois : "Irresolution and deliberation are no 
longer in season. I renounce Louisiana. It is not only New Orleans that I 
will cede; it is the whole country, without reservation. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 21 

"If I should regulate my terms according to the value of these vast 
regions to the United States, the indemnity would have no limits. I will be 
moderate, in consideration of the necessity in which I am of making a sale. 
But keep this to yourself. I want fifty million [of francs] and for less than 
that sum I will not treat. I would rather make a desperate attempt to keep 
these fine countries. Tomorrow you shall have full powers." 

Finally the First Consul said to Marbois: "Mr. Monroe is on the point 
of arriving. To this minister, going two thousand leagues from his con- 
stituents, the President must have given, after defining the objects of his 
mission, secret instructions, more extensive than the authorization of Con- 
gress for the stipulation of the payments to be made." 

Mr. Livingston had no authority nor power to make such a purchase of 
territoiy, and had by this time become suspicious of the ministers the First 
Consul had around him, if not of the First Consul himself, and up to that 
time had neither the sagacity nor discernment to discover that the First 
Consul was not governed by the advice of any, or of all, of his ministers of 
state, but acted on his own judgment in this business as in all other public 
matters. Fortunately, at this juncture, Mr. Monroe arrived, with additional 
powers conferred by his papers, and he, although he was equally surprised 
when informed of the proposal to sell Louisiana in its entirety, and while 
his authority did not embrace the power to make such an extraordinary 
contract as the purchase of Louisiana, yet he was not embarrassed for that 
reason ; at once declared that he would conclude a treaty for the whole coun- 
try, subject to ratification by his government. 

It is evident that Monroe did have additional powers to those of Mr. 
Livingston and was in fact a "minister plenipotentiaiy and envoy extraor- 
dinary," and this fact, although denied by some writers, is clearly shown by 
the letter of the President, notifying him of his nomination, dated January 
13, 1803. This letter is exceedingly complimentary to Mr. Monroe, and is 
considered as having such particular and important bearing on this point 
as to entitle it to incorporatioji here in full : 

"Washington, January 13, 1803. 
"To Governor Monroe : 

"Dear Sir: — I- dropped you a line on the loth, informing you of a nomi- 
nation I had made of you to the Senate, and yesterday I enclosed you their 
approbation, not then having time to write. The agitation of the public 
mind on occasion of the late suspension of our right of deposit at New Or- 
leans is extreme. In the \\'estern countrv it is natural, and grounded on 



22 PAST AND PRESENT 

honest motives. In the seaports it proceeds from a desire of war, which in- 
creases the mercantile lottery; in the federalists generally, and especially 
those of Congress, the object is to force us into war if possible, in order 
to derange our finances, or, if this cannot be done, to attach the w^estern 
country to them, as their best friends, and thus get again into power. Re- 
monstrances, memorials, etc., are now circulating through the whole of the 
western country, and signed by the body of the people. The measures we 
have been pursuing, being invisible, do not satisfy their minds. Something 
sensible, therefore, has become necessary ; and indeed our object of purchas- 
ing Xew Orleans and the Floridas is a measure liable to assume so many 
shapes, that no instructions could be squared to fit them. It was essential, 
then, to send a minister extraordinary, to be joined with the ordinary one, 
with discretionary powers ; first, however, well impressed with our views, 
and therefore qualified to meet and modify to these every form of proposi- 
tion which could come from the other party. This could be done only in full 
and frec[uent oral communications. Having determined on this, there could 
be no two opinions among the republicans as to the person. 

''You possess the unlimited confidence of the administration and of the 
western people ; and generally of the republicans everywhere ; and were you 
to refuse to go, no other man can be found who does this. The measure has 
already silenced the federalists here. Congress wull no longer be agitated 
])y them, and the countr}- will become calm as fast as the information extends 
over it. All eyes, all hopes are fixed on you ; and were you to decline, the 
chagrin would be universal, and would shake under your feet the high 
ground on which you stand wnth the public. Indeed, I know nothing which 
would produce such a shock. For on the event of this mission depend the 
future destinies of this republic. If we cannot, by a purchase of the country, 
insure to ourselves a course of perpetual peace and friendship with all na- 
tions, then, as war cannot be distant, it behooves us immediately to be pre- 
paring for that course, without, however, hastening it ; and it mav l)e necessary 
(on. your failure on the continent) to cross the channel. W'e shall get en- 
tangled in European politics, and figuring more, be much less happy and 
prosperous. This can only be prevented by a successful issue to your present 
mission. I am sensible after the measures you have taken in a different line 
of business, that it will be a great sacrifice on your part, and presents for 
the reason and other circumstances serious difficulties. But some men are 
born for the public. Nature, by fitting them for the service of the human 
race, has stamped them with the evidences of her destination and their duty. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 23 

"But I am particularly concerned, in the present case, you have more 
than one sacrifice to make. To reform the prodigalities of our predecessors 
is understood to be peculiarly our duty, and to bring the government to a 
simple and economical course. They, in order to increase expense, debt, 
taxation, and patronage, tried always how much they could give. The outfit 
given to ministers resident to enable them to furnish their house, but gi\-en 
by no nation to a temporary minister, who is never expected to take a house 
or to entertain, but considered on the footing of a voyager, they gave to 
their extraordinary ministers by wholesale. In the beginning of our admin- 
istration, among other articles of reformation in expense, it was determined 
not to give an outfit to ministers extraordinary, and not to incur the ex- 
pense with any minister of sending a frigate to carry or bring him. The 
'Boston' happened to be going to the Mediterranean, and was permitted, 
therefore, to take up Mr. Livingston and touch in a port of France. A frigate 
was denied to Charles Pinckney, and has been refused to Mr. King for his 
return. 'Mv. Aladison's friendship and mine to you being so well known, 
the public will have eagle eyes to watch if we grant you any indulgences out 
of the general rule ; and on the other hand, the example set in your case 
will be more cogent on future ones, and produce greater approbation to our 
conduct. The allowance, therefore, will be in this and in all similar cases, 
all the expenses of your journey and voyage, taking a ship's cabin to your- 
self, nine thousand dollars a year from your leaving home till the proceed- 
ings of your mission are terminated, and then the quarter's salary for the 
expenses of your return, as prescribed by law. As to the time of your going, 
you cannot too much hasten it, as the moment in France is critical. St. 
Domingo delays their taking possession of Louisiana and they are in the last 
distress for money for current purposes. You should arrange your affairs 
for an absence of a year at least, perhaps for a long one. It will be neces- 
sary for you to stay here for a few days on your way to New York. You 
will receive here what advance you choose. Accept assurances (^f my con- 
stant and affectionate attachment. 

''Thomas Jefferson." 

Now, while this letter was not written by Mr. Jefferson with any 
knowledge that his minister would be confronted with the offer of the whole 
of Louisiana, yet it shows he was to be prepared for any emergency that 
might arise in the negotiations with France or Spain. He considered ]Mr. 
Monroe better qualified and informed as to all the views of the pending 
controversies than anv other statesman and he was authorized to "meet and 



24 PAST AND PRESENT 

modify to them every form of proposition which could come from the other 
part}^" 

Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to his friend, M. Dupont, at Paris, informed 
him that Mr. Monroe had been sent as minister to meet the great diplomatic 
emergency ; a man whose "good disposition cannot be doubted and multi- 
plied conversations with him, and views of the subject taken in all the shapes 
in which it can present itself, have possessed him with our estimates of every- 
thing relating to it with a minuteness which no written communications to 
Air. Livingston could ever have attained. He goes therefore with Livingston 
to aid in the issue of a crisis the most important the United States ever met 
since their independence, and which is to decide their future characters." 

Li a few days the treaties — three of them; the first being called the 
treaty of cession, the other two designated as ''conventions" — were reduced 
to writing and signed by the French minister of the public treasury, Marbois, 
and Mr. Monroe and Mr. Livingston, the joint, or two ministers of the 
L^nited States. 

Thus, divided responsibility between Mr. Monroe and Mr. Livingston 
seems to have braced them up for action. The papers were signed on the 
30th day of April, 1803. Napoleon, the First Consul, said — and it will be 
noticed, in all the reports of this transaction he used the personal pronoun — 
'T have a title to this vast country in some lines in a treaty," and he might 
have added, a bare paper title, without having possession, in any sense, of 
the country he was in the act of ceding, not a single French soldier occu- 
pying it, and none nearer than San Domingo. Louisiana, while it contained 
not a single French soldier, and the inhabitants, though of partly French 
origin, had little attachment to France, or in fact any other country, having 
so frequently changed masters. 

Napoleon lost faith in systems of government early in his wonderful 
career, but notwithstanding he always entertained a friendly feeling for the 
people and government of the United States, and so expressed himself at 
various times. When finally driven from power, he looked to the United 
States as a haven of rest and refuge. On receiving the news of the death of 
Washington, he issued a general order to the army commanding that banners 
and standards be draped in mourning. 

"That great man," the order stated, "fought against tyranny; he con- 
solidated the independence of his country. His name will ever be dear to all 
the free men of both worlds, and especially to the French, who. like him and 
his American soldiers, are fighting for liberty and equality." Addressing the 
Corps Legislatif in February, 1813, he said: "America has had recourse to 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 



^0 



war in order to enforce respect for her flag. The good wishes of the world 
are hers in this glorious contest. If this contest ends by obliging the enemies 
of the continent to recognize that the flag covers the merchandise and the 
equipage, and that neutrals ought not to submit to a paper blockade, as stip- 
ulated by the treaty of Utrecht, America will have deserved well of all na- 
tions. Posterity will say that the old world has lost its rights, and that the 
new world has recovered them." 

And then again, when in exile at Elba in 1814, he said to Niel Cam- 
bell, an Englishman, who reproduced his conversations in his journal : 
"America behaved with spirit in the matter of search," and laughingly twitted 
the Englishman, saying : "Oh, you always treat the Americans as though 
they were still your subjects." Showing further the trend of his thoughts, 
he said to Niel Cambell, who writes : "When I informed him that some 
regiments were about to be sent to America, he inquired whether it was 
intended to conquer a part of the American states. He was extremely in- 
quisitive as to the force sent to America. AA^hen Captain Usher told him that 
twenty-five thousand men were sent from Lord Wellington's army, and that 
the Americans had lost in him their best friend, he asked whether it was 
intended to subjugate them entirely, for such a force could not be meant 
only to oblige them to make peace. He again expressed his opinion that 
our ministers intended to take Florida and Louisiana. He said that England 
had not acted generously in prosecuting the war against America, but showed 
a spirit of inveterate revenge. It weakened her voice at present at the Con- 
gress (Congress of Vienna), so great a portion of her force being absent 
from Europe. She had not occupied Louisiana, nor acquired any great or 
permanent object. The Americans would gradually improve, and we should 
have to be satisfied to make peace without having gained any accession of 
'strength or power. Our character, after standing lately so high in the eyes 
of all Europe, would diminish by the sort of warfare in which we indulged 
against private property, trading vessels, and so forth." 

Again, in a curious pamphlet published in London in 18 18 by an anony- 
mous American, who, in July, 18 14, describes an interview he had with 
Napoleon at Elba : "He approached me and said in a sharp tone. 'What is 
it has brought you hither?' 'Sire, I am traveling for my instruction. I have 
a desire to become acquainted with the Isle of Elba.' 'There is nothing 
very curious in it. Who are you?' 'Sire, I am an .American.' 'Ah, you are 
an American! The Americans are the only people who have ne\-er 1)een my 
enemies.' By degrees I observed that his countenance assumed a more com- 
placent expression, which was a great relief to me, for I felt myself ill at 



26 PAST AND PRESENT 

ease when he spoke so harshly. T answered with a gentle inclination of the 
head. He added: 'You are still at war with the English?' 'Yes, sire, but 
I hope peace will be concluded without delay.' 'That will be well. Now 
that I am no longer in the way to occupy the English, you could not contend 
against them. The Americans are a brave people.' " 

After W^aterloo, de Chaboulon, in his memoirs, narrates the interview 
he had with the fallen chief at Malmaison, in 1815: "I will go to the 
United States. They will give me lands, or I will purchase some, and culti- 
vate them. I will end where man began ; I will live on the produce of the 
earth and my flocks." "But do you think that England will allow you to 
culti^"ate your fields in peace?" asked the secretary. *A\'hy not? What harm 
could I do there?" "What harm, sire? Has your majesty forgotten that 
you have made England tremble? As long as. you live, sire, or as long as 
you are free, England will fear your efforts and your genius. You were 
perhaps less dangerous to her on the degraded throne of Louis XVHT than 
you would be in the United States. The Americans love and admire you ; 
you might exercise influence upon them ; prompt them, perhaps, to enter- 
prises fatal to England." Napoleon here interposed with objections. "What 
enterprises?" he asked. "The English know^ well that the Americans would 
all allow themselves to be killed in defense of their native soil, but they do 
not at all like to enter upon warlike enterprises abroad. They have not yet 
arrived at the stage of seriously alarming the English. Some day, perhaps, 
they will become the aveng-ers of the seas. But that time, which I might 
have hastened, is now remote. The Americans are growing but slowly."' 

When held a prisoner at St. Helena, Napoleon frequently talked to his 
attendants and friends of America; to Las-Cases and O'Meara, saying to 
Las-Cases, "America was our true asylum, looked at from every point of 
view. It is an immense continent, where there is an especial degree of free- 
dom. If you are melancholy you can get into a wagon and ride thousands 
of miles. You are an equal there of anyone, ^^ou lose vourself at will in 
the crowd. See how everything prospers in the United States, and that 
without elTort. See how happy and tranquil people are there. That is be- 
cause the public interest is supreme there." "What a pity I could not reach 
America ! From the other hemisphere I would have protected France against 
the reactionaries. The fear of my reappearance would have kept in check 
their violence and their folly." 

On another occasion, speaking of Washington to Las-Cases, he said : 
"When I reached power some wished that I should be a Washington. Words 
cost nothing, and assuredly those who so smoothly uttered that wish did so 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI oj 

without knowledge of time, the place, men and circumstances. If I had 
been in America I would willingly have been content to play the part of 
Washington, and I should have merited little credit, for I do not see how 
it would have been reasonably possible to play another role. But if Wash- 
ington had found himself in France, with disintegration going on within and 
invasion menacing from w^ithout, I w'ould have defied Washington to be 
himself, or if he had tried to be so, he would have been nothing but a fool. 
As for myself, I had to be no more, no less than a crowned Washington.'' 
Tlicn again he expressed himself to O'AIeara, the English surg-eon attending 
him : "Your nation," said the exile to the surgeon, "called Washington a leader 
of rebels for a long time, and refused to acknowledge either him or the con- 
stiUition of his country, but his successes obliged them to change and ac- 
knowledge both. It is success which makes the great man." 

B}- the cession of Louisiana, Napoleon evinced his friendship for the 
United States, and it was the greatest and most \aluable emblem of fidelity 
ever passed between two nations. 

It is difficult to understand that ^Monroe and Livingston had the temerity 
to ask Napoleon to insert and fix more definitely the boundaries of Louisiana, 
after he had acted with such magnanimity and generosity, but they did, 
calling for metes and bounds. At the close Napoleon treated Monroe with 
great cordiality as the latter took his departure, saying, "My good w'ishes to 
yourself and your President. You must not give your flag to Great Britain." 

The purchase was the most illustrious of achievements in that line, 
before or since. By ceding Louisiana, Napoleon enhanced his reputation as 
a prophet, if not as a ruler. After the close of the negotiations he remarked 
to Marbois : "This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of 
the United States ; and I have just given to England a maritime rival, that 
will sooner or later humble her pride." To abate the pretentions of England 
became the main object of Napoleon's foreign policy. 

Spain, of course, objected to the cession of Louisiana, protesting that 
it was in violation of her treaty with France, by which she had transferred 
the cohmy to France; but Spain, even at that date, was rapidly becoming an 
outpost of Napoleon's. In a few years afterwards he had established his 
brother at Madrid, as king of Spain. Mr. Madison answered that Spain and 
France could settle the dispute between themselves. 

England was not at all pleased with the transaction. The ministry had 
ascertained that Mr. Monroe w'as credited with authority to obtain an outlet 
at the mouth of the Mississippi for American commerce, but had no intima- 
tion of Napoleon's design to transfer the whole of Louisiana to them. On 



28 PAST AND PRESENT 

being informed of the object of Mr. Monroe's mission, the EngHsh ministry 
made some indefinite ofifers to Mr. King, the American envoy at London, 
to undertake the conquest of Louisiana, with the concurrence of the United 
States, agreeing to retrocede the country to the United States whenever 
peace should be made with France. If this proposal had been accepted, our 
acquisition of Louisiana would, in all probability, have been delayed until 
after the battle of Waterloo had been fought in June, 1815, for England had 
no permanent peace with France until after that battle. But the English 
government was so much absorbed with the continental affairs of Europe 
just at this juncture, as to give little attention or attach great importance to 
the transfer, informing Mr. King (a Federalist not yet recalled by Jefferson) 
of the acquiescence of that government. In fact, the English government 
then felt that they held a sort of unforeclosed governmental mortgage on 
the whole of the United States, and as soon as they had gotten rid of their 
most troublesome antagonist, Napoleon, they would set about making vigor- 
ous efforts to foreclose it, in the meantime disregarding the rights of the 
people of the L^nited States in many cases where there was a conflict of 
rights or interests. Besides, English statesmen looked upon the people of 
the United States as their wayward, disobedient children, many of whom 
they thought (and they had some ground for the belief) yet regretted the 
revolt against the mother country and would ultimately be inclined, if not 
anxious, to renew their allegiance to her. 

The treaty of cession and the two correlative documents called "conven- 
tions" were at once set off from Paris, but they did not reach Washington 
until the 14th of July. 

It was at this stage of the proceedings, the consummation of which resulted 
in the acquisition of Louisiana, that Mr. Jefferson's shrewdness, good sense 
and admirable statesmanship fully developed, shining out in the strongest 
light and brilliancy, exhibiting to his countrymen and the civilized world 
great pre-eminent, practical statesmanship. Looking back at the embarrass- 
ing situation, now at the expiration of a century, it is really astonishing that 
he acted with such resolution and becoming promptness. 

These treaties, though vague and uncertain as respects the boundaries of 
the vast country, gave to the United States a good color of title to the ter- 
ritory; and a sufficient color of title is a requisite of importance in a contest 
over the ownership of lands. 

As soon as the information became public great opposition sprang up. 
mainly from Federalists, and even to this day the descendants of those Fed- 
eralists are unwilling to grant or acknowledge any credit to ]\Ir. Jefferson 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 29 

for the purchase of Louisiana. Even though so manifestly advantageous, 
ratification of the treaties and the measures necessary to carry out the transfer 
of Louisiana, and pay the purchase price, might never have been taken by 
Congress, but from the fact that Mr. Jefferson was then the real, undisputed 
head of his party, as well as the chief magistrate of the nation. He had 
organized, built up and consolidated the Jeffersonian Republican party, and 
held it at his back, never at any time calling for its support in vain. At no 
time in the history of the United States have party leaders in Congress been 
so devotedl}^ attached and loyal to their chief magistrate. It was only neces- 
sary for them to know that a measure was recommended by Jefferson, or had 
his approval, to insure its passage. During his administration Air. Jefferson 
never exercised the veto power. 

Mr. Jefferson, believing as he did in a strict construction of the consti- 
tution and the exercise by the federal government of only such powers as 
were clearly granted to it, thought that the proposed purchase of a great 
territor}' was not included, and was without clear and positive constitutional 
authority ; but thought the defect might be supplied by an amendment to 
the constitution. It is not strange that he should hesitate on this question ; 
but of the immense advantages to be gained by the purchase, or the propriety 
of it, he did not hesitate. The acquisition of Louisiana would at once settle 
the question of the outlet for the commerce of the western people of its 
tributaries, and of the great Mississippi itself. 

On the other hand, the purchase was denounced by the opposition or 
Federal party, as not only being unconstitutional and unauthorized, but in- 
judicious, unwise and inexpedient — a project really designed to furnish 
additional territory in the West, of which to erect and establish an inde- 
pendent and rival government — and finally that the transaction \\3.s really 
brought about by what would now be called a "graft," the price to be paid 
for the country, they asserted, being greatly in excess of its real value. At 
best, things can be made out but a little way ahead; usually not even that. 
It is not within the vision of statesmen to tell or judge precisely what will 
turn out ultimately to their advantage. The political horizon is always en- 
veloped in the impenetrable mist of fate ; the results of treaties are no excep- 
tions, all matters of this character being, to a greater or less degree, tentative. 

However, the cession and transfer of Louisiana to the United States was 
attended by many fortuitous circumstances. It has often been said that provi- 
dence has always been on the side of the United States. The rapidly rising 
power of Napoleon had the effect to insure and secure the approval of a treaty 
made by him with any power on either side of the Atlantic that might have 



30 PAST AND PRESENT 

been disposed to dispute it, at the time the cession occurred, or in the imme- 
diate future, until the battle of Waterloo. 

Two days after the treaties reached Washington Mr. Jefferson issued 
his proclamation convening- Congress, stating that there were "great and 
weighty matters claiming the consideration of the legislative body. ' 

The Congress assembled on the 17th day of October, and on that day 
received the message of the President on the subject of the purchase of 
Louisiana, in which he set forth his views on the subject. 

The treaties stipulated for the payment of the eighty millions of francs 
for Louisiana by the United States, sixty millions of that sum to be paid to the 
French government in the stock of the United States, bearing six per cent. 
interest, the other twenty millions of francs to be applied b}' the United 
States to the payment of the spoliation claims due citizens of the United 
States by France. The stock was issued and delivered to France, in accord- 
ance with the treaty, but the contract to pay the spoliation claims has never 
been carried out or fulfilled by the government of the United States, not- 
W'ithstanding the spoliation claimants and their descendants have made great 
efforts for satisfaction, which have thus far proved unavailing. 

MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT. 

"Congress witnessed at their late session the extraordinary agitation 
produced in the public mind by the suspension of our right of deposit at the 
port of New^ Orleans, no assignment of another place having been made 
according to treaty. They were sensible that the continuance of that priva- 
tion would be more injurious to our nation than any consequences which 
could flow from any mode of redress, but reposing just confidence in the good 
faith of the government whose officer had committed the wrong, friendly 
and reasonable representations were resorted to, and the right of deposit was 
restored. 

"Previous, however, to this period we had not been unaware of the 
danger to which our peace would be perpetually exposed whilst so important 
a key to the commerce of the western country remained under foreign 
power. Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves as to the navigation of 
other streams which, arising within our territories, pass through those adja- 
cent. Propositions had therefore been authorized for obtaining on fair con- 
ditions the sovereignty of New Orleans and of other possessions in that 
quarter interesting to our cjuiet to such extent as was deemed practicable, and 
the provisional appropriation of two million dollars to be applied and ac- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOL'RI 3 1 

counted for by the President of the United States, intended as part of the 
price, was considered as conveying the sanction of Congress to the acquisi- 
tion ]M-oposed. The enlightened government of France saw with just dis- 
cernment the importance to both nations of such Hheral arrangements as 
might best and permanently promote the peace, friendship and interests of 
both, and the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana which had been re- 
stored to them ha\e on certain conditions been transferred to the United 
States by instruments bearing date the 30th of April last. When these shall 
have received the constitutional sanction of the Senate, they will without delay 
be communicated to the representatives also for the exercise of their func- 
tions as to those conditions which are within the powers vested l)y the Consti- 
tution in Congress. 

"Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters 
secure an independent outlet for the produce of the western states and an 
uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from collision with 
other powers and the dangers to our peace from that source, the fertility of 
the country, its climate and extent, promise in due season important aids to 
our treasurx', an ample provision for our posterity, and a wide spread for the 
blessings of freedom and equal laws. 

"With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior measures 
which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary gov- 
ernment of the countr}' ; for its incorporation into our Union ; for rendering 
the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted brethren ; for se- 
curing to them the rights of conscience and of property ; for confirming to the 
Indian inhabitants their occupancy and self-government, establishing friendly 
and commercial relations with them, and for ascertaining the geography of 
the country acquired. Such materials, for your information, relative to its af- 
fairs in general as the short space of time has permitted me to collect will be 
laid before you when the subject shall be in a state for your consideration." 

Onlv three davs' consideration served for the ratification of the treaties, 
and the action of the Senate was approved by the President on the day follow- 
ing. The papers being transferred to the representatives, a bill was brought 
in and passed, after a short debate, authorizing the creation of the govern- 
ment's obligations to pay France the eleven million two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. The act having ])assed the Senate, and on receiving the ap- 
probation of the President, the purchase of Louisiana was thereby concluded 
so far as the executive and tlie Congress were ctMicerned. 

The stock issued in settlement for Louisiana, under the authority of the 
act of Congress passed on the loth of November (certificates of indebtedness 



32 PAST AND PRESENT 

bearing- six per cent, interest, payable semi-annually), was delivered to the 
French minister resident at Washington. 

It is stated by M. Thiers in his "Consulate and Empire of Napoleon," 
that Napoleon had previously arranged for its conversion into money, with the 
banking house of Hope & Company, of Amsterdam; but although he had 
stipulated that the stock should not be sold so as to impair the credit of the 
United States, it is not known, nor developed by any historical writer, the 
price at which the stock was negotiated. The redemption of this stock began 
in 1812, before maturity. Our fund commissioner purchased this stock at 
different times in 1812, 1813, 18 17 and 18 18, at from ninety-six and three- 
fourths to ninety-nine and three-fourths, in the latter year, 18 18. The records 
of the government do not show by whom it was held at the time of its reim- 
bursement, but it may be reasonably presumed that the purchase of it before 
maturity was designed to get it out of the way of other indebtedness it was 
found necessary to incur in the prosecution of the war of 18 12-14, i^^ which 
an indebtedness of about one hundred million dollars was contracted. But 
the war was well worth what it cost the United States and was very prop- 
erly characterized as "the second war for independence." 

The closing battle of the conflict of 18 12-14, 01^ the 8th of January, 
18 1 5, at New Orleans, tenninated our trouble with Great Britain for all 
time, it would seem. We have never since asked anything of the mother 
country that was not granted, even the payment of the "Alabama claims," 
resulting from our Civil war. 

It is, however, very fashionable of late years with our federalistic his- 
torians to indulge in unfriendly criticism, not only of the government at 
Washington, but to exaggerate the failures and misfortunes of our troops 
during the first year of the war of 1812. In my view of the conflict, the 
greatest misfortune and ill luck growing out of it was the ill-timed efforts to 
make peace, the administration being driven to these efforts by the hostile 
attitude of the New England Eederalists. 

Had attempts to make peace been postponed until the spring of 18 15, 
after the battle of New Orleans, and after the escape of Napoleon from Elba 
and his return to France, Castlereagh — yes, "carotid artery-cutting Castle- 
reagh," who governed England — would have merely asked our commission- 
ers to state their terms. If we had wanted Canada, or the entire British pos- 
sessions in America, the country would have been thrown at our feet, tossed 
to us, as emphasized by a late writer, as Napoleon tossed Louisiana to us, 
"like the Sultan would toss a purse of gold to one of his favorites." 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 33 

LOUISIANA IN POSSESSION. 

M. Laussat, who was commissioned as prefect, had been sent over frum 
France before the cession of Louisiana to the United States, with special 
authority to take possession of Louisiana early in the spring of 1803, and to 
act as civil and military commandant. Reaching New Orleans in March or 
April, 1803, and of course having no knowledge or intimation of the transfer 
to the United States, he set about arranging for the government of the coun- 
try. He announced his regret that the Spanish government had counter- 
manded the act of Morales suspending the American right of deposit at New 
Orleans, and made preparations to enforce his views on the arrival of the 
troops, which he supposed were about to be sent to Louisiana by France. 

But M. Laussat had made little progress, except to arouse considerable 
ill feeling towards the United States, when he was informed of the cession of 
Louisiana and instructed to turn the country over to the United States. He 
carried out his instructions faithfully in the face of opposition from the 
Spanish officials and inhabitants. Obtaining full possession on the ist of De- 
cember, on the 20th he delivered to the American authorities possession of 
Louisiana. Governor Claiborne and General Wilkinson had been commis- 
sioned by the President and sent to New Orleans for that purpose. 

Governor Claiborne went down in company with General Wilkinson and 
the troops from Fort Adams, a military post in Mississippi Territory, on the 
east bank of the Mississippi river a short distance above the southern line of 
the United States. General Wilkinson was the major-general of the army, 
subject only to the orders of the secretary of war and the President. 

Laussat made the transfer of possession with appropriate ceremonies on 
the 20th of December; but the Spanish troops and their commander did not 
show any great haste to surrender possession of the barracks ; on the contrary, 
they remained in possession until March, 1804. when they moved over to 
Pensacola. 

Captain Amos Stoddard (afterwards, in 1807, promoted to major) was 
constituted by Laussat. the agent of the French government, to receive posses- 
sion of Upper Louisiana from the authorities of Spain, and was also appointed 
temporary governor by the President of the United States. He reached St. 
Louis in March, 1804. Delassus, the lieutenant-governor, residing at St. 
Louis, had been apprised of his coming and of the fact that the low^er country 
had been transferred to France and by France to the United States. There 
was no hitch in the transfer of the upper country at St. Louis. On the 9th 
of March the United States troops were brought over from Kahokia, under 

3 



34 PAST AND PRESENT 

command of Lieutenant Worrall and accompanied by Captain Lewis, of the 
Lewis and Clark exploring expedition (then camped above St. Louis, near 
the mouth of the Missouri river, on the Illinois side), and marched to the 
government house, where they were finally received by Delassus, who ad- 
dressed them, saying, "By the King's command" he surrendered the post and 
the dependencies to them. A written statement of the alTair was then made 
out. signed by the representatives of the three governments, and witnessed 
by Captain Lewis, Antoine Soulard and Charles Gratiot. Then Delassus, 
turning to Captain Stoddard, said that he placed him in possession of the 
territory. 

The S[)anish troops having withdrawn from the fort or barracks, the 
Americans, under Stoddard, entered. The French flag floated for one day, 
until JMarch loth, when it was hauled down to give place to the stars and 
stripes of the United States. 

Captain Stoddard, of the regular army, who had been commissioned by 
Governor Claiborne, under the direction of President Jefferson, as first civil 
commander of upper Louisiana, issued to the people an address, in which he 
displayed political sagacity of a high order, saying that he was directed to 
cultivate friendship and harmony among the inhabitants of the territory and 
to make known the determination of the United States to preserve all their 
rights, both civil and religious. He told them that thev had been divested of 
the character of subjects and clothed with that of citizens of the LTnited 
States. 

The whole substance and tone of the address is so admirable and excel- 
lent that one, at this day, might conclude that it em'anated from Mr. Jefferson 
himself. Captain Stoddard w^as one of the best educated of the officers of 
the army. He lost his life in the siege of Fort Meigs in 1813, his worth as 
a soldier being recognized afterwards by the Legislature of Missouri, calling 
a county in his honor and for the perpetuation of his name. 

At that time (1804) the population of all upper Louisiana, exclusive of 
Indiana, was about ten thousand, of which about three and one-half thou- 
sand were French and Spanish (only a few of the latter race), five thousand 
Anglo-Americans, and twelve hundred negro slaves. 

The government of upper Louisiana, under Spanish authority, had 
greatly encouraged immigration of people from the United States by grants 
of lands and exemption from taxation, until one-half the population was 
made up of Anglo-Americans. 

Captain Stoddard remained at St. Louis as civil governor and military 
commandant until the following year. On the 3d of March, 1805, an act 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 35 

was passed by Congress, changing the name from the "District of Louisiana" 
to the "Territory of Louisiana,"' and thereby vesting the legislative power in 
a governor, secretary and two judges to be appointed by the President. 

Under this act of 1805, President Jefferson appointed Gen. James Wil- 
kinson, governor; Frederick Bates, secretary; Reuben J. Meghs and John 
B. Lucas, judges. Following this, in the latter part of the next year, 1806, 
Meriwether Lewis, having returned to St. Louis from his exploring expedi- 
tion to the Pacific ocean, was appointed governor of the territory, holding the 
office until his death, in 1809. 

And now we find the territory of Louisiana fully embarked under Ameri- 
can canvas and quietly sailing under the American flag. 



CHAPTER II. 



MISSOURI TERRITORY. 



By act of Congress, June, 1812, the territory of Louisiana was changed 
to Missouri Territory, providing also a territorial government on a different 
plan, providing- for self-government by the people of the territory, at least to 
a limited degree. 

Gen. Benjamin Howard, of Lexington, Kentucky, was the first governor 
of Missouri Territory, holding the office until he resigned to enter the army 
in the war of 1812. Afterwards Capt. William Clark, of Lewis and Clark's 
exploring expedition, then Indian agent at St. Louis, was appointed governor 
in 1813, holding the office continuously thereafter until the creation of the 
state government in 1820. 

Saline county was created by act of the territorial Legislature, approved 
November 25, 1820, but the boundaries were much more extensive than at the 
present time, extending south as far as the Osage river, by this act. 

THE INITIAL WHITE POPULATION^ 1804. 

When this countr}- west of the Mississippi river was acquired by the 
United States, the white population of French, Spaniards and Americans was 
confined to a fringe of settlements along the Mississippi river about New 
Madrid. St. Genevieve, St. Louis and Portage des Sioux, and on the Missouri 
river at St. Charles. 

After 1804, this fringe of white settlers remained along the Mississippi 
river for several years, though undoubtedly all Missouri had been visited 
temporarily by the French voyageurs in the employ of the Hudson Bav and 
other fur companies. When Lewis and Clark reached the Mandan Indians 
in 1804, now North Dakota, just above Bismarck, they found the Indians, 
who had been visited previously by Henry, a white man, and several com- 
panions in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, they coming down at that 
section from the Northeast. In fact, it is difficult to surmise what part, if 
any, of the immense Louisiana Purchase had not been visited by white men 
when it was acquired in 1803. Lew^is and Clark were our first regularly 
commissioned explorers, but there is no telling how many fur traders had 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 37 

traversed the country prior to their expedition, who were not men of educa- 
tion and who wrote no books nor kept any records. 

Very soon after the country was turned over by the French to the Ameri- 
cans on ]\Iarch lo, 1804, the frontier folks began to move into the interior to 
hunt or reconnoiter for desirable lands or salt springs. It is stated in the 
history of Cooper county that even at the early date of February, 1804, a 
man named Nash, a United States deputy surveyor, with two companions, 
came up the Missouri from about St. Charles, locating a claim in the river 
bottom opposite the mouth of the Lamine river. But it is not explained what 
a United States deputy surveyor was doing in the country at that time, when 
tlie region had not then been put into the possession of the authorities of the 
United States; that was not done until the loth of March, 1804, or one 
month later, when, at St. Louis, the countr\^ was transferred to the United 
States by the oflicials of Spain, then holding possession. Nash and his 
companions returned to this section and surveyed a tract of land near where 
Franklin was afterwards laid off. If these accounts of Nash are true, he may 
justly be designated as the first of American "sooners" in this Western 
country. 

Lewis and Clark, liaving reached the Mississippi river, camped on its 
banks on the Illinois side, just opposite the mouth of the Missouri, declining 
to even cross the river until the formal transfer of possession of upper Louisi- 
ana had been made. Major Stoddard, of the regular United States army, 
acting as agent of his government and of France also, arriving at St. Louis 
from the South about the same time with some troops, notified Lewis and 
Clark, who were in their encampment, of the time set for the transfer, and 
Captain Lewis was present as one of the officials of the L'nited States to 
accept possession of the country, the ceremony taking place on the 12th of 
March, 1804, at the government buildings in the town of St. Louis. 

Following this ceremonial transfer of upper Louisiana, Capt. Aleri- 
wether Lewis set about making final preparations for the journey up the 
Missouri, across the Rocky mountains, and down the Columbia river to its 
mouth, where it discharges its waters into the Pacific ocean. 

There was no great or extensive movement of the American people into 
the Louisiana Purchase, or at least into that part of it now forming the state 
of Missouri until after the war with England, 18 12-14, the war really ending 
at the battle of New Orleans on the 8th of January, 1815, although peace had 
lieen agreed upon at Ghent, on the 24th day of December, 18 14. 

This battle of New Orleans, fought after peace had been agreed upon, 
was reallv of greater service to the country than any fought during the en- 



38 PAST AND PRESENT 

tire war, the remote moral effect of it being greater, more important, far- 
reaching and enduring than all the other battles combined. 

THE BOONE's lick COUNTRY. 

Very soon after upper Louisiana was taken possession of at St. Louis, 
the country bordering on the Missouri river on either side in the central part 
of the state got to be called "The Boone's Lick Country." Who is entitled to 
the honor or credit of thus christening or naming the section does not clearly 
appear. The name, however, adhered to the section for many years, and the 
country was so designated at least as late as the decade between 1830 and 
1840. After the close of the war of 18 12, small companies of pioneers 
from Howard county, across the river, and Cooper county, on this side, 
began to occup}- the country now composing Saline count}-, at first a sort of 
overflow from these other counties of frontier folks, who were seeking more 
elbow room, wishing to get out where they would not be subjected to the 
annoyance of too near neighbors. These pioneers were accustomed to the 
solitude of the back woods, and enjoyed it, and they found it in the timbered 
parts of Saline county, mainly occupying the river bottoms, where they made 
limited clearings for patches of corn, potatoes, etc. These pioneer "sooners" 
were always more fond of hunting than labor and the greater part of the 
time they naturally devoted to hunting for game, wild animals, fish and bees. 
The class of pioneers following them were the ones to reduce the country 
from a wilderness to a productive region. The real producers began to oc- 
cupy the country now embraced in Saline county after the year 1816, in- 
creasing perceptibly thereafter until 18 19, in which latter year the increase 
in population was very considerable, the lands having been surveyed in 18 17 
and the land sales taking place at Franklin the 2d day of November, 18 18, at 
M^hich time and place a settler could get some assurance of a title to his lands, 
though some years elapsed before he obtained a deed from the government; 
a patent signed by the President of the United States. 

THE PIONEERS. 

O, bearded, stalwart western men : 
So tower like, so Gothic built, 
An empire won without the guilt 
Of studied battles — this hath been 
Your blood's inheritance. 

— Joaquin Miller. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 39 

Jesse Cox, of Kentucky, was the first to undertake a permanent k)dg- 
ment in Saline county, or that which afterwards formed Sahne county. He 
belonged to the Cooper settlement in Howard, but in 1810, in company with 
others, moved across the river into the big bottom above Arrow Rock, built 
a cabin and cleared a patch of land, the bottom being called Cox's Bottom for 
many years afterwards. Cox himself perhaps being recognized as the leader 
among the squad of settlers who accompanied him from Howard county, or 
more properly speaking, the Boon's -Lick settlement. Cox moved his family 
to this cabin in the following year, in the spring of 18 11. 

Young Brackenridge, a member of the distinguished Pennsyhania fam- 
ily of that name (several of whom were able lawyers, judges and authors), 
passed up the Missouri river in the spring of 1811, in company with Manual 
Lisa, a prominent fur trader of that period, and he gives the following accur- 
ate account of the Cooper settlement in his journal, which was published soon 
afterwards. Brackenridge landed at two or three points in Saline county on 
this journey up the river in 18 11, but he says nothing of seeing any settle- 
ments. 

On April 14, 1811, he has the following entry: 

"We put to shore at the farm of Braxton Cooper,* a worthy man, who 
has the management of the salt works at Boone's Lick. The settlement is but 
one year old, but is already considerable, and increasing rapidly. It consists 
of seventy-five families, the greater part living on the bank of the Missouri 
river in the space of four or five miles. They are generally persons of good 
circumstances ; most of them have slaves. Mr. Cooper informed me that 
the uplands back is the most beautiful he ever beheld. * * * " 

During the war of 1812-14, Cox was compelled to fall back on the forti- 
fied places on the Howard side occasionalh', but eventually after the close of 
the war with England, the Indians becoming- more pacific, he was able to 
maintain his permanent residence on the Saline side. Cox remained a resi- 
dent of the bottom until 18 18, when he sold his claim, removing to Lafayette 
county, where he died. 



*The Coopers were a Virginia family from Culpeper covmty, who had first migrated 
to Kentucky. They arrived in Missouri in the autumn of 1807, when Braxton, with his 
cousin, Sarshall, settled at the Hancock bottom upon the north bank of the Missouri river 
in St. Charles county. There they bought salt from Xathan Boone, a son of old Daniel, 
who described to them the Boone's Lick country. In the spring of 1810 they moved their 
families hither and built Cooper's fort nearly opposite Arrow Rock. During the war of 
1812-14, the Boone's Lick settlement suffered greatly. The Coopers were leaders of the 
band that pursued the Indians. Braxton was shot by them September 14th, while cut- 
ting logs for a new house. Sarshall was shot in his fort the following spring. 



40 PAST AND PRESENT 

In June, 1816, Daniel Thornton, Isaac Clark and William Clark settled 
in the Cox Bottom. In Noveml^er of the same year came Henry Nave, Abram 
Nave. John Thornton and William Collector and their families from Ten- 
nessee. They traveled by wagon, and the road was so vague and poorly 
marked that they lost their way between St. Charles and Boone's Lick, and 
while lost, suffered considerably for want of food. Subsequently, Fred Hart- 
g-rove. who had been running- a ferry at Arrow Rock, and James Sappington 
joined the settlement in Cox's Bottom. Daniel Thornton was a South Caro- 
linian; his wife was a sister of Henry and Isaac Nave. Nearly all the first 
settlers of Cox's Bottom were from Tennessee. Cocke county, on the banks 
of the beautiful P'renchbroad river, than which no handsomer stream flows 
out of the Blue Ridge mountains. Of course, the miasma of the Missouri 
river bottoms was not conducive to the health of the newcomers from the 
clear mountain atmosphere of the East Tennessee mountains, and they were 
soon nearly all afflicted with chills and fever, and no doubt man}- wished 
themselves back in the Blue Tennessee mountains, from whence they had 
moved. 

In the fall of 1820, Isaac Nave, Abram Nave, Mr. Neal, Mr. Ekel and 
Mr. Hill arrived in the bottoms, the latter's wife being along with them, all 
from Cocke county, Tennessee, and they came all the way in a keel boat built 
by the Nave brothers, and came laden with freight of iron castings, brandy 
and whiskey. The boat was forty or fifty feet in length, having floated down 
the Frenchbroad to the Tennessee, thence down that river to the Mussel 
shoals, at which point the boat was probably unloaded, and a portage made 
around the shoals, thence down the Ohio to its junction with the Missis- 
sippi, whence it was cordelled up that stream, and the Missouri to its desti- 
nation near Arrow Rock. 

Henry Nave brought a wagon to the bottom in 1816. The first one had 
passed through there a few days before, and he also brought along with him 
from Tennessee some apple and peach seeds with which he started the first 
orchard in this couiUy. having preserved the seeds through the winter in a 
large gourd, near the fireplace. Mr. Nave and Daniel Thornton are entitled 
to the credit of sowing the first field of wheat. They sowed about three pecks 
and harvested twenty bushels in the year 1819. and this shows that it must 
have been a good year for wheat. This same year, 1819. General Atkinson, 
in command of the United States troops at Council Bluff's, Iowa, had raised 
in the prairie there fine crops of corn, potatoes and turnips for the use of the 
troops which were stationed at that point in the spring of that vear, he. At- 
kinson, having no question as to the fertility and productiveness of the prairie 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 4 1 

soil Up there. This matter of the productiveness of the prairie had before 
been tested by the troops of the United States regular army in the western 
part of Ilhnois and Wisconsin, particularly at Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, 
and Prairie du Chien in A\'isconsin, where fine crops had been raised for the 
use of the troops many years previously, and perhaps wheat, too, but the rec- 
ords of these forts do not mention wheat as one of their products. 

It is an error to assert that the early settlers believed the prairies to be 
worthless for cultivation. There were other reasons for avoiding the prairie. 
The difficulty of getting firewood in winter was one, and the serious trouble 
from green horse-flies in summer was another, for within the memory of the 
author of this history it was impossible to ride a horse across the wild prairies 
in the day time in this and the adjoining county of Pettis. No horse could 
stand the attack of the swarms of green flies at certain periods of the summer, 
rendering it impossible to cultivate corn or other crops on these wide stretches 
of open prairie. 

It was necessary for travelers on horseback to cross them in the night. 
The deer even had to take to the Avoods to avoid these voracious flies. This 
is one fact that rendered the early occupation of the prairies difficult, if not 
impossible, necessarily resulting in their occupation being gradual. 

It was from Cox's Bottom in 1820 that the first surplus export was made 
by Henry Nave, James Sappington and John Hartgrove, who made canoes, 
loading them with bacon and floated down the river to St. Louis, trading at 
the different settlements at which they landed, going down the river as low 
as Herculaneum on the Mississippi, before finally closing out their stock ; also 
disposing of their boats, and returning home by land. In Henry Nave the 
mercantile spirit and habit was thus early developed, of latter years a marked 
characteristic of his descendants, his son, Abram, becoming a leading and an 
extensive merchant in the western part of this state, and who commanded vast 
capital and amassed great wealth. The trading faculty and capacity descended 
even to the grandchildren, in some instances, of Henry, the ancestor and 
founder of the family, his grandson, J. M., at Kansas City, and Samuel, at 
St. Joseph, being among the successful and intelligent merchants of their re- 
spective towns. 

The Nave brothers. Henr}- and Isaac, did not find permanent homes for 
several years afterwards, remaining in the bottom perhaps for only a year or 
so. They moved first and built houses immediately on top of the bluff, where 
they remained until 1828 and 1830. At that time they entered lands, mostly 
of prairie, where they built permanent homes five or six miles from the river, 
where they lived to a ripe old age. highly respected citizens, and some of their 
descendants are yet residents of the neighborhood. 



42 PAST AND PRESENT 

In the fall of 1815 James Wilhite and William Hayes came from west- 
ern Tennessee to Cooper's Fort in wagons. During the winter of 181 5 and 
181 6 they crossed the river to reconnoiter the country and find locations. In 
October, 1816, they moved over, locating near the lower part of the big bot- 
tom, Wilhite's house being on section 19, township 51. and range 18, and 
Ha3^es' on section 18, of the same township and range. Their camp fires were 
the first lit by the white man to burn in this locality. They did not get their 
cabins completed before cold weather, and consequentlv suffered considerably 
during that winter. 

On the first of January, 181 7, Charles Lucas located a New Madrid cer- 
tificate on the southwest quarter of section 18, township 51. range 18, and 
this was doubtless one of the first record claims made to land in this section 
of the country. These New Madrid claims formed a basis of a very unusual 
and peculiar land title, resulting from the destructive earthquake which oc- 
curred in the southeastern part of the state in the year 181 1, when a large 
part of the land of New Madrid county was injured or destroyed, being sunk 
or lowered so that it became covered with water and rendered unfit for cul- 
tivation. These lands had been granted to the owners by the Spanish govern- 
ment, and in order to reimburse them, CongTess passed a law granting them 
other lands of equal amount to be selected from unoccupied government land 
in the territory of Missouri, subject to sale. Under this law. a party claiming 
land under this act must first relinquish or convey to the United States the 
lands he had owned in New IMadrid countv, that were injured or destroved 



* Following is quoted the reliiujuishment, Xevv Madrid certificate and patent certifi- 
cate on the New Madrid claim of Nathaniel Shaver: 

This deed witnesseth that Nathaniel Shaver of the county of New IMadrid, Territory 
of Missouri, for and in consideration that he is about to take the benefit of an Act of Con- 
gress entitled, "An Act for the relief of the inhabitants of the late county of New Madrid, 
in the Missouri Territory, who suffered by earthquakes," by locating on the public lands 
in Missouri Territory according to the provisions of that act, four hundred acres of land 
for and in lieu of a certain lot of ground situate in the said county of New Madrid on 
Lake St. John, adjoining the lands of Windsor and Coons and containing the aforesaid 
quantity of four hundred acres originally granted by the Spanish Government to the said 
Nathaniel Shaver and confirmed to him as appears by the records in the office of the 
recorder of Land titles of Missouri Territory. Doth hereby remise, relinquish and forever 
quit claim the above mentioned tract of land unto the United States of America. 

In w^itness whereof the said Nathaniel Shaver has hereunto set his hand and seal 
at St. Louis this twenty-third day of April, one Thousand eight hundred and seventeen. 
Signed Scaled in ]\Iark 

presence of of N Natlianiel (Seal). 

L. Provenchere, Shaver 

his 
Benjamin X Carpenter, 
mark 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 43 

bv the earthquake. On proof of this fact to the recorder of land titles at St. 
Louis, Missouri, he obtained a certificate, stating that he was entitled to lo- 
cate a like quantity of orovernment land in the place of it, the sale of which 
was authorized by law. They were called New Madrid certificates, and 
afterwards caused a great deal of litigation over land titles in Missouri, 
the certificates being located on lands in various parts of the state, and the 
names of many of the claimants in Saline county show that they were all, or 
nearly all, French or Spanish people. The location of these New Madrid cer- 
tificates on lands already claimed by others under Spanish grants produced 
many suits to settle conflicting claims or titles. 

Peter Lausson located section 19, township 51, range 18, in April, 1817. 
In 18 1 7 George Tennille located a New Madrid certificate on section 4. town- 
ship 51. range 18. He sold part of his tract afterwards to Gen. Duff Green, 
who lived at Old Chariton, and then connected with the surveyor-general's 
office, and he subsequently became famous throughout the country as the editor 
of the JJ'ashington Telegraph, General Jackson's personal organ, at the na- 
tional capital. 

In the fall of 181 7 Jacob Ish joined the settlement, which by that tune 
had a populatiou of some three hundred. There had been a large immigra- 
tion from Indiana and Kentucky, and the cabins stood along the river bank 

St Louis Countv. ss. On the day and date of the above Deed before mc, Mary 
Phihp Leduc, Clerk of the circuit court within & for the county aforesaid, personally came 
& appeared the above named Benjamin Carpenter, one of the subscribing witnesses to the 
above instrument in writing, who being duly sworn deposeth and sayeth that the within 
named Nathanel Shaver who signed and sealed the same is to him the said deponent well 
known to be Nathaniel Shaver and that the said Nathaniel acknowledged before him the 
said deponent the said instrument to be his act & Deed, hand & seal for the purposes 

therein contained. 

his 

Benjamin X Carpenter, 
mark 
Sworn to and subscribed before me 
St. Louis April 23, 1817. 

^I. P. Leduc, Clk. (Seal). 
The within Nathaniel Shaver, before the undersigned Recorder of Land Titles, per- 
sonally acknowledged the within Deed to the United States, to be his act for the purposes 

therein mentioned. St. Louis April 23, 1817. 

Frederick Bates. 

>;p ^g- Office of the Recorder of Land Titles, 

St. Louis April 23d, 181 7. 
I certify that a tract of four hundred arpens of land, situate Bayou St. John, in the 
county of New Madrid, which appears from the books of this office to be owned by 



44 PAST AND PRESENT 

just far enough apart to leave good chicken range for the women folks from 
ne;ir Glasgow up to Cambridge. 

These settlers worked to a great extent on the co-operative plan, fencing 
a hold in common in the heavilv timbered bottom, having but one big field of 
a thousand acres or more, each contributing to the building of the fence and 
cultivating the part he cleared. William Hayes took the first wagon into the 
big bottom. It was rather a shackly affair and would hardly compare with 
those of the present day. The women walked and carried their babies in their 
arms, and assisted in driving the stock during the day when on the route, and 
upon camping- at night built the fire and prepared the evening meal. They 
necessarilv endured all the privations of pioneer life and did their part of the 
labor incident to the development of this country. 

WILD GAME. 

The country abounded in all sorts of game, and venison, at the proper 
season, was the main reliance for meat. About the Great Salt Springs bufifalo 
were to be found, but not in great numbers, and elk were not scarce in Saline 
county. The few hogs ran at large, as did the cattle also. The former fed 
largely on wild roots and acorns. The animals had been brought over from 
the Cooper settlements in Howard, and occasionally they would swim the 
river to return to their old range. At first hogs were very scarce. Henry 
Nave had none, but having traded his wife's side-saddle for some shoats, he 



Nathaniel Shaver has been materially injured by Earthquakes. And that in conformity to 
the provisions of the Act of Congress of 77th Feby. 1815, the said Nathaniel Shaver or 
his legal representatives, is entitled to locate four hundred arpens of land, on any of the 
public lands of the Territory of Missouri, the sale of which is authorized by law. Comr. 
Crt. Xo. 588. 

Frederick Bates. 
No. 403- 

Office of the Recorder of Land Titles, 
St. Louis, Missouri, Xovember 3rd, 1832. 
I Certify, That in pursuance of the Act of Congress, passed the 17th day of Febru- 
ary, 1815, a Location Certificate, No. 287, issued from this office, in favor of Nathaniel 
Shaver, or his legal representatives, for four hundred arpens of land ; that a location has 
been made, as appears by the plat of survey herewith, and that the said Xathaniel Shaver 
or his legal representatives is entitled to a Patent for the said tract, containing, according 
to said location, & Survey, (Xo. 2618^ (3ne hundred and eighty-nine acres & eighty-five 
hundredths of an acre of land, being in Townships 45 & 46 X., R. 6 E. of the stii Prl. 
Meridian. 

F. R. Conway Recorder of 
Land titles, in the State of Missouri. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 45 

soon had a start of hogs, and afterwards in his old age said that his smoke 
house had never been without hog- meat since. It was difficult to raise hogs 
or sheep, the woods being infested with wolves, catamounts, panthers and 
bears, all having a decided relish for pork and mutton. However, this con- 
dition did not last long', bacon becoming- soon a leading commodity of export 
down the river to St. Louis. 

In the fall of 1816 a band of elk, prcjbably some thirty, crossed the river 
above Arrow Rock. They had been chased b}" the Howard county settlers, 
and were met by the hunters of Saline on this side, when some of them were 
killed. They then turned down the river into Cooper county and re-crossed 
the river. Some of the people from the Big Bottom secured one or two of 
these animals. In the latter part of the fall of that year a bee-hunting party 
was organized in the Big Bottom, composed of Mr. Hayes, Daniel Thornton, 
William McMahan and James Wilhite. The}- went up the river in canoes, 
landing at the Little Rush bottom. There they found large bee trees and 
plenty of hone3^ They spent a week and got fifty-eight gallons of pure, 
strained honey. 

INDIANS SHOW FRIENDSHIP. 

A Stirring incident at this time occurred to the family of Mr. Ish, one of 
the Big Bottom settlers. Having camped in the tall grass, and while absent 
from the camp in search of horses that had strayed, his wife and children 
were threatened with destruction by a prairie fire approaching and sweeping 
rapidly over the prairie bottom. Some friendly Indians, who happened to be 
passing, observed the danger to the Ish family and camp and hastened to back 
fire against the rapidl)^ approaching- flames, and in that way prevented the 
impending destruction and damage to the Ish family and their camp, they not 
being injured at all, but frightenedydt the interference of the Indians them- 
selves, wdio were probably Osages. After the danger was passed, Mrs. Ish 
manifested her thanks to these Indians by giving them her husband's supply 
of tobacco, and on Mr. Ish's return to camp, he also evinced his thanks and 
pleasure at their timely and fortunate conduct, telling the Indians that they 
must ever consider him their fast friend, but whether these Indians fully under- 
stood him is difficult to determine at this day. 

These inhabitants of the bottom soon began to be disturbed by the annual 
June rise occurring in the Missouri river, the water being very high, particu- 
larly in 1820. In June of that year. Gen. Henry Atkinson, commander of the 
Western Military Department, and at that time in active command of the 
post at Council Blufifs. wrote to Gen. Thomas A. Smith of the exceedingly 



46 PAST AND PRESENT 

high water at that place, and of its encroachments on the fields which were 
being- cultivated by the troops, and expressing the opinion that if the river was 
equally high in its lower reaches that they would be in danger of being washed 
out at Old Franklin, where General Smith lived at that time, being receiver 
of public moneys at that place, and in fact the river did get very high at that 
point. It began to cut away the very foundations of the town. But the most 
serious and destructive high water came in the summer of 1826, the water 
overflowing all the bottoms to a depth varying from three to ten feet. Cox's 
Bottom was entirely submerged, and so was the Big Bottom completely over- 
flowed, resulting in great damage and causing many of the settlers to move 
to high ground, and thereafter avoid the bottom. Following the subsidence 
of the water, malaria succeeded and much sickness and suffering followed. 

The birth of the first white child in the county, a daughter of Jacob Ish, 
occurred in the Big Bottom during the year 18 17. She was taken back to 
Tennessee by her mother's sister, grew up and married there. 

EARLY MILLING. 

The first mill in the county was built in the Big Bottom in 18 17. Its loca- 
tion was a mile below where Cambridge now is, on a little branch called Shock- 
ley's branch. It was run by horse power and merely ground corn and wheat 
of the settlers, having no bolting apparatus. The pioneers came to this mill, 
not infrequentlv a distance of thirty or forty miles. Clark, its owner and 
founder, is said to have been a Reform preacher. 

Prior to the building of this mill the settlers depended mainly on their 
mortars and pestles for meal, or upon a mill across the river in the Boone's 
Lick settlement. This latter establishment did a rushing business. Like 
Clark's, it also was a horse-power mill. The settlers becoming tired of 
pounding corn, joined together and sent Jacob Ish to get a wagon load of 
meal ground. Crossing the Missouri river at Arrow Rock, he camped in the 
bottom on the opposite bank in company with a number of other settlers from 
different sections of the country, enroute for Boone's Lick mill. The time 
was spent very agreeably around the camp fires, relating stories of their en- 
counters with Indians and wild beasts, and of ventures in the war of 1812. 
also enlivened by the spirited music of a violin, and the presence of some 
good dancers in the crowd. Upon reaching the mill at Boone's Lick, it was 
found to be swarming with customers, many of whom had been there a week 
waiting their turn, although the mill ran night and day. Some hundred 
yards away from the mill was a cabin where corn whiskey was freely dis- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 47 

pensed. Some one of these men, by having imbibed too freely of the corn 
whiskey, failed to be on hand when his turn came, when Ish got himself 
substituted in his place, and therefore succeeded in getting his grinding done 
much sooner than he had a right to expect on his arrival, returning home in 
triumph with a wagDU loaded with unbolted meal for himself and his neigh- 
bors. 

DOMESTIC ECONOMIES. 

These pioneers of the Big- Bottom and of Saline county generally were 
from the states of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and 
who had always been accustomed to frontier life. For the most part they 
were hunters, and did not care to acquire large tracts of land or to raise very 
large crops. Thev raised just about as much corn as would serve their fam- 
ilies with bread, together with the usual variety of vegetables, relying on 
game for the rest. They raised almost everything they ate and manufac- 
tured almost everything they wore. Their smoke houses were always filled 
with meats of various kinds and wild honey of the finest flavor, and after the 
first year or two they lived well. Little coffee or sugar was used, and store 
tea was almost unknown. The family who had coffee once a week, Sunday 
morning for breakfast, were considered aristocratic, high livers. 

These settlers would hunt and trap to secure furs and peltries, which they 
exchanged for powder and shot and hunting knives for themselves, and scis- 
sors, needles, thread and such articles for the use of their women folk. These 
latter articles were scarce and high. Their apparel comported well with their 
style of living and their circumstances. The men were chiefly clad in buck- 
skin, with an undershirt of linsey or flannel, or cotton domestic; a cap of 
coonskin and a pair of moccasins completed the apparel. As the settlement 
grew older, shoes made of home tanned leather made by themselves were 
substitutes for moccasins. 

The women at first prepared a linen from a bark of nettles, which grew 
abundantly in the bottoms and on the islands in early days. The fiber was 
prepared similarlv to the way in which flax was treated, and this fiber, mixed 
with cotton, furnished the material out of which their wearing apparel was 
chiefly made. Each family raised a patch of cotton, which the women picked, 
ginned by hand, carded and spun. There were few who aspired to clothes 
made of store goods. It is well known that buckskin makes a very fair article 
of clothing, and even to this day it is largely used among the settlers in the 
mountains of the Southwest. Fifty years ago. it was almost the universal 
dress of the New Mexicans. The early settlers did not aspire to great riches, 



48 PAST AND PRESENT 

nor were they troubled by vaulting ambitions, and they led a life of satisfac- 
tion and contentment. 

In the fall of the year, the men would go down to Old h'ranklin,* St. 
Charles, Boonvillc or St. Louis, trade furs and peltries for ammunition, get 
their guns repaired, and on returning home prepare for the fall hunt, which 
they were ready to enter upon after the first white frost in October. They 
would be absent on these hunts for some weeks, always returning laden with 
the choice trophies of the hunt. Buffalo, elk and deer meat were brought 
back in abundance, and in addition an ample supply of honey for the win- 
ter use. 

During the year 1819 there w-as a great deal of sickness in the settle- 
ment, the prevailing illness being caused by the malaria of the bottoms. 
There was great distress on this account and the year w^as long remembered 
by the settlers. The most of them left the bottoms. Some went to Howard 
county and some elsewdiere. and some never returned, selling their claims for 
whatever they could get for them. 

In portions of the bottoms, the rushes grew so rank and luxuriantly 
that near the ground they remained green, tender and nourishing throughout 
the winter, so that cattle could live without much feed. One spring the set- 
tlers killed a steer wdiich ran wild the preceding winter, living on rushes and 



* The town of Franklin, or "Old Franklin" as it was called after 1826, when the 
county seat was moved to Fayette, is frequently mentioned by historical writers in this 
state, but we have never run across anything like an accurate description of the place 
until reading the exploring expedition of Major S. H. Long, of the topographical engineers, 
published in 1823. This book, in two large volumes, is a rare work, but is an interesting 
and well written account of the first well-appointed and equipped exploring expedition 
that w-as sent out by the government to ascertain what sort of country we had pur- 
chased from Napoleon Bonaparte. John C. Calhoun was secretary of war when the proj- 
ect was organized, equipped and sent out under his orders and supervision and with 
the sanction and support of his great intellect behind it. Under his orders, Major Long, 
in the winter of 1818 and 1819, went to Pittsburg, and there built a steamboat to be used 
by him in ascending the Missouri river. The boat, completed in April, 1819, was called 
the "Western Engineer," taken down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to St. Louis, where 
the cargo of troops, arms, provisions, etc., were put on board. 

There were three or four other scientific men attached to the expedition, an astron- 
omer, a geologist and a botanist under the general command of Major S. W. Long. That 
spring the government had three other steamboats collected at St. Louis, forming what 
was officially called "The Yellowstone Expedition," designed to take up troops and sup- 
plies to the mouth of the Yellowstone, where it was intended to locate a fort. This expe- 
dition was under the command of Col. Henry Atkinson, commander of the Western 
Military Department, but they could only get up that summer as far as Council Bluffs, 
where a post was established. These boats left St. Louis about the first of July, 1819, the 
"Western Engineer" taking the lead to ascend the Missouri river. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 49 

wild pea vines, that weighed eleven hundred pounds net. In fact, it used to 
be a question among the early settlers of this part of Missouri, the natural 
pastures being so good, whether it was better to feed their stock in the tirst 
or latter part of the winter, it not being considered necessary to feed them 
all through the winter season. 

THE SETTLEMENT OF EDMONDSON's BOTTOM. 

The first occupant in this localit}- was Richard Edmondson, a native of 
jVIadison county, Kentucky, for whom the bottom was called, and who set- 
tled and built a cabin on a New Madrid claim, located by Gen. Thomas A. 
Smith, being section 34, township 53. range 20. Just at what time Mr. Ed- 
mondson came to this bottom is not certainly known, but it must have been 
prior to November, 18 16. for at that time he sold his cabin and truck patch 
to Laban Garrett, and then moved farther west. Garrett was a pioneer from 
Pittsylvania county, Virginia. In 1817 Garrett was joined by Adam and 
William Hopper, Daniel Stout, John Young, George Yunt, Thomas and 
Daniel Tillman, Richard Cummins, Thomas Rogers, Rucker and others, 
who jointly improved and cultivated a big field, an enclosure of one hundred 



This expedition reached Franklin about the middle of July, 1819. It had not then 
reached its highest prosperity, but was the civil and political headquarters of the Boone's 
Lick country. The river had already begun its encroachments upon its location. Gen. 
Thomas A. Smith was its leading citizen, its wealthiest man, who had been a prominent 
officer in the regular army for twenty years, and then having resigned, held the office of 
receiver of the land office, the best paying place in the western country. The General 
built a large brick residence in the edge of the town, which in 1826 was washed away 
or rendered uninhabitable by high water. There were a number of young men residents 
of the town at that time who afterwards became prominent in national and state politics. 
Among them, Hamilton R. Gamble. Lilburn W. Bowgs and Claiborne F. Jackson, after- 
wards governor of the state, and Judge Todd, Benjamin H. Reeves, Charles Carroll, 
Abiel Leonard, and Richard Gentry, the latter afterwards a colonel in the Seminole war 
and killed in battle with the Indians in Florida ; also John F. Ryland, who was after- 
wards judge of the supreme court of this state. Among the practicing lawyers was Major 
Taylor Berry, who was killed in a duel with Abiel Leonard, fought on Wolf island in the 
Mississippi river. 

Major Long gives the following detailed description of Franklin as he found it in 
July, 1819: 

"After taking a supply of wood, we departed on the morning of the 13th (July, 1819.) 
and the same day arrived at Franklin. This town at present increasing more rapidly than 
any other on the Missouri, had been commenced but two j-ears and a half before the 
time of our landing. It then contained about one hundred and twenty log houses of one 
stor}^ several frame dwellings of two stories and two brick, thirteen shops for selling 
merchandise, four taverns, two smiths' shops, two large steam mills, two billiard rooms, 
a court house, a log prison of two stories, a postoffice, and a printing press issuing a 

4 



50 PAST AND PRESENT 

acres or more. Ten \ears afterwards, Nancy, the daugiiter of Lal)an and 
Xancv Garrett, who was l)orn in Virginia, hecanie the wife of Major Jesse 
J.ankford. another pioneer of Saline county, and who has many descendants 
}et residents of the county. 

in the spring of iSi<S William J. W'olfskill left Howard county and came 
into this settlement. At hrst he joined in work in the big held, hut after 
one cro]), he opened and settled on a farm out on the prairie, where he li.ved 
and remained for the next hfty years. Air. W'olfskill was from Madison 
county, Kentucky, and was a soldier in the war of 1812, being a member 
of Colonel Johnson's regiment, the colonel who killed Tecumseh in the battle 
of the Thames and gained a great victory over the British and Indians, a 
thorough w'oodsman and well conversant with all the details of frontier life. 

Shortly after the coming of Wolfskill. he was joined by the following: 
James Burlison, William McDaniel, Rice Downey; the Browns, James, 
Henry and Coger; James Wells, Uriah Davies, James Wilkerson and Isaiah 
Huff. In 1819 came Jonathan Harris wdth his sons, Timothy and Williams, 
and Mrs. Wheeler with her sons, Samuel, William and Alfred. Mrs. Wheeler 
was the widow of Thomas Wheeler, a gallant Kentuckian. who had fallen 
under the cruel knife of the cruel savage in Dudlev's defeat on the River 



weekly paper. At tliis time bricks were sold at ten dollars per thousand, corn at twenty- 
five cents per bushel, wheat at one dollar, bacon at twelve and one-half cents per pound, 
uncleared lands from two to ten or fifteen dollars per acre. The price of labor was 
seventy-five cents per day. 

"The bottoms about Franklin are wide and have the same prolific and inexhaustible 
soil as those below. The labor of one slave is reckoned sufficient for the cultivation of 
twenty acres of Indian corn, which produces ordinarily about sixty bushels per acre at a 
single crop. In the most fertile parts of Kentucky fifteen acres of corn are thought to 
require the labor of one slave and the crop being less abundant. We may reckon the 
products of agriculture then at about one-third less than in the best lands in Missouri. 
Franklin is the seat of justice, Howard coiuity. It stands on a low and recent alluvial 
plain and has behind it a small stagnant creek. The bed of the river beneath the shore 
has been heretofore obstructed by sand bars which prevented large boats from approach- 
ing the town. Whether the river will increase or diminish, it is not possible to determine. 
Such is the want of stability in everything belonging to the channel of the Missouri river. 
It is even doubtful whether the present site of Franklin will not at some future day be occu- 
pied by the river, which appears to be at this time encroaching on its bank. Similar 
changes have happened in the short period since the establishment of settlements on the 
Missouri. The site of St. Anthony, a town which existed about thirteen years ago near 
Bonne Homme, is now occupied by the channel of the river. Opposite Franklin is Boon- 
ville, containing at the time of our visit eight houses, but having in some respects a. more 
advantageous situation, and probably destined to rival if not surpass its neighbor." "While 
at Franklin, the gentlemen of the exploring party received many gratifying attentions, 
particularly from Cen. T. A. Smith, at whose house they were often hospitably received 
and where they all dined by invitation on the 17th of July." 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 5 1 

Raisin, in southeastern Michigan, during the war of 1812. \\'iniam Ish, 
James Kuykendall and Samuel Duckworth came about the year 1820. Of 
these settlers, Cummins, Rogers and McDaniel were Tennesseeans ; Davies. 
the Harrises and \\'heelers were from Kentucky, and the Tillmans, Hopper 
and Young were from Virginia. All of these were hunters of greater or 
less degree, but William Hopper, Cummins and Rogers were expert and 
proficient. The accuracy of their shooting was remarkable. Hopper seldom 
killed fewer than three deer a day, even ^vhen these animals had become 
scarce. Edmondson's Bottom, like the others, contained plenty of pea vine 
and rush pasturage and afforded fine range for stock, both summer and winter, 
which came out in the spring looking thrifty and fat. This soil was very pro- 
ductive, growing corn, beans, potatoes, etc., in abundance, and at an early date 
flat boats and keel boats took loads of produce, bacon, corn, furs, pelts, etc., 
down the river to St. Charles, St. Louis and other places on the Mississippi. 

THE FIRST SCHOOL 

In this settlement, Laban Garrett claims he taught the first school ever 
taught in Saline county, it being in the year 181 7, in a cal)in built by Edmond- 
son. There were many children in the settlement and Air. Garrett had a 
good school that lasted more than four months. The terms of tuition were 
one dollar per scholar per month, payable in any sort of currency or com- 
modity recognized in the community as legal tender. This included gold, sil- 
ver, corn, potatoes, beaver, coon and deer skins. At the close of \h\ Gar- 
rett's school, the settlers gathered in and had a barbecue and a good time 
generally. The school closed in the latter part of 1817. Mr. Garrett, who 
was at that time a spry and spruce young man of twenty years, was regarded 
as a person of some distinction and consequence because he had a good educa- 
tion and could teach school. Mr. Garrett said the second school .taught in the 
county was by Mr. Rogers in tlie Big Bottom. 

Among the sturdv people who settled in this section of Missouri was the 
above mentioned Jesse Lankford, son-in-law of Laban Garrett, who came from 
Virginia, after being a resident of Tennessee, in 1808. At the age of nine- 
teen he enlisted as a soldier in the army of General Jackson, and afterwards 
took part in the famous battle of New Orleans. At an early hour, on a 
cloudy Sunday morning, the attack was made by the British forces upon the 
cotton-baled breast works of the Americans, he, Lankford, being on 
guard, one of a squad of three detailed from his company for such seiwice, 
and stationed at a conspicuous point on the line. The noise occasioned by the 



52 PAST AND PRESENT 

rolling of the cannon wheels over the dry cane stalks first attracted his atten- 
tion to the approach of the enemy, when he awakened his captain, who, in 
turn, aroused the entire camp. Packenham's command came up in three di- 
visions, each in the form of the letter V, but few of them ever reached the 
line of cotton bales, which were piled just high enough for the Americans to 
rest their long rifles upon and bring down the enemy with their deadly aim 
acquired in shooting squirrels, deer and Indians. During the short fight Gen- 
erals Carroll and Coft'ey rode up and down the line encouraging them to stand 
up to the rack, and cautioning them against leaving their powder horns open, 
as some exploded occasionally by sparks falling from the old flint locks. Sun- 
day was the fight; Monday they moved the wounded, and on Tuesday 
buried the dead. The British army disappeared the following Sunday, 
the dragoons following them, but not overtaking them. After peace was 
announced in February, Mr. Lankford returned to Tennessee, remaining 
there until 1817, when he set out for the Missouri country, in company with 
that famous pioneer physician. Dr. John Sappington. Their route was through 
Kentucky and Illinois, crossing the Mississippi just above the mouth of the 
Missouri, two months being consumed in making the journey, stopping tem- 
porarily in the Boone's Lick country of Howard county. In the month of 
June, 1819, they crossed the Missouri river just above Arrow Rock to cast 
their lot with the people of Saline county. Major Lankford became one of 
the early builders of this county, under contract erecting mills and the better 
class of houses. On account of his military experience, he was appointed 
major of the militia of this county, which mustered at Jonesboro, the county 
seat. In 182 1 he helped build a water mill on Salt Fork at the site of Jones- 
boro, and in company with Alexander Galbraith, purchased and rah it for sev- 
eral years. Afterwards he engaged, in making salt near Heath's creek. There 
were some works at Lockhart's, on Blackwater, and on Cow creek, near Henry 
Weeden's mill, but with seven men and fifty kettles producing one hundred 
barrels per week, he soon supplied the market. Later he traded down the 
river, but the venture was not a financial success. 

SETTLEMENT OF THE MIAMI BOTTOM. 

In the year 181 5 a band of the Miami tribe of Indians located in the Mis- 
souri bottoms and after they had been overwhelmingly defeated by General 
Wayne in Ohio, having migrated west, and their fort or village stood imme- 
diately on the bank of the river at the foot of the bluffs, near where the 
Marshall and Brunswick road crosses. From this band of Indians the bottom 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 53 

and the town of Miami took their names. During that year 1815 these Mi- 
amis had left their fort and village and gone into camp for the summer in a 
grove about a mile and one-half east of the present town of Miami. At this 
time a band of Sacs and Foxes came down from the north, attacking the 
white settlements in Howard county. They drove the settlers into their forts 
and carried ofT considerable plunder. They retreated through the camp of the 
Miamis. where they stopped and sold to them the property they had captured 
in Howard county. The settlers found this out, and some of them believed 
the Miamis had a hand in the attack, notwithstanding their professed friend- 
ship for the whites, and that they were in league with the Sacs and Foxes 
and were really a party to the attack on the settlers. At an}^ rate, their prop- 
erty was in the hands of the Indians. 

The Miamis had three or four hundred warriors in good fig'hting condi- 
tion and there were only about two hundred and fifty of the settlers that were 
fit for good soldiers. It was, therefore, a hazardous experiment for the set- 
tlers to undertake forcible recovery of their property, and they were forced 
to call upon the government for help. So Colonel, afterwards General, Henry 
Dodge w^as sent up to the Boone's Lick country with a battalion of regulars 
to punish the' Miamis for their rascality and to recover the property of the 
settlers. 

Dodge was joined at Boone's Lick by two hundred and fifty mounted 
riflemen under Col. Benjamin Cooper, Dodge assuming command of the ex- 
pedition by virtue of his rank and position in the regular army. The com- 
mand crossed the Missouri river at Arrow Rock, following the old Osage 
trace to the vicinity of the Miami fort, where it halted and began to arrange 
for an attack upon the fortifications of the Indians. An assault was made and 
the works captured, but no Indians were found. They had probably been ap- 
prized of the approach of the troops and had abandoned the fort to avoid a 
conflict. ^ Their whereabouts were soon discovered, and they at once sur- 
rendered.] The Indians said they had purchased the property claimed by the 
whites from other Indians, and denied that they had joined in, or aided and 
abetted the attack on the white settlements. The men from Howard imme- 
diately recognized articles in the Miami camp belonging to them, and began 
to take possession of them. Colonel Dodg'e, commanding, said that that sort 
of proceeding must stop ; that the articles must be restored in a different man- 
ner, following an investigation, etc. The pioneers disliked this sort of for- 
mality, but Dodge called on his regulars to enforce his authority and he and 
Colonel Cooper were about to engage in a conflict between themselves, but 
other officers interfered and the matter was quieted and arranged to the sat- 



54 PAST AND PRESENT 

isfaction of all concerned, the settlers reclaiming- their property. The Indians 
insisted tliat they were not guilty, but this trouble served- as a cause of their 
removal not long afterwards. Subsequent developments, however, showed 
that they were innocent, as the}- claimed to be, the Sacs and Foxes being the 
guilty ones. 

It is not certain where the Aiiamis were moved to. "The Annals of the 
West" says they were taken back to the rest of the tril3e in the Wabash 
country, but many old settlers declare that they went west, reserving the right 
to return and hunt in Saline county, which they often did. 

Gen. Henry Dodge was afterwards United States marshal for Missouri. 
He was an old resident of Missouri, but afterw^ards moved to Wisconsin, and 
became a United States senator from that state, and served in the senate with 
his son, Gen. A. C. Dodg^e, senator from Iowa, the only incident on record 
where a father and son were members of that body at the same time. 

Prior to the year 1817 no permanent settlement was made on the Miami 
bottom l)y a white man. John Ferrill and his son, Henry, had trapped beaver 
and otter along the river, and camped temporarily in the bottom, no perma- 
nent settlement being- made until the year 181 7, when John Cook and family 
settled about one and one-half miles northeast of Miami, in section 33, town- 
ship 52, range 22. In 18 18 came Samuel Perry, \\'illiam Clemens, Thomas 
Clemens, Henry Ferrill, John McMahan, William McMahan and Robert Pat- 
rick. These first settlers in the bottoms were all Kentuckians, hospitable, 
manly, generous and brave. August 10, 1819, William Miller, a Virginian, 
entered the southeast quarter of section 35, and on July 6th William Renick 
entered the west half of the southeast cjuarter of section 33, township 52, 
range 22. May 14th of the same year. Miller entered the northwest quarter of 
section 10, township 51, range 22. June loth, Louis Rees entered the south- 
east quarter of section 13, township 51, range 22. July i6th. ^^'illiam Renick 
entered the east half of the southeast quarter of section 8, and the northwest 
quarter of section 4, township 51, range 22. Miller was not an actual settler, 
but a speculator, non-resident. During the year 18 19 he entered considerable 
portions of sections i, 2, 3 and 4, in township 51, range 22. On January 15, 
1819, A. L. Langham entered the east half of the northwest quarter of sec- 
tion 9, township 51, range 22. Rol)ert Patrick was the contractor for supply- 
ing the western forts and troops with beef. That year, he took up a drove of 
cattle for the troops at Cantonment ]\Iartin, located on Cow island just below 
the present town of Atchison, on the ^Missouri river. He held the position 
from 181 7 to 1826, owned a thousand acres of land in the bottoms, w'here he 
collected and herded his cattle until readv for delivery. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 55 

SALT POND SETTLEMENT. 

Ill the fall of 1 817 Edward Reavis ascended the Lamine and made the 
first settlement at the Salt Springs, four miles below the present site of Sweet 
Spring's. His family numbered about fourteen souls, half being his own fam- 
ily, the other his neg'ro slaves. Reavis engaged in the manufacture of salt at 
the strong salt springs of that locality. His appliances were not the best, but 
he made a fair article of salt in considerable quantities, supplying most of the 
salt used in the early days, continuing the business for some fifteen years. It 
was a hazardous undertaking to make a settlement there at that time, for the 
country was infested with roving bands of Indians, and to guard against pos- 
sible attacks he built his house in the shape of a fort, such a fort as was usual 
with the early settlers, with a block house attached, properly pierced with 
port-holes and well calculated for defence against an ordinary attack of sav- 
ages, not too numer(ius. Its defensive qualities were never tested, never hav- 
ing been attacked b}- the Indians. Subsecpient to the Reavis settlement. John 
and Matthew Alayes located at the McAllister Springs, and Isham Reavis 
came in at the same time. In 1820 Duke Prigmore, Sr., joined the settlement, 
making at least five families up to that time. Soon afterwards, Philip Cecil 
settled lower down on Blackwater. He located on section 28, township 49, 
range 20, built a cabin there, and remained for several years, entering some 
land out on the prairies. Afterwards he sold out and left the neighborhood. 
Subsequently, in the year 18 18, Arthur Hunt, from Xorth Carolina, settled 
the prairie bottom near the Napton bridg'e on Blackwater. His nephew, Oliver 
Hunt, settled in the same vicinity about the same time. In the year 18 19 
Charles Lockhart commenced prospecting all over the Blackwater coun- 
try in search of minerals, continuing his labors at intervals for nearlv two 
years. He was induced to make his search by seeing traces of Renault's dig- 
gings, made one hundred years previously. Lockhart thought Renault's men 
had not made their investigations sufficiently thorough or complete, and he 
dug over many of the pits of the Frenchman. Lockhart employed sometimes 
as many as thirty laborers, working" faithfully and zealously, but finally aban- 
doned it, after repeated failures. 

SETTLEMENT OF THE SAPPINGTON NEIGHBORHOOD. 

The first settlement in this locality in Arrow Rock township was said to 
have been made by William McMahan in the year 181 1. Like Cox and the 
Coopers, however, he sought refuge occasionally in the Howard county forts. 



56 PAST AND PRESENT 

where he remained until after the war with England was over. He did not re- 
turn to his claim, however, but jointed the settlers in the Big bottom, as it ap- 
pears, for in 18 16 he is mentioned as one of the members of a party that went 
up in canoes into the Little Rush bottom bee hunting. Afterwards he settled in 
the Miami bottom. In the year 18 10 Samuel McMahan had built a strong 
block house and fort six miles south of Arrow Rock called Fort Anderson, the 
fort taking its name from three families of that name who w^ere Mr. McMahan's 
nearest neighbors. The other settlers were David Jones, Joseph Wolfskill, 
Steven Turley and William Reid. From this settlement, Mr. McMahan came 
to his claim. During the w^ar of 18 12 the Indians drove the settlers in and 
about Anderson's fort across the river to Cooper's fort and burned Fort Ander- 
son. While Samuel McMahan was at Cooper's fort, he was killed by the In- 
dians, having brought his family over to this side of the river, and had accu- 
mulated some property in stock. The same week that Gregg was killed up in 
Cox's bottom, Christmas week, 18 14, Mr. McMahan re-crossed the ri\er to se- 
cure his cattle, and in his effort to procure his cattle he w^as killed by the Indians 
in Cooper county. His youngest son was Jesse McMahan, long a highly re- 
spected citizen of Arrow Rock, and whose name is frequently used in these 
pages. In 18 19 there came to this locality, where Mr. McMahan had set- 
tled, Alexander Galbraith, Asa Finley, Sanders Townsend, Richard Marshall, 
Rev. Payton Nowlin and Dr. John Sappington, from whom the settlement 
took its name. The Doctor settled on sections 8 and 9, in township 49, range 
19. The land is yet owned and occupied by his descendants. 

Among other settlers in this neig"hborhood were Andrew Browmlee, Jo- 
seph Robinson, John Bingham, Nathan Holloway, Bradford Lawless, Burton 
Lawless, Judge Beverly Tucker and M. M. Marmaduke. The most of these 
settled here before 1820 and the remainder very soon afterwards. Arrow 
Rock was nothing more than a crossing place on the Missouri river, where 
there was a good ferry. The first regular ferr^'man was Captain Becknell, of 
Franklin, and afterwards a captain of a company of Saline count\- men in the 
Blackhawk war. Becknell's predecessors as ferrymen were Jerry Lecky and 
Frederick Hartgrove, who had lived in a log cabin on the river bank called 
the Ferry House. Captain Becknell was the originator of the Santa Fe trade 
and the locator of the Santa Fe trail, as will hereafter be more fully ex- 
plained. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE PETITE SAUX BOTTOM. 

This famous 1)ottom, or ])lains. has a lateral extent of about eighteen miles. 
The locality was long since named by the French, but its exact name or the 
mode of spelling it is a matter not definitely settled. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 57 

The first settlers here were Elijah Arthur, an old soldier of the war of the 
Revolution, Robert and William White and John Dustin. They came in the 
latter part of the year 1815, or early in 18 16, according to the best informa- 
tion. Prior to this time one Reverend Gilham and his sons, Hugh and Neely, 
from Howard county, had hunted and trapped throughout the bottom, giving 
descriptions of it to the settlers. In 1816 came George Davis, who settled the 
farm long thereafter known by his name. In 1818 Anthony and Notley 
Thomas settled near the Grand Pass church, a farm of Notley Thomas being 
immediately back of the one occupied by his son, Baltimore Thomas. Other 
settlers soon followed, most of them being from Virginia, Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. The high water and sickly season of 1820 drove the majority of them 
away. Some migrated to Clay county, then beginning to be settled, and some 
to other portions of the county and country. Those who remained were the 
Thomases, McDowells, Berry Estes and William White. The latter, a Revo- 
lutionary soldier, was from Tennessee. Other early settlers in this part of 
the county were John Lincoln, Elisha Evans and Andrew Russell, who came 
from Kentucky in 18 19. Lincoln was an industrious bachelor blacksmith who 
followed that trade in this county until 1829, when he removed to Clay county. 
He was tall, angular, rough looking and uneducated, and after removing to 
Clay county, he married a Miss Duncan. John Gregg, with a family of 
twenty-one children, as early as 1818, is said to have been a settler in this 
bottom. 

The author of this history and the people of this county are under lasting 
oblig'ations to Jerrold R. Letcher, a native of the county but now of Utah, for 
collecting and preserving and procuring the publication of the history of the 
early settlers of this county. But for his kindly action, in the year 1876, all 
data of our early settlements would have been lost and no history of them 
could ever have been written. He obtained the facts and data from men then 
living, all of whom have long- since passed away and their tongues have be- 
come silent forever. 

THE INDIANS OF SALINE. 

The aborigines, who formerly roamed over or inhabited the country of 
which Saline county is now composed, probably deserve some notice at our 
hands. 

The Osages seem to have had the best claim to this part of Missouri, and 
while they were nomads, yet they maintained a more or less permanent occu- 
pancy of the country .south of the Missouri river within the state or territory 
of Missouri. 



58 PAST AND PRESENT 

Col. William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark expedition) made a 
"treaty" with them at Fort Osage (in the western part of the territory), in the 
year 1808, by Avhich the Indian title to the lands here was relinquished to the 
"Great Father" at Washington. 

The Sacs and Foxes and lowas were occasional visitors, making- hunting 
excursions and sometimes warlike raids over this section. These savage In- 
dian trilDes were rarely on real friendly terms with each other and during the 
war of 1812-14 thev were encouraged to hostility against the white "Ameri- 
cans" bv British emissaries, wlio were scattered through the West for that pur- 
pose. The Indians needed very little encouragement or inducement to engage 
in war against the settlers, whom they knew were moving upon their lands with 
the intention of permanent occupancy. The patriotic sentiment, or love of 
country, was alone sufficient to induce them to make war on the settlers here in 
central Missouri and it is strange that the tribes did not combine against them 
and with all their united strength drive them back to the eastern side of the 
Mississippi. Xo fair minded man could blame the Indians for going to war 
under such circumstances, for it was nothing more than natural patriotism for 
them to desire to kill every white man found in the country. But no great bat- 
tles ever took place. 

The Indians who came down from the north, Sacs, Foxes and lowas. were 
the most troublesome and dangerous to the settlers. It was they who created 
the most trouble during- the war of 1812. Incited by the British agents from 
Canada, emmissaries of Proctor and Tecumseh. they engaged in open hostil- 
ities against the settlers, so continuous and formidable as to drive the settlers 
from their homes here on this side to seek refuge and safety in the forts of 
Howard county that had been built and made secure sometime previously. 
But fifteen or twenty of the settlers- were killed by Indians, among- them the 
Coopers and Samuel McMahan. The tragic death of Capt. Marshall Cooper, 
who was shot by an Indian through a crack in the log--house at night, while 
he was sitting by the fire with his youngest child on his lap. excited the deepest 
feelings. It was thought a single warrior crept up to the side of the fort, 
picked out the "dol)bin" between the logs sufficiently to allow him to get a sight 
of Captain Cooper and give him a fatal shot, without touching the child in 
his arms. 

Cooper's fort was the stronghold and favorite refuge of the settlers on 
the north side of the river, while Cole's fort was just below the site of Boon- 
ville, on the south side. Cooper county was named for Captain Cooper and 
Cole county for Captain Cole. 

The real Indian is not the noble savage that the poets and romance 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 59 

writers have drawn for our delectation and entertainment. The early settlers 
doubtless came to the conclusion that the only real good Indian was a dead 
one. But the savage Indian is no worse than the savage black man. or in- 
deed a savage man of any other color. Probably the white man in the arbo- 
real state was just as bad as the Indian in the savage state. 

Hunting parties from Kansas came down to this section to hunt as late 
as 1848. The author recollects a hunting party camped in the big bend of 
Blackwater. The negroes visited the camp, said they had a turkey cooking 
in a pot whole, head, feet, feathers and all. The hunting parties from Kansas 
were looked upon with suspicion by the residents, saying they had no right to 
luint here. The Indians probably knew the feeling towards them, and re- 
mained only a few days, Init enjoying the visit to their old haunts. 

Along about 1840 a party of five or six Indian chiefs, enroute to W'ash- 
\ ington (diplomatic agents), stopped at "Experiment," the farm of Gen. 
Thomas A. Smith, to get something to eat, probably knowing the General by 
reputation as a former officer and commander of the Army of the ^^'est. They 
were taken into the dining room and an abundant dinner set before them. A 
whole roasted wild turkey and part of another, with a ham and other things, 
were placed before them on the table, of which they all ate heartily, but it was 
observed that the}- did nc^t touch the whole roasted turkey, although urged to 
do so by the negro servants of the General. But when through and about 
leaving the table, one of the big consequential-looking fellows, withdrawing 
an arrow from its quiver, stuck it into the whole turkey yet left untouched, 
and gently transferred it from the table to his hunting or provision pouch, 
slung over his shoulder, the negro seiwants being very much amused at this 
conduct, one of whom many years afterwards related the incident to the 
author. These braves, ambassadors to Washington, were looking a little 
ahead as to commissary supplies, reserving the whole turkey for future use. 



CHAPTER III. 



LANDS AND SURVEYS. 



Thomas Jefferson was the author of our system of land measurement and 
surveyino". In 1784 our i^-in-ernment. finding itself in possession of the great 
Northwest Territory, determined to adopt a system of surveys which 
would simplify the description. A committee of Congress, composed of 
Thomas Jefferson, chairman, Hugh Williamson, of North Carolina, David 
Howell, of Rhode Island, Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, and Jacob Reed, 
of South Carolina, was raised to devise a plan of survey of the public domain. 
This committee reported, May 7, 1784, an ordinance for this purpose. By 
this ordinance the lands were to be divided into tracts ten miles square and 
these into lots one mile square, to be numbered from i to 100 beginning in 
the northwest comer and running from west to east and from east to west 
consecutively. This ordinance was amended and reported to Congress April 
26, 1785. As amended it required the lands to be surveyed into townships 
of seven miles square, each township to contain forty-nine sections and each 
section to be divided into lots of three hundred and twentv acres each. This 
is the first mention in our history of "townships and sections" in our public 
surveys. The ordinance was further amended and as finally passed May 20, 
1785, it provided that the townships should be six miles square, divided into 
thirty-six sections each, numbered from i to 36, beginning with No. i in the 
southeast corner of the township, running north to No. 6, then back to the 
south line with 7, and S(^ on, ending with 36 in the northwest corner. By 
act May 18, 1796, our present system of numbering the sections beginning in 
the northeast corner of the township and running from east to west and from 
west to east consecutively, ending in the scuitheast corner, was adopted. The 
townships were to be made by lines running east and west and north and 
south, six miles apart. Base lines, running east and west, and principal me- 
ridians, running north and south, were either run or adopted. The Ohio 
river from the Pennsylvania line down to a point four or five miles from Jef- 
fersonville, Indiana, was adopted as the first base line for the public surveys ; 
and a sun-eyed base line extending to the Mississippi, began on the Ohio 
river, a short distance above Jeffersonville, .nnd reached the ^MississipjM ri\cr 
just bel(-w St. Louis. The first ])ul)lic land sur\-eyed into townships and ranges 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 6l 

was the eastern part of the state of Ohio, constituting what became known as 
"The Seven Ranges." These ranges were east of a guide meridian running 
from the Ohio river north about a half mile east of Canton, Ohio. Other 
guide meridians were surveyed in Ohio, but the first principal meridian that 
was numbered coincided with the west line of the state of Ohio. The surveys 
continued westward, and the second principal meridian starts on the Ohio river 
at the mouth of Little Blue and coincides with the line eighty-six degrees and 
twenty-eight minutes west longitude. The third starts at the mouth of the 
Ohio and the fourth at the mouth of the Illinois river, both running north. 
The Mississippi river had thus been reached by successive surveys about ten 
years after the Louisiana Purchase. When we came into possession of this 
territory, March lo, 1804, we extended to it the land policy of the nation, and 
of course the Spanish policy prevailing up to that time of granting free 
homesteads to actual settlers was at once stopped. But that was not all. It 
was made a crime to "squat" on the public domains, and the President was 
authorized to use the military force, if necessary, to remove any intruders 
found thereon. And even this was not all. No one could even buy land for 
a home. This restrictive and illiberal policy continued till July 13, 18 18, a 
period of over fourteen years after we acquired the territory. This delay 
teaches us how slowly events moved a hundred years ago. Several reasons, 
however, may be assigned for this tardy action of the government : 

1. The older states had no surplus population they could very w^ell spare, 
and the foreign immigration at that time was very small ; 

2. Vast tracts of valuable land remained unsold east of the Mississippi 
river ; 

3. The war of 1812-15 with England; 

4. The process of surveying the public lands was, a hundred years ago, 
very slow. 

5. The majority of the inhabitants of the district of Louisiana was 
interested in French and Spanish land grants, and they feared the survey and 
sale of the public lands would interfere with their claims. 

But there was another cause of friction between the settlers here and the 
government. By the treaty of April 30, 1803, the LTnited States stipulated 
to protect "the inhabitants of the ceded territory * * * * j^-^ ^j^g ff-ee 
enjoyment of their liberty, property and religion," w^iich w-as construed to 
mean that the incomplete grants of land made by the French and Spanish 
governments should be confirmed, but in carrying out that stipulation Con- 
gress pursued, in the opinion of the inhabitants here, a very narrow and un- 
just policy. A General Assembly, elected by the people in the district of 



62 PAST AND PRESENT 

Louisiana, was held in vSt. T.ouis, September 13 to 27, 1804, which drew up a 
remonstrance against the form of government prescribed l)y Congress for 
them, and especially against the act providing for the adjustment of the Span- 
isli g'rants, which was sent to Congress, l^his was the first General Assembly 
west of the Mississippi and. though voluntary, there is little doul)t it was in 
character truly reprcsentati\-e of the people. 

The time finally came when the government felt it to be its duty to throw 
the lands west of the Mississippi river upon the market for sale, and as early 
as February 25, 181 1. Congress authorized the President to have the lands 
here, to which the Indian title had been extinguished, suiweyed and put upon 
the market for sale, and a land office, to be located by the President, was es- 
tablished. But the war with England coming on soon afterwards, nothing 
was done till after its close. Indeed, the Indian raids and wars, incited large- 
ly no doubt by English emissaries, were mainly on the territory which every 
one conceded would be first sui-veyed and sold. 

Points had to be selected from which to begin the survey of a base line 
and principal meridian west of the Mississippi, and there was quite an ex- 
tended correspondence in regard to them. 

Maj. Amos Stoddard, in his sketches of Louisiana, written probably 
about 18 10, suggested that all the land east of the following line be surveyed 
and sold : Beginning at the mouth of the St. Francois, up that river to its 
source ; then north to the Meramec, up that river to a point due south from 
the mouth of the Gasconade; thence to the mouth of that river, and from 
thence northwardly along the Fox and Sac Indian line. 

This is the first suggestion, so far as I know, of the mouth of the St. 
Francois as a starting point for the survey of the public lands west of the 
Mississippi. 

Bv act of Congress of April 29. 1812. six million acres of the public 
lands were appropriated for military bounties, two million to be located in 
Michigan, two million in Illinois, and two million to be located between the 
Arkansas and St. Francois rivers, then included in the territory of Missouri. 
This evidentlv had a controlling influence in determining upon the mouth 
of the Arkansas ri\er as a starting point for the fifth ])rincipal meridian. An- 
other controlling factor in the .selection of this as the starting point was the his- 
toric interest that attached to the mouth of that river. Marquette and Joliet 
had camped there in 1773. where they found Indian villages. LaSalle also 
camped there in the spring of 1682. and erected a cross — the priests singing a 
hvmn — and took possession of the country for France. Tonty, in 1786. built 
a fort near the mouth of the Arkansas, and there is no doubt the first French 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



63 



settlement west of the Father of Waters was made in that vicinity. The 
"bird of prey," the notorious John Law, about 1720, selected a large bodv of 
land between the Arkansas and St. Francois rivers, where he established a 
German settlement, nearly two hundred years ago. Up to November 12. 
1812, this territory had had no representative in Congress, but that day Ed- 
ward Hempstead was elected delegate, and he introduced into Congress a bill 
containing more liberal provisions for the confirmation of the Spanish grants 
and extending the right of pre-emption to the settlers, who in large numbers 
had, in defiance of the law, gone upon the public lands ; this bill, mainly 
through his efforts, became a law April 16, 18 14. This act was the first rec- 
ognition of any right of a settler to a home on Uncle Sam's domain west of 
the river, and this was a mere right to buy land, occupied, at the minimum 
price, two dollars per acre, on the usual terms. 

William C. Rector had been surveying the public lands in the ^^'est for 
several years, and in 18 14 it appears he was principal surveyor for Missouri 
and Illinois. At that time the public lands were under the jurisdiction of 
the secretary of the treasury. 

The act of Congress of April 25, 1812, had established a general land 
office as a bureau of the treasury department and Josiah Meigs, who had been 
surveyor-general with headquarters at Cincinnati, was made commissioner 
of the general land office in 18 14. Edward Tiffin was then surveyor-general 
of the Northwest Territory, with headquarters at Cincinnati, and his juris- 
diction extended to the territory of Missouri. 

May 28, 1814, Aleigs wrote to Surveyor-General Edward Tiffin at Cin- 
cinnati in regard to the survey of the lands in Missouri. In this letter he 
states he had received letters from \\''illiam Russell and Edward Bates as to 
the best method to convey these lands. From this correspondence it appears 
that William C. Rector had outlined to Tiffin, in 1814, a plan for the survey 
of a certain amount of land west of the Mississippi, which ]\Ieigs approved, 
but owing to the hostile attitude of the most of the Indian tribes, he deemed 
it best not to undertake the work that year; but as prospects for peace were 
better, estimates of the work might be obtained, to be submitted to the next 
Congress. 

March 24, 18 15, Tiffin was directed to survey a standard meridian, to 
be drawn from the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, and to 
locate the two million acres of military bounty land, to be bounded eastwardly 
by the Mississippi, and on the west by the Arkansas river, and if a line drawn 
west from the mouth of the St. Francois would not give two million acres, then 
the balance of the bounty land should be taken north of that base line. 



64 PAST AND PRESENT 

Tiffin was informed June i, 1815, by General Meigs, that the general 
land office had about completed a system for Rector for the survey of the ex- 
tensive territory of Missouri, a work which ought to have been done long 
before that, and that it should be pushed in the future. It seems an order 
suspending the survey of the two million acres of bounty land at the mouth 
of the Arkansas had been revoked, for, July 6, 181 5, Meigs wrote Tiffin that 
the order suspending this survey had been revoked and the latter was directed 
to proceed to have this bounty land surveyed, but said the government would 
not be responsible for the interference of any Indian tribes, and adds, that 
"if the contractors were discreet men, no danger need be apprehended," Sur- 
veys then were made under contract. Again, July 18, 181 5, Meigs informed 
Tiffin by letter, that the plan of survey, proposed by Rector, had been sub- 
mitted to the President, and no new instructions for the survey of the merid- 
ian and base lines would be issued. August 2, 181 5, Meigs directed Tiffin to 
report, after consulting General Rector, what lands in Missouri ought to be 
surveyed. Prospect R. Robbins, a deputy surveyor, entered into a contract 
October 9, 18 15, to sui"vey the fifth principal meridian, from the mouth of the 
Arkansas north to the Missouri river. Robbins administered the proper oath 
to Hiram Scott and Alexander Baldridge, as chairman, near the mouth of 
the Arkansas, October 27, 181 5. John Baldridge was appointed axeman. The 
work of surveying the fifth principal meridian began at the mouth of the Ar- 
kansas, October 27, 181 5, They reached the base line running west from 
the mouth of the St. Francois, November 10, 181 5, twenty-six miles and 
thirty chains from the Mississippi, and November 6, 181 5, they crossed the 
southern line of what is now the state of Missouri, in what was then Law- 
rence county, though at that time no such boundary line existed, nor had the 
Missouri Compromise Line ever been heard of. 

December 6, 18 15, must be noted as an epoch-marker. That day marks 
the setting for the first time of the Jacob Staff to survey the public lands of 
this state, preparatory to putting them on the market for sale for home-making. 
It is true, there had been a government surveyor at St. Louis ever since I795» 
under the Spanish government, and continued under ours, but he was not 
authorized to survey any lands except what are known as old French and 
Spanish grants. The people had waited, not patiently, but still waited from 
March 10, 1804, to December 6, 181 5, a period of eleven years and over, for 
this act towards throwing the public domain open to settlement. 

The crossing of the fifth principal meridian of our southern border was 
eighty-one miles west of the Mississippi, and about twenty-seven and one-half 
miles west of the Iron Mountain railroad. At that time there were only 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 65 

eight counties in the Missouri territory, which then included the Louisiana 
Purchase, St. Charles, St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Washington, Cape Girardeau, 
New Madrid, Lawrence and Arkansas. The west line of the Osage Purchase 
constituted the west line of St. Charles, St. Louis. Washington (by law but 
not in fact), Lawrence and Arkansas counties. The fifth principal meridian 
started at the mouth of the Arkansas river in Arkansas county, ran north 
through a portion of that county, and then through Lawrence, Cape Girar- 
deau, Washington and St. Louis counties to the Missouri river, which they 
reached at what is now South Point, Franklin county, December 28, 181 5. a 
distance of three hundred and twelve miles. The line did not touch a single 
settlement from our southern border to within three or four miles of the Mis- 
souri river, and no doubt the surveyors had to rely on wild game, chiefl}-. for 
food, which pioneer hunters were onl}' too glad to furnish them for a con- 
sideration. And it is altogether probable they did some hunting- on their own 
hook. 

Joseph C. Brown, deputy surveyor, had contracted to survey the base 
line, and he, with Xathan Meyers and Richard Sessions, chainmen, and 
Nathan Gilpin, marker, began the survey of this line October 27, 181 5 (the 
same day Robbins commenced surveying the fifth principal meridian), and 
reached the fifth principal meridian November 11, 181 5, and the twenty-ninth 
township, December 5, 18 15. This base line runs a short distance south of 
Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Taylor Berr}-, deputy surveyor, entered into a contract, January 12. 1816. 
to survey the fifth principal meridian from the Missouri north to the north 
line of t(5Avnship 50, and he, with Philip Perkins, J. Martin, Samuel Gray 
and George Arey as chainmen and markers, began the work on the south side 
of the Missouri, January 18, 1816, and completed his contract January 31, 
18 16. Elias Barcroft contracted January 18, 18 16, to survey this meridian 
from the north line of township 50, now in Lincoln county, to the Mississippi 
river, and he began work May 27, 18 16, and reached that river about two 
miles above Clarksville in what is now Pike county. May 29, 1816. 

By examining a map, it will be seen that the fifth principal meridian, as 
thus surveyed, coinciding with the line of ninety degrees fifty-eight minutes 
west longitude, is three hundred and seventy miles long and is the chord of 
an arch formed by the Mississippi river. That river swings its farthest east- 
ward SAveep near Norfolk. Mississippi county is nearly one hundred and five 
miles east of St. Louis. The fifth principal meridian has been made the basis 
of the sun^eys of the public lands in Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, all of Min- 
nesota west of the Mississippi river and all of the two Dakotas east of the 

5 



66 PAST AND PRESENT 

Missouri river. Tt, if extended from Pike county, would have crossed the 
Mississippi into Ilhnois, and would ha\e crossed to the west side again about 
the middle of Iowa, near the north line of township yj. It was surveyed 
from the ])oiiU where it crossed the ^Mississippi into Iowa north to the Mis- 
sissippi, where it again crossed over to the east side, a distance of seventy- 
nine miles, and, if extended north from this last Mississippi crossing, it would 
strike Lake Superior near Ashland. 

So far as Missouri is concerned, the actual survey of the fifth i)rincipal 
meridian terminated in Pike county, as stated above, but it was in practice 
assumed to be continued north through Illinois and Wisconsin, making it the 
standard line for the lands west of the Mississippi, as stated above. From the 
base line, running west from the mouth of the St. Francois, one hundred and 
sixty-three townships to our northern boundary, a distance, approximately, 
of nine hundred seventy-eight miles, have been surveyed, and from that line 
nineteen townships to the south line of Arkansas, a distance of one hundred 
fourteen miles, making the whole distance on a straight line from the southern 
boundary of Arkansas to the northern boundary of Minnesota, one thousand 
ninety-two miles. The ranges were numbered from this meridian, east and 
west, and we find eighteen ranges or portions of ranges to the east, and forty- 
three or portions thereof west of that line inside of the boundaries of Missouri. 

Aleigs notified Tiffin, January 12, 1816, that the proposition supposedly 
made by Rector to survey two hundred townships in Missouri had l^een ap- 
proved and that one hundred five townships would be offered for sale at St. 
Louis. And again, March 6, 181 6, Meigs wrote Tiffin that the President had 
directed that one hundred townships in the vicinity of St. Louis be surveyed, 
and. at the receiver's suggestion, the land, ceded by the Sac and Fox Indians 
by the treaty of 1804, be first surveyed and the balance of the townships be 
surA^eyed in the vicinity of St. Louis, one hundred townships to be surveyed 
into sections. Of course, this was all that was at that time expected to be 
offered for sale. 

William C. Rector was addressed at Kaskaskia, Illinois, May 10, 1816, 
notif}-ing him that a new land district had been formed, composed of Mis- 
souri and Illinois territories, and that he had been appointed surveyor-gen- 
eral of that district. May 11, 1816, Rector was directed by the secretary of 
the treasury to sun^ey the five hundred thousand acres of bounty land author- 
ized bv Act 29. April, 1816, in connection wdth the lands north of the Mis- 
souri. By this act the bounty land was not to be located on any land to wliicli 
the Indian title was not extinguished. Two days after this order. May 13, 
18 t6, the treaty with the Pilack Hawk party of the Sac tril)c was entered into, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 67 

ratifying the treaty of 1804. Rector at once proceeded to let contracts for 
the survey of range and township lines in the vicinity of St. Louis, and for 
their subdivision, preparatory to offering the lands for sale. It seems that 
Rector at first made his headquarters at Kaskaskia, but August 26, 18 16, we 
find him at St. Louis, and the office of the surveyor-general for Missouri and 
Illinois was ever after that in that city. 

It took over two years, or to the middle of the year 1818. before the lands 
were surveyed and divided so as to be offered for sale. 

May I, 18 18, Josiah Meigs, commissioner of the general land office, sent 
Alexander McNair, register, and Samuel Hammond, receiver of the land office 
at St. Louis, the President's proclamation that the sale of public lands would 
begin at that office August 3, 1818, on which day the sales did begin. That 
was a great day for St. Louis and the Missouri territory. From March 10, 
1804, to that day, no one had been able to obtain, by purchase or gift, title to 
any of the public lands for home making or for speculation. Here was a 
period of fourteen years before the public domain was put upon the market. 
The minimum price for the public lands at that time was two dollars an acre, 
one-twentieth in cash and the balance in five annual installments. The lands 
were first offered for sale to the highest bidder at public auction, and if no 
one bid two dollars an acre they were returned unsold for want of bidders, 
and after that they could be entered at the land offices for the minimum price 
of two dollars an acre, on the above terms. The President issued a proclama- 
tion that the land sales at Old Franklin, Howard county, would begin Sep- 
tember 7, 1818, but there was quite a spirited controversy about the legality 
of offering the lands there for sale, as they were clearly within the Sac and 
Fox boundary lines, and one of the officers there resigned, and the sales in 
consequence were continued to November 2, 181 8, on which day the land 
sales began, Gen. Thomas A. Smith being receiver and Charles Carroll, regis- 
ter. "The crowd in attendance upon these sales was said to have numbered 
thousands of well-dressed and intelligent men from all parts of the East and 
South." This sale at Franklin doubtless included the lands of this county, 
which had been surveyed in 1816 and 181 7 by Gen. Duff Green. 

At the first public sales, there seems to have been quite a good deal of 
competition among the bidders, but this was evidently caused by those from 
a distance, for the settlers had a tacit understanding not to bid against each 
other for the lands they respectively wanted, and in after years there seems to 
have been no competition for the lands at public sale, and hence no lands were 
sold that way, or at least, not much. 

The settlers in the Franklin or Howard land district had given notice to 



68 PAST AND PRESENT 

the officers of the land office of their pre-emption claims. So universal was 
the pre-emption rio^ht claimed, that the settlers there were called "pre-emp- 
tioners." 

William H. Crawford, of Georgia, secretary of the treasury, November 
27, 1 81 8. wrote Josiah Meigs, commissioner of the general land office, that 
the right of pre-emption inside of the Sac and Fox Indian reservation did not 
exist, because at the time of the passage of the act of April 12, 1814, granting 
the right of pre-emption in the INIissouri territory, these lands were not recog- 
nized as under the civil government of the territory or as being subject to 
pre-emption. This letter caused great excitement, and the right of pre-emp- 
tion in Howard county became a political one, and its discussion was to the 
exclusion of every other question, and on March 3. 1819, Congress passed an 
act confirming the right of pre-emption to the people in this district. It 
seems Secretary Crawford was inconsistent in holding that the right of pre- 
emption did not exist as to lands west of the Sac and Fox line of 1804, for he 
raised no objection to the survey and sale of those lands, and the survey of 
the five hundred thousand acres of bounty lands therein. If the government 
had the right to sell those lands, or grant them to soldiers as a bounty, it cer- 
tainlv had the power to grant the right of pre-emption. 

Many of the most illustrious men of our state were among the "pre- 
emptioners," and they, in after years, became potent factors in the evolution 
and progress of our great state. 

The credit system in the sale of the public lands very soon proved dis- 
astrous, and in 1820 Congress interposed for the relief of those who had gone 
in debt beyond their means to pay, and the price of lands was reduced to one 
dollar and twenty-five cents an acre in cash. 

The state of Missouri manifested a growing disposition and hankering 
for the public lands within her borders, and ultimately received one-fifth of 
the entire area for school, seminary, internal improvements, railroad and 
swamp lands, and also her part of the surplus revenue arising from the sale 
of public lands. 

There was no free homestead law enacted for the reason the general 
government mainly depended on the land sales for revenue. This was aban- 
doned by the Republican party when it came in power., substituting therefor 
a protective tariff. 

LAND TITLES. 

The great variety of land titles to be found in this state, originating from 
French and Spanish sovereignty, as well as from our own federal government, 
have naturally created a vast amount of disputed land titles, resulting in long 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 69 

and difficult contests in the courts between the various claimants to settle and 
finally determine the rights and interests of the parties thereto. Xo more 
intricate, difficult nor perplexing- questions were ever considered by the lord 
high chancellor of England than those brought before the courts of this state 
in settling the conflicting land titles here in Missouri, arising in manv cases 
from these different and various sources of title. 

A notable case of land title litigation, not occurring in Saline county, 
however, but immediately adjoining its borders, was that of the heirs of Gen- 
eral Ashley against Turley and several others, involving the title and owner- 
ship of thirty thousand arpents of land lying about the mouth of the Lamine 
river in Cooper county. This case is reported in the Thirteenth Missouri Re- 
port, page four hundred thirty, the parties on either side being represented by 
some of the most able and learned lawyers in the state, that is to say. ^^'ash- 
ington Adams, representing the plaintiffs, and Abiel Leonard and Peyton R. 
Hayden, the defendants, the issue being a question between a Spanish grant 
to Pierre Cheorteau, on the one hand, and Xew Madrid locators, on the other, 
the case being determined in favor of the New Madrid locators. The heirs 
of General Ashley maintained their title to all the lands under the Spanish 
grant except those tracts which had been taken up under the Xew Madrid 
certificates and in the actual possession of the claimants. 

Gen. \\'. H. Ashley (whose heirs got this large grant of land) was a con- 
spicuous and leading man in this state, although not a resident of this county, 
but of Cooper county, where he resided and died in 1839. Ashlev was one 
of the many talented, dashing and picturesque characters wdio came to this 
territory soon after it was acquired. He was perhaps a man of more educa- 
tion and polish than any, but at the same time this did not diminish his courage 
or virility or his ability to lead among the rough and rugged population to be 
found here when he came out to St. Genevieve, in 1803. ^^"ith(ntt being in- 
ferior to an)' of the early fur traders in the game and manlv qualities for which 
they were all distinguished, he was superior to most of them in education and 
the acquirements and manners of polite society. He was as accomplished a 
gentleman in the drawing- room as he was a fearless explorer and fighter in 
the Rocky Mountains, and it is not strange, therefore, that he has come to be 
recognized as chief among the fur traders. He was born in Powhattan 
county, Virginia, and died in St. Louis in 1839, in his fifty-fourth year. He 
left no children, and his lands have passed to other hands; but his solitary 
grave is yet pointed out on the Missouri river bluff, (^ne mile above the mouth 
of the Lamine ri\-er, nothing- remaining to mark his grave except a cedar tree 
at the head and a cotton wood at the foot, the grave of one of the most accom- 
plished and gifted men among the early citizens of Missouri. 



CHAPTER IV. 



WILD ANIMALS AND FISH. 



When tilis count}- was first occupied l)y white people, lx)th the woods 
and prairies ahounded in game and the lakes and streams were full of fish. 
Even in the little prairie holes and small hranches, fish were often- found 
large enough to eat. There were the perch, the croppy and the bass, the 
blue, the yellow and the channel catfish, together with the buffalo and the 
drum, the latter two a very poor quality of fish, almost worthless. The cat- 
fish, though, is a very superior fish. Most fishermen of taste believe the 
Blackwater cat to be a little better than any other fish, better even than the 
best quality of trout found in the Great Lakes. The fish here, that is, those 
of the lakes and streams in this county, are supposed to be better in quality 
than the fish found elsewhere in this state of the same kind, ascribed to the 
saline character of the water in the county. It seems from the accounts of 
the early settlers that there were no partridges or pheasants found here. 
These birds came in after the country was occupied by the settlers. The 
wild turkeys were very abundant, attaining a formidable size when the set- 
tlements furnished them corn fields to range in. Occasionally large gobbler 
turkeys were killed weighing twenty pounds dressed. Accounts of first set- 
tlers say immense flocks of these fowls have been seen, several hundred in 
a single fiock. 

It is said that the elk disappeared from this county in 1836. Prior to 
that time they were reasonably numerous, being- attracted to this count}' from 
other localities on account of the numerous salt "licks." Old Nathaniel 
Walker was a famous hunter and old pioneer, who was wont to relate that 
at one time he encountered a drove of fiftv elk feeding on the prairie where 
the present court house stands. The l)ear disappeared from the county about 
the same time, probably four years later, in 1840. :\n old time Democrat 
said that the Whigs scared the bear, deer, elk and almost all other sort of 
game out of the county in that year by the tremendous noise they made in 
honor of the election of General Harrison, it being the first time the Whigs 
ever succeeded in electing their candidate President of the United States. 
Bear had been plenty enough in the early days and caused the settlers great 
annoyance and trouble from his decided fondness for \oung pigs and the 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI J I 

like. Bear hunts were organized and many of these animals were killed in 
the county first and last. The timbered regions of Blackwater and Salt 
Pond Avere their favorite haunts, although they were seen in every part of 
the countv. The last bear that was killed in the county that history gives 
any account of was taken in the following very singular manner in the year 
1840 : Tobias Cooper, a descendant of Col. Benjamin Cooper, of Cooper's 
Fort. Avith some companions were out hunting cattle on the prairies in the 
western part of the county. Suddenly they came upon a full grown black 
bear on the plains near the present site of Malta Bend. Being unarmed, 
with nothing to kill the bear but their cattle whips, with these they under- 
took to drive him to a house, and actually did so by fiercely cracking their 
whips and yelling at the animal, and keeping him on the go. Reaching the 
house, a gun was procured, with which the bear was killed. The incident is 
known as Cooper's bear drive. In 1840 a party of hunters started a bear in 
the bmsh southeast of the house of C. L. Francisco in Elmwood township, 
and ran it through the south grove, but the animal escaped. That famous 
hunter, Nathaniel \\'alker, killed a black bear in 1838. near Air. Francisco's in 
Elmwood township. 

The fierce panther also made his home in this county, remaining here 
as late as 1838. Many a Saline county pioneer, as he sat by his fireside in 
the early days, felt his blood run cold and his heart stand still as the piercing 
scream of the panther was borne on the wings of the night wind through 
the forest to his lonely cabin. The cry of the panther is something like that 
of a woman in distress, but much more terrifying. It can be distinctly heard 
a mile or more. "Nothing," said an old settler, "ever pestered me like the 
scream of a panther. It always made the cold chills iiui over me. I never 
could get used to it as much as I heard it. It always made me think of In- 
dians." These animals, however, would seldom, if ever, attack a human 
being unless first Avounded or suffering from distressing hunger. Usually 
the panther made his rounds in quest of food at night, when he frequently 
visited the settlements, carrying off a calf or a hog. A full grown panther 
was once seen by an early settler down on Blackwater trotting along with 
a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound hog as nimbly as a cat would run away with 
a rat. 

In the Edmondson Bottom at an early day, it was related by Messrs. 
Wolfskin. AA'ilhite and others to Jerrold Letcher, a panther was once dis- 
covered which had killed and carried away nine large hogs and concealed 
them in a cavity of earth made by the uprooting of a large tree in a wind- 
storm. The animal had dispatched its victims all within so short a time that 



^2 PAST AND PRESENT 

the carcass of every hog was yet warm when found, and it had attempted to 
conceal them by covering them up with leaves. The settlers organized and 
went in juirsuit of the beast, but it escaped, crossing the river into Chariton 
county. 

From all accounts, there were at least three varieties of wolves in the 
county, the black, the gray and the coyotte. or prairie wolf. The first two 
varieties were entirely too numerous and of all sizes and every degree of 
ferocity. Notwithstanding the relentless warfare constantly waged against 
them by the people, the wolves infested the county until i860, and indeed it 
is said that there are a few in existence at this late date, 1909. and that the 
county has ne\'er l)een entirel}- free from wolves. The author of this work, 
however, is a native of the county and although having lived here the 
greater part of seventy years, never saw a wolf in his life within the bounds 
of the county, although he has seen e\-ery variety of wolves to be found on 
the plains of the great West. Wolves are very prolific, naturally increasing 
rapidly. One litter was found in this county containing twelve whelps. 
Speaking of the habits of these animals, Mr. Wolf skill, an old pioneer, said : 
"The old she-wolf howls loud and long just at day break, and again at dusk 
Ijetween sunset and dark." 

In the early days, hunting wolves was something of a duty to be per- 
formed as well as a j^astime. for they made destructive inroads upon the set- 
tlers' fiocks and herds. Aljout the year 1837. a large black wolf became 
quite famous and notorious in Saline county and in many other adjoining 
counties of central Missouri by reason of the numlier and character of its 
exploits. This animal had lost part of its tail in a trap, and from this cir- 
cumstance was known far and wide as the "Old Bol)-tail W^olf." Its favorite 
haunts were on Blackwater. although it roamed where it listed. Its boldness 
and daring were remarkable. Stories ha\e been related of its marauding 
almost incredible. It fre(|uently visited farm yards in daylight, selecting a 
fine mutton or a pig and making off with it in ])lain \-iew of its owner, and 
would whip as many dogs as would he brought to attack it. h^inallv the 
citizens decided to make united effort to rid the country of this great lupine 
marauder. The ]mcks of hunting dogs of .\sa Finley. old "Uncle Dick" 
Alarshall and Urutus I''ink'\- were secured and the timber along Blackwater 
driven up until old "Bob-tail" was started near Isaac's lM)r(l. The trail once 
struck, the chase was kept up for two days and nights (many of the pur- 
suers in the meantime l)eing worn out, abandoning the hunt) until the Mis- 
souri was reached at iJoonville. Here old "I'ob-tail" bravely plunged into 
the ri\er, swimmin<>- until he reached the Howard counl\ shore in safetv. 



SALINE COUNTY, xMISSOURI 73 

the hunters in SaHne county giving up the chase to return home. The wolf 
soon after took up his abode and phed his vocation on the Grand Prairie in 
Boone county. Here he stayed for about two years more, preying on the 
folks and defying all attempts to capture. A reward of one hundred dollars 
was raised and offered for the capture of old "Bob-tail." A noted hunter 
named Hendershott pursued old "Bob-tail" all one day with his pack of 
trained dogs. At night Hendershott went h(ime, leaving his dogs to care for 
the wolf as best they might, not doubting, however, that he would find them 
all safe and sound in the morning. But, alas ! the next morning, on going 
out in search of his dogs, Hendershott met one of them, maimed and bleed- 
ing, dragging itself homeward, and a little further on, the rest of them, 
stretched out dead near a large gopher hill, on which, apparently, the wolf 
had stood and dealt out death and destruction to its assailants as they ap- 
proached. 

Old "Bob-tail" then made his way over into Audrain county, where he 
was at last poisoned by one Walker, who took the skin, scalp, bob-tail and all 
into Boone county in order to make certain of receiving the reward offered. 

The favorite method of capturing the wolves was to organize a general 
hunt. A day would be appointed and the population for miles around would 
assemble, that is, the men, all mounted and armed, and accompanied by packs 
of dogs. A large circle would be formed, miles in extent, and the hunters 
with their dogs would gradually close in upon the center. In this manner the 
wolves would be started, and few of them could escape. Various other kinds 
of game were frecjuently taken in these "circle hunts," as they were termed. 

During the Civil war, wolves became more numerous and man}- were 
killed,' but, as previously slated, save now and then an occasional coyote sneaks 
into the county, it may be said there are no wolves in Saline county in 1909. 

Wildcats, catamounts and an occasional lynx were often seen, but were 
neither very destructive nor troublesome, their raids being restricted to the 
chicken coops. 

Daniel Snodd}- and others caught a large l)lack wolf out in the Petite 
Osage prairie that was oxer three feet in height, being caught in a large steel 
trap. The wolf had killed a good sized two-year-old heifer. Although the 
men had cut his liam string, he whipped six large dogs and a fiste very easil}- 
wliile in this crippled condition, the hunters being forced to shoot him. 

The red deer formerly abounded in the countv and from 1830 to 1850 
could be seen on the i)rairies in great herds of from twentv to fort\-. They 
were attracted to this county b^- fine feeding grounds and numerous salt 
"licks" from the surrounding country, and remained (|uite numerous up to 



74 PAST AND PRESENT 

the beginning of the Civil war. As late as the year 1855 three citizens of 
the county, Messrs. Gaines, White and Herndon, killed in the aggregate two 
hundred and forty-six deer in one hunting season. 

Of course, where these animals were so numerous, there were some ex- 
ceptionally large ones, and many a story is told of the mammoth buck slain 
by the early hunters. The variety, character and lack of evidence of their 
verity precludes the publication of all these hunting stories in these pages. 
It is recorded in Wetmore's Gazeteer on this point that one of the hunters 
of Saline was in at the death of a buck which he killed on Blackwater weigh- 
ing three hundred and two pounds, the largest, it is claimed, the account of 
which ever found a place in the annals of field sport. Several have been 
killed in Saline weighing as much as two hundred and forty pounds, and 
they were considered enormously large. 

But it was in later years, after the people became in better condition 
to indulge in hunting as a sport and pastime, that the royal sport of deer 
driving was generally indulged in. From 1830 to 1845 one of the famous 
places for hunting was ''Experiment," General Smith's country house on 
the Salt Fork. It was a sort- of headquarters for hunters, and the place was 
always provivded with a good pack of hounds and a small armory of guns, 
tog'ether with plenty of horses and other hunting equipments. The General 
himself, besides his three sons, James, Crawford and Troup, were ardent 
sportsmen, particularly fond of deer driving and very successful hunters. 
There was ne\'er a countr}- where red deer was more bountiful or the topog- 
raphy of the country better adapted to the sport of deer driving, the prairie 
and timber being properly distributed for that class of hunting. There are 
men yet living who recollect the pleasure of deer driving at that period and 
are willing to admit that there has never been any finer sport. 

Another prominent sportsman and accomplished deer driver (for I be- 
lieve he never engaged in stalking deer) was Thomas W. Gaines, whose 
place, some six miles south of Marshall, was a well known hunting head- 
quarters for sportsmen from this and adjoining counties. Mr. Gaines, being 
a young man of ample estate when he came here from Kentucky, could well 
afford to indulge himself in his sporting inclinations. He always kept a 
fine pack of well trained deer hounds and he always accompanied them and 
managed them in the driA-e himself, keeping them well under control, and 
when a deer was started, he was so expert in the sport and so familiar with 
the hunting grounds and so well understood the inclinations of the deer that 
he was generally able to get a shot before the animals had time to reach 
the standers. Mr. Gaines was the most successful deer hunter in this section 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 75 

of the county about the middle of the last century. There were no game 
laws at that time, but among all these sportsmen and deer drivers it was con- 
sidered disgraceful to kill a deer out of the regular hunting season, which 
began about the first of ]n\x, ending in December. Besides our resident deer 
hunters, there were several parties of camp hunters from adjoining counties, 
Howard and Jackson, who were in the habit of coming here to camp and 
hunt evei7 fall. One or two of these parties always camped in the neighbor- 
hood of Mr. Gaines's and were always anxious for him to join them in the 
hunt, because they were sure to get venison when Gaines was one of the 
party. The author of this book has frequentl}-, when he was a lad, been a 
member of Mr. Gaines's hunting party collected and starting out from his 
residence. Among others of whom the hunting party consisted was the 
Hon. John G. Miller, congressman from Cooper county, and himself quite a 
gifted sportsman; Robert Stuart, his former law partner; Richard Miller 
and others, whose names cannot now be recalled. 

But the writer very well recollects one hunting party collected at Mr. 
Gaines's house, it having been arranged to drive up Finis creek as far as 
we could go during the morning, returning in the afternoon. Altogether, 
the party was made up of ten or a dozen men on horseback, and on return- 
ing we were carrying the carcasses of five fine deer, it being during the 
month of October or Xovember, the drive having extended as far southwest 
as the head of Walker's branch and back. There was nothing superior to a 
saddle of corn-fed venison, and at that period it was no trouble for the deer 
to get as much corn as they could eat, and such venison would gratify the 
pallet of the most cultivated epicure. No better meat was ever set on a table. 

There was another and entirely different class of game to be found here 
in Saline about the middle of the last century. The timber in the country, 
having increased to perhaps double the area that existed in 1820, therefore 
furnished fine cover for wild hogs, and hunting wild hogs, for many years, 
was a favorite sport in the most densely timbered portions of the country, 
and one in which a much more ample supply of meat was usually obtained 
than in deer hunting. 

In the earlier settlement of Saline, before bacon and beef were numbered 
among the products of the county, the settlers used venison almost exclu- 
sively for their meat. The skins of the deer, when properly dressed and 
made into buckskin, furnished excellent material for their hunting shirts 
and trousers, hence deer hunting was a useful business as well as sport. 

The buck when wounded would frequently turn upon the hunters and 
proved to be quite a dangerous antagonist, encounters with them being not 



76 PAST AND PRESENT 

at all rare and unusual. Space forbids a full description of affairs of this 
kind, but Mr. Mooney once captured a buck in a most singular way not more 
than three or four miles southeast of Marshall. Mr. Mooney was engaged 
as a hired man working on the farm of Mr.Lawton. Late in the evening 
he was directed to go to the field with a team after a load of shock corn, the 
corn being- cut and put in shocks. As he was driving up to the gap to enter the 
field, he noticed sexeral deer feeding there, one of which, a buck, had his 
head thrust into a corn shock rubbing his horns and tossing the corn about. 
Instantly Mooney, handing the reins to the boy who was on the wagon with 
him, jumped down and. slipping up to this buck unobserved, jumped on him 
astride, locking his hands around his neck. The Imck commenced pitching 
about with him. endeavoring to throw him off. but Moone}" being' very stout 
and athletic and hea\y, he was unable to do so. after ha\ing kept up bucking 
until he was completely worn out. At that time Alooney. recollecting that 
he had a pocket knife, moving his right hand from around the deer's neck, 
succeeded in getting his knife out, opening it with his teeth and proceeded to 
cut the deer's throat, killing him in that way. The author obtained this 
story from Mr. Mooney some years before his death, and there is no doubt 
of its truth, a very rare instance -of a man capturing a deer without the use 
of a gim. 

Beaver and otter were also plentiful at one time, but that day has 
passed. A famous trapper was one McReynolds. but trapping has been kept 
up throughout the history of the county and is at the present day, to a limited 
extent, being confined to raccoon, opossum, muskrats. and pole cats, the 
latter being the main fur producer of the country. 



CHAPTER V. 



COUNTY ORGANIZATION. 



During- the first session of the state Legislature, held in St. Louis. Sep- 
tember 19, 1820, an act was passed organizing the county of Saline. The 
bill was introduced by the Hon. \\"illiam Lillard. a member of the Legis- 
lature from Cooper county, and who had been a colonel in the army in the 
war of 1812, from Tennessee. The bill was passed without opposition and 
approved by Governor Alexander McNair, the first elected governor of the 
state. The same bill provided for the organization of Lafavette, Boone, 
Callaway, Chariton. Cole, Gasconade, Perry, Ralls and Ray counties. This 
county was named from the character of the water of many of its streams. 
There were salt works at one or two places in the county, although the 
method employed in the manufacture was of the crudest form and character. 
A fair article of salt in very respectable quantities was produced. The opin- 
ion was prevalent that the manufacture of salt would be the leading industry 
of the county and one of its most valuable products. The town of Jefiferson, 
on the ^Missouri river, was designated as the county seat. Bartholomew 
Guinn and George Tennille were appointed judges of the county court. 
The same Legislature also passed an act prescribing the time and places of 
holding court, and in conformity therewith, the first term of the county court 
in this county was held on the third Monday in April, 182 1, it being the i6th. 

The county judges were appointed for four years. Bartholomew Guinn 
was a native of Virginia, and had been a resident of the county about a year 
prior to his appointment. George Tennille was a descendant of one of the 
early French families of the state, a native of New [Madrid, having come 
from New Madrid county to Saline, and here locating a New Madrid grant, 
which he was entitled to under the law of Congress. The court, upon assem- 
bling, appointed Benjamin Chambers clerk, and he held the office for sixteen 
years. He was a Pennsylvanian and a Presbyterian, and was a descendant 
of the famous Chambers family, who founded Chambersburg, in that state. 
The records show that he was a very efficient officer, accurate composer and 
skillful penman, comprehending his work and keeping his records intelli- 
gently written and with great care and precision. Colonel Chambers was not 
an ordinary man. The founder of the family was Benjamin Chambers, who 



78 PAST AND PRESENT 

migrated from New Jersey to Pennsyh'ania in the first quarter of the eight- 
eenth century. There his son, Gen. James Chambers, was born, June 5, I743- 
His career in the Revolutionary war is historic from Cambridge to the end. 
His son, young Benjamin, afterwards the first clerk of our county court, 
accompanied him from the beginning, and was in his first battle at the age of 
twehe }ears. At fourteen he was an ensign in his father's regiment, and 
first lieutenant at fifteen, serving through to the end of the war, which closed 
in his sixteenth year. After the w-ar he was appointed surveyor in the North- 
west Territory by General Washington, and proceeded to his work in the 
territory of Indiana. In 1803 he was judge of the court of common pleas of 
the court of Indiana, and a lieutenant-colonel of the militia. He was also a 
member of the first Legislative Council of the territory. In 1820 he removed 
to Saline county, Missouri. Mrs. C. J. Pulliam, recently deceased, long a 
resident of the community of Marshall, was a daughter of Colonel Cham- 
bers, as also was Mrs. George Penn, the wife of Dr. George Penn, one of 
the early leading physicians of Saline county, who afterwards became a resi- 
dent of St. Louis county. Mrs. Penn was one of the handsomest, Ijest edu- 
cated, elegant and refined women who ever lived in the county. Her daugh- 
ter, Jennie, became the wife of Dr. Crawford E. Smith, long a resident of 
this county also. Of Colonel Chambers, we might say : "Soldier, pioneer, 
farmer, good neighbor, efiicient public officer, scrupulous business man, elder. 
Christian by profession and in practice; a rare combination." He died at 
Cambridge, Missouri, August 27, 1850, and his remains repose in the old 
cemetery a mile southwest of Cambridge. So the county made a good start 
so far as the clerks of the court were concerned, a good example for -those 
who followed. 

The next act of the court after the appointment of the clerks was to ap- 
point commissioners to take charge and care for the school lands wathin the 
county. Jacob Ish, Peyton Nowlin, Peter Hufif, William McMahan and 
Charles English were appointed commissioners and sworn in open court. 
Then W. S. Edwards was appointed constable of Arrow Rock township. 
Daniel McDowell of Miami, and Alexander Goodin of Jefferson. There were 
l)ut three townsliips. A\'ilHam McMahan w^as justice of the peace of Miami 
township and Jacob Ish of Jefferson. Joseph H. Goodin was appointed as- 
sessor, having previously been appointed sheriff by the Governor. David 
Warren was appointed county collector. Rev. Peyton Nowlin w-as appointed 
surveyor of the boundar}- line between this county and Cooper, to act in con- 
junction w-ith Dr. Hart of the latter named county. 

The next session of the county court was held lulv 16. 182 1, it being 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 79 

tlie third Monday of the month. Guinn and Tennille, judges; Benjamin 
Chambers, clerk; J. H. Goodin, sheriff. The first business was the appoint- 
ment of Littleberry Estes, Daniel McDowell and William White, Jr., as com- 
missioners to view and mark out the first road established in the county, 
petitioned for by Louis Rees and others, leading from Arrow Rock to the 
Grand Pass, bv the place where Fred Rees now lives, and from thence to 
the western Ijonndary of the county, and "make return to this court at the 
next term." 

The first letters of administration were granted by this court to David 
Warren, administrator of the estate of James W^arren, deceased, and Richard 
W. Cummins, Edward Burlson and William Shipley were appointed ap- 
praisers of the estate. 

The first enumeration of the county was made just previous and re- 
ported to the October term of the court, 182 1, it taking the assessor, Goodin, 
only eight days to take the enumeration, the population of the county being 
at this time eleven hundred and twenty-six. 

There was a deficiency in the county and state tax, and it was ordered 
by the court at the January term, 1822, that the sum of four dollars and forty- 
three and two-thirds cents be allowed David Warren, collector, for the de- 
ficiency. 

At the January tenn, 1822, a ferry license was granted to John Nave, 
across the Missouri river at the mouth of Rich Land creek, for which he 
paid two dollars into the treasuiy. 

Thomas Shackelford, the third judge of the county court, having pro- 
duced his commission from the governor, was sworn in and took his seat at 
the February term, 1822. 

At this term the court fixed the boundary of three townships. Arrow 
Rock, Jefferson and Miami, into which the county was then divided, Arrow 
Rock comprising nearly the southern half of tlie county, and the northern 
portion being nearly equallv divided betw^een Jeft'erson and Miami. At this 
term, also, Joseph H. Goodin was appointed collector, and assessors were ap- 
pointed for each township, Hugh Galbrath for Arrow Rock, William Ferrill 
for Miami, and Laban Garrett for Jefferson. -\t the August term of the 
court, 1822, the court ordered that one-half of the tax collected be appro- 
priated to the use of the county. The first deputy clerk was appointed at the 
August term, 1822, J. H. Goodin, collector, being appointed deputy clerk. At 
the November term, 1822, James Wilkinson appears on the records as sheriff 
of the county. He had been elected at the prex'ious election, the first Monday 
in August. Governor McNair commissioned him September 3, 1822, from 



8o PAST AND PRESENT 

St. Charles, then the capital of the state. One peculiarity of Wilkinson's 
commission may be noticed. It bore the governor's private seal, in attesta- 
tion of its genuineness and authority, for the reason, as stated in the com- 
mission, that no seal of the state had as yet been provided. 

To show how small was the valuation of property in Miami township at 
this early day it is only necessary to state that William Ferrill was allowed 
three dollars for the assessment of the taxable property. The fees paid the 
county officials in 1822 seemed to have been very small. At the November 
term, 1822, Guinn was allowed for services as judge of the county court, 
twent3^-two dollars ; Chambers as clerk, thirty-three dollars and twenty-five 
cents ; Goodin as former sheriff, forty-five dollars and fifty-three cents ; as 
deputy clerk, twenty-six dollars for general and special services. 

At the November term, 1822. the first final settlement was made by Ten- 
nille, administrator of the estate of William Bones, deceased, the value of the 
property being eight hundred and twenty-four dollars and one and one-half 
cents. 

The first tavern license was granted to John McAIahan at the February 
term of court, 1823. to keep a tavern in the town of Jefferson, he paying the 
sum of ten dollars into the treasury. 

There being a considerable slave population, and which was constantly 
increasing, it was considered necessary to appoint patrollers, and at the May 
term. 1824, three patrollers were appointed for each township. 

As early as the first year of the county organization in 1821, William 
McMahan recorded his mark and brand as follows : A crop and slit in the 
right ear, and a swallow-fork in the left. His brand is the letter O, and on 
the 4th day of September, 1822, the county clerk, Chambers, recorded the 
fact that B. Chambers has for his mark a slit in each ear, and his brand 
being the letter G. This practice of marking animals for purposes of iden- 
tification and ownership remained for many years. 

The county government was now fully and completely organized and 
the machinery in running order, and passed from its condition as a portion of 
Cooper county and took its jilace among the other counties of the state, soon 
to become equal to the best of tliem and superior to the most of them. 

SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY FROM 182O TO 184O. 

Comparatively few of the first settlers of Saline county remained to 
transform the county from a wilderness of woods and prairie to a corn, 
wheat and hemp-producing region. The very early settlers as a nde were 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 8l 

devoted to hunting and fishing and fur gathering, and were uncomfortable 
when crowded by near neighbors, so they soon moved west or south in order 
to keep abreast with the movements of the game and the fur bearing animals, 
and also to be free from the annoyance of near neighbors. It was the peo- 
ple from Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky who migrated 
to Saline county after the formation of the state government in 1820, who 
constituted the substantial subduers of the wilderness, men who came wuth 
their wives and children, slaves and cattle, tra\eling by land in wagons and 
carriages, the families consisting of from a dozen to forty or fifty persons, 
white and black. These people came here irnm the older settled states to find 
new, rich, productive lands instead of the worn-out lands they had left behind 
in the older states. And no better class of people ever came into a new country 
than the immigrants to this ( Saline) county, who became owners of the land, 
entering and purchasing them from the general government, intending to 
make farms and permanent homes for themselves and families. In fact, no 
county in the state was more fortunate in respect to its population than Saline 
county, none known to the author of this work superior, and few that were 
equal. They were people of education and property, besides being- endowed 
with that kind of refinement and intelligence found only among people who 
owned slaves, people who were exempt from the labor of cooking and of 
washing clothes, the drudgery of everyday life. And although their farms 
were frequently separated, miles apart, these people were never troubled with 
what is now called the "isolation of the farm," for a family of twenty or 
thirty members, white and black, constituted company enough for each other, 
and besides, furnished ample protection for any members of the family who 
might need protection, however remote they might be from towns or other 
settlements. There was little disposition or inclination among them or among 
their children under the system of slavery to move from the country to the 
town. On the contrary the inclination was in the opposite direction, and 
before the Civil war nobody ever heard of a farmer moving to town. The 
wealth was found in the country, and not in the towns, and it is well known 
that when a borrower sought a loan he invariably went to the country to find 
it. The abolition of slavery brought about by the Civil war made a complete 
change in this respect as well as in many others. 

PERMANENT SETTLERS. 

It is impossible to give the name of every settler who came into the 
county for the purpose of making a permanent home, or to give a detail of 
the lands he purchased. However, a considerable amount of correct informa- 

6 



82 PAST AND PRESENT 

tion on this subject was collected and ])rcser\-ed by Jerrold Letcher, while 
many of the early original immigrants of the county were still living in 
1876. and according- to the records of Mr. Letcher, in 1819 Asa Finley went 
out on Salt Fork, and two years thereafter located a mile above said springs. 
Many years thereafter Mr. b^inley, speaking of the growth of the timber in 
that region, said that 'Vails and house logs now grow where I could hardly 
get a riding switch when I moved here." As it turned out, nearly all the land 
that Asa Finlev entered grew up into timber, and years afterwards put the 
owners of it to a great expense to clear the timber off of it in order to reduce 
it to a condition capable of being cultivated. 

In 1823 William Hayes removed from the Big Bottom to the bluff, and 
before that date Thomas Shackelford and Drury Pulliam were living on the 
hig'h ground near where the Glasg-ow and Lexington road leaves the bottom. 
Tn the summer of that year Anthony Harvey located a tract of land, which 
includes the present town-site of Arrow Rock. Arrow Rock is the oldest 
town in the county. Some accounts say that the first house was built in 1807, 
or 1808. by George Sibley for a trading post. The probability is that this 
house was built in 1808, George Sibley being of a party who came up the river 
from St. Louis that year with General Clark, wdio was superintendent of Li- 
dian affairs at St. Louis at that time, and under order from the war depart- 
ment, came up the Missouri river from St. Louis and Fort Bellfountaine to 
establish a fort and factory for the Osage Lidians. The General brought 
along with him a company of troops under command of Captain Clemsom, of 
the First Regiment of United States Infantrv-. George Sibley was probably 
along with this expedition and, stopping off at Arrow Rock, establish.ed a 
trading post there. There were several brothers of the Sibleys, all engaged 
in the fur trade. Another of them went on with the expedition up to Jack- 
son county, and on the bluff of the Missouri river, in what is now Jackson 
countv, Fort Osage was built, by orders of General Clark and Captain Clem- 
som, and he became the suttler at that place, where the tribe of Osage In- 
dians soon after assembled to meet the superintendent and agent. General 
Clark. Shortly afterwards, a treaty was made with these Osage Indians by 
which they relinquished all claims to the countn' of which Saline county is 
formed. 

General Clark returned to St. Louis that fall, leaving Captain Clemsom 
and his company of regular troops in charge of the fort, and here he remained 
in command until after the close of the war with Great Britain, in 1814, at 
which time he wrote to the secretary of war that he was anxious to be re- 
moved to some other post. 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 83 

In 182 1 Alexander Galbraith located and built a mill at the site of what 
was afterwards Jonesboro, the name of the place being subsequently changed 
to Napton. He had William Edwards and Mr. Chapman for very near 
neighbors. 

In 1824 Abraham Smith located on Camp creek, and Joseph Robertson, 
Samuel Davis, Richard Scott, Henry Galbraith and Wyatt Bingham located 
near the mill. Isaac Odell settled on the place afterAvards owned by Robert 
Y. Thompson. The Wheelers, Harrises and Wolf skills ventured up Edmond- 
son's creek out ontO' the prairie. 

In the year 1826 the unusual high water of the Missouri covered all the 
bottom and drove the settlers out. In this year Green McCafferty settled on 
the headwaters of Cow creek. Georg'e Rhoades and Nathaniel W^alker had 
already located near Frankfort, it being reported that Bartholomew Guinn 
settled on the present site of Frankfort in 18 17, and a considerable settlement 
was formed, known as the Guinn settlement, including North Rock creek and 
Bear creek. This settlement contained, shortly after the coming of 
Rhoades and W^alker, both William and Bartholomew Ouinn, Benjamin Haw- 
kins, Col. John Smith and Col. Ben Chambers, our first county clerk, who was 
described by the old pioneers who knew him as the politest man in the county, 
and this historic politeness of Colonel Chambers, our first county clerk, must 
be the origin of a notable and universal politeness of our county officials since 
that early time. Or do they accjuire the polite habit while they are candidates 
for nomination, which they are unable to lay aside during- their official incum- 
bency. John Jackson, Thomas Shackelford, R. Y. Thompson and some others 
were refugees to the high ground from the submerged river bottom. 

In 1827 James Wilhite, who had removed to Lafayette count}', returned 
and settled on Fish creek with his old friend, William Hayes, with James 
Crossland and Hugh Tennille for neighbors. Henry Nave moved out of Cox's 
bottom, locating between Arrow Rock and Marshall. 

In this year, 1827, there was a heavy immigration into the county, and 
the ferry at Arrow Rock was kept busy crossing them to the Saline county 
side. The newcomers were principally from Virginia and Kentucky. The 
Lewises, the Millers and the Risers came in force from the valley of Virginia. 
]\Ir. Finley, from Kentucky, located on Salt Fork. The same year Ephraim 
McClain came over from Howard county and settled near James Sappington 
and John Shipton, who had preceded him. 

In. 1828 Capt. Daniel Kiser settled on Salt Fork above Straddle creek, 
Jolm and Samuel Miller opened and settled a farm north of Salt Fork, known 
afterwards as the Judge Storv farm. About the same time lohn Bacon set- 



84 PAST AND PRESENT 

tied on a tract between Kiser and Colonel Lewis, his only other neighbors 
being Abraham Smith, on the east, and on the north, William Huffman and 
George Davis, up in the Petite Osage plains. 

With the exception of the Kiser settlement and Jones at the Big Salt 
Springs, the entire region from McCaffertys to the settlement of Reavis's, on 
Blackwater, and from Galbraith's mill, on Salt Fork, to George Davis's farm, 
on the plains, was, in 1828, an unbroken wilderness of prairie. There was 
an encampment of four or five hundred Osage Indians about two and one- 
half miles northeast of Malta Bend, and numerous bands of lowas. Sacs and 
Foxes, with occasional Kickapoos and Kaws from the West, roamed over the 
country at will in quest of game. They molested no one and nobody inter- 
fered with them. Game was abundant and easily procured. The grass on 
the prairie was, in most places, as tall as a medium sized man, and as high as 
the head of a man on horseback on the Petite Saux plains. Fire, when set 
out while the grass was dry, spreading rapidly, would drive out deer, wolves 
and other animals to seek shelter and safety. The hunters frequently fired 
the prairies in order to drive out the game, a very destructive practice, re- 
tarding and preventing the growth of timber and frequently burning valuable 
property. 

The only road through the county that was much used was the one from 
Arrow Rock to Grand Pass, which followed the old "Osage Trace," running 
north of the Salt Fork, crossing Cow creek, and passing about a mile south 
of Mt. Carmel church, and this road is probably the one that the county court, 
in January, 1822, ordered Lewis Rees, Daniel Thornton and Green McCaf- 
ferty to view and mark out. At the same session, Cornelius Davis, William 
Hayes and Nathaniel Walker were directed to mark out a road from the 
Blackwater salt works to the ferry at Chariton, and Daniel Mann, William 
Jobe and William Hampton were directed to mark out a road from the ferry 
at Chariton to the town of Jefferson, and also Almond Guinn, William Ship- 
ley and Joseph Burlison to mark out a road from Jefferson to the upper end 
of the Rush Bottom. 

Li 1828 Dr. George Penn located on the hill immediately above the town 
site of Jonesboro, beginning the practice of his profession. His practice ex- 
tended from his residence as far west as the Grand Pass, and all along the 
Blackwater and Heath's creek. Previous to his coming, Dr. John Sapping- 
ton had been the principal physician. A little before that, Samuel Hayes, 
James Montgomery and Moses Johnson had settled in the Salt Pond country, 
where they were joined by Logsdon. 

In 1829 and 1830 to this Blackwater settlement came James Fitzpatrick, 



i 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 85 

Robert Owens, Isaac Parsons and his sons, who settled a mile and one-half 
southeast of Brownsville, where the elder Parsons erected a mill. At this 
time the only persons north and east of Parsons were Benjamin Prigmore, 
Anderson Reavis, Joseph Dickson, Fielding Pennell, Hayes, Johnson, Mont- 
gomery and Logsdon. 

Before this time Nathan Harris and Stephen Trigg were making salt 
down on Blackwater, ten miles east, carrying on the business with Benjamin 
Willow in their employ. They did quite an extensive business, and settlers 
for miles and miles away bought salt from them. At the Big Salt springs 
John A. Jones had been extensively engaged in salt manufacture for some 
time. He was a somewhat renowned personage in his day, although a little 
shaded in his complexion. He claimed to be a Portugese, but many believed 
him to be an octoroon. 

In 1832 John M., William and Washington Lewis reached the county, 
the last two settling in the Grand Pass country that same year, and Col. John 
M., three years later, and John and William DeMoss. This Lewis family 
desenTS especial regard not only because they were among the most respect- 
able and worthy of the immigrants, but from having entertained one of the 
greatest literary men of America — Washington Irving — who made a tour 
of the West in 1832, and from the highlands on the old Osage Trace (to the 
northwest of where Marshall now stands) commanded a view of the Salt 
Fork valley, the Petite Saux plains, the Miami region, and the boundless 
stretch to the southwest looking toward Elmwood, he had his first glimpse of 
this Great Prairie region, which charmed him more than anj^hing he had 
ever encountered in all his travels. In company with two companions, he 
spents two nights and a day in this county and was the guest of two of its 
most worthy families. 

At that date among the best known settlers in the northwest portion of 
Saline was the Lewis family, who came from the valley of Virginia. (They 
were descendants of Gen. Andrew Lewis, who commanded the Virginians, 
and Col. Charles Lewis, who was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant, Vir- 
ginia, fought near the mouth of the great Kanawha, on the lOth of October, 
1774, the Indians being commanded by the great Shawnee chief, Cornstalk, 
aided by Logan, Red Eagle and other brave warriors, and which, all cir- 
cumstances considered, ranks among the most memorable and well contested 
battles with Indians of the ante-Revolutionary period.) 

After an overland journey of seven weeks they reached the ferry at Ar- 
row Rock in the latter part of October, 1830. The party consisted of three 
• brothers, John Maury, George Washington and William H. Lewis, with their 



86 PAST AND PRESENT 

families, consisting of eleven white persons, eighteen servants and a complete 
outfit of stock and vehicles, the latter including- two old-style carry-alls and 
three Virginia wagons, huge and galley-shaped, antecedents of the "prairie 
schooners." 

After the delays usual to a ferriage ni the "Big Muddy," an easy day's 
drive brought them to Rock creek, where both wood and water were abund- 
ant, and there they made their first camp within the borders of Saline county. 
Crossing Cow creek, they skirted the highlands on the north side of Salt Fork 
and spent the second night in the county, under the hospitable roof of John 
Miller, near the junction of the old State and Chariton roads. The third night 
was spent at the home of Col. \A'illiam Lewis, who resided a short distance 
northwest of the present county seat, on what was afterwards known as the 
O'Bannon place. "Settling down," William H. rented the Colonel Lewis 
place, George \\^ashington located at the Grand Pass, and John M. on the 
Miller (Marmaduke-Irvine) farm, which, on account of productive soil, hap- 
pily blending timber and prairie, was considered one of the most desirable 
places in the county. 

About two years later, in the second week of April, 1832, the distinguished 
American author, Washington L'ving, who had been abroad for nearly seven- 
teen years ; Charles Joseph Latrobe. an Englishman by birth, descended from 
foreign stock, as Irving himself wrote, and possessing all the buoyancy and 
accommodating spirit of a native of the continent," a botanist, an artist, a geol- 
ogist and an indefatigable sportsman (subsequently known as the author of 
the "Rambler in North America,"), and M. de Pourtales, a young Swiss 
count, "full of talent and spirit, but galliard in the extreme, and prone to every 
kind of wild adventure," set sail from Havre de Grace, and on the 22d of 
May following- arrived at Xew York. 

The acquaintance of these three gentlemen began at Havre and, cemented 
on '^hipboard, was resumed ashore and led to a series of common wanderings, 
which kept them bound together for tlie greater part ni the summer and au- 
tumn of that vear. After having thoroughly "toured" most of the eastern 
and northern portions of the United States, and while on board a steamboat 
bound for Detroit, they chanced to meet with ex-Gk)vernor Ellsworth, of Con- 
necticut, one of the commissioners appointed by the government of the United 
States to superintend the settlement of the Indian tribes in the Indian territory 
migrating to the west of the Mississippi, they gladly accepted an invitation 
to join his expedition to the Indian territory. 

The party at once landed at Ashtabula, Ohio, proceeded to Cincinnati, 
thence to Louisville, where thev took passage for St. Lonis. arriving at the 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 87 

latter place after a slow, but to them m(3st interesting voyage, on the morning 
of September 13, 1832. Here it was determined that each should travel as 
best suited his convenience to Independence, then a small frontier settlement 
about three hundred miles up the Missouri. Some concluded to wait for the 
steamlioat, which was expected to leave in a few days, luit the trio — Irving, 
de Pourtales and Latrobe — decided to purchase horses and wagon and to 
travel by easy stages overland to the place of rendezvous. After outfitting 
at the American Fur Company store and securing the services of a French 
Creole as guide, cook, driver, valet and interpreter — Antoine by name, hut 
abbreviated to Tonish, "a kind of Gil Bias of the frontier." who had passed a 
scrambling life among the whites and Indians — they left St. Louis on the 
evening of September 15th, and made their first night opposite St. Charles at 
a little French inn. Crossing to the north side of the Missouri river and 
turning through the outskirts of that town, they struck the old Boone's Lick 
road and spent the following nine days in traveling westward through a 
sparsely settled, undulating country, well covered with fine forests. 

The hospitality of those upon whose kindness they were daily cast for 
entertainment was a source of constant admiration, and nothing in the life 
and surroundings of the "settlers" escaped their notice and kindly comment. 
The double-log house, with kitchen at a distance ; the zigzag fence of rails, 
enclosing a tall growth of Indian corn ; cattle, swine and poultry, supple- 
mented by wild ganie ( deer, turkey and prairie chickens, all in abundance, 
enabling the good housewi\"es on shortest notice to spread a plentiful meal 
of tame or wild meats, fried chicken, egg, milk, honey, delicious butter, 
boiled green corn, and hot biscuits. 

The}- traveled merril}- and happily together, noting much that was new, 
such as the great flight of prairie chickens, frecjuent salt springs and changes 
in the product of the forests, the pawpaw with its heavy luscious fruit being 
one of the greatest curiosities. On the fifth day they reached the town of 
(Old) Franklin, Howard county, where they made a diversion to visit Boone's 
Lick, and then recrossed the Missouri at the Arrow Rock ferry. The first 
night in Saline county (September 21st) was spent in a crowded log cabin, 
some distance west by north from the ferriage, where they were compelled 
to halt after dark, and it was with the greatest delight that they took their 
first morning ride toward the open prairie and enjoyed a late breakfast at 
the home of Col. John M. Lewis, spoken of at the first part of this narrative. 

It was here that they got the first view of the vast prairie region, cov- 
ered with the early autumnal flowers. In speaking of this visit. 'Sirs. Mary 
J. Lewis (widow of Col. John M. Lewis) said thiry years since that Mr. 



88 PAST AND PRESENT 

Irving was so charmed with the beauty of the landscape, bedecked as it was 
in all its autumnal loveliness, that he could scarcely be content to remain 
indoors long enough to finish his breakfast. The young Swiss count, M de 
Pourtales, strolled out to get a shot at a herd of deer, and during his jaunt 
lost a scarf or handkerchief, which was found several days later, carefully 
preserved by Mrs. Lewis, and shown to visitors thirty years later. It was 
made of twilled silk, a yard sf|uare, with red and white striped borders one- 
eighth inch wide, and the center of cherry color. 

The night of the 22d was spent at the Grand Pass at the home of WilHam 
i\Iiller, and the 23rd at Lexington, Independence l^eing reached on the after- 
noon of September 24th. In the course of a few days, they were joined by 
the commissioner and the journey continued by land to Fort Gibson in the 
Indian Territory, whence, under special escort of a body of rangers, they ex- 
tended their tour to x\rkansas and Canadian rivers as far as the Pan Handle 
of Texas, returning late in the fall and again reaching civilization by way of 
the river routes. 

A highly interesting narrative of this journey through the Indian Terri- 
tory was afterwards written and published by Irving under the title of a "Tour 
of the Prairies." 

Two years later Mr. Brown settled near where Mt. Carmel church now 
is, and the next to settle in the neighborhood was Major Thomas H. Harvey, 
who afterwards became superintendent of Indian affairs with his office at the 
city of St. Louis, under John Tyler's administration. After him came Daniel 
Snoddy, Joseph Gauldin, Col. John Brown, P. G. Hugh and James Swan, the 
latter, however, not until 1838. 

In 1834 came Washington Lucas into the Guinn settlement, where he 
found, in addition to those already named, Thomas Monroe, James Garrett, 
Abner Guinn, and Allen, Harrison and Elijah Guinn, three brothers, who 
occupied the tract of land whereon Frankfort stands. Subsequently came 
Mat Ayers and his sons, Alexander and James, and James Jones, Hickerson 
and William S. Fields. Between 1829 and 1834 William Brown, O. B. 
Pearson, Burton Lawless, Jesse McMahan, Joseph Huston and Mrs. Henry 
Bingham settled at Arrow Rock, the latter the mother of George C. Bingham, 
famous as a painter and politician. 

In 1833 the Vanmeters had settled near the Pinnacles, and in 1834 John 
Duggins settled southwest of the present town of Marshall. His neighbors 
were Cornelius Davis, Nathaniel Walker and Henry Pemberton. In the same 
year, Jeremiah Odell, Doctor Reid, Stephen Smith, Aaron F. Bruce and 
Samuel \\\ill located on the high prairie north of Salt Fork. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 89 

In 1833 John McDonell settled on Heath's creek. He sold out to James 
Witcher, who had for his neighbors Gerrin Head, who had come in the fall 
before, and William Corn, the latter four miles northwest, and McClure be- 
yond him, north of Blackwater. Mr. Witcher found game plenty, and often 
killed a deer in the morning before breakfast. Wlien asked many years after- 
wards what induced him to select that location, he replied : "I was looking 
for good water, good timber and good land, and I found them all right here." 

Isaac Nave visited Fort Cooper in 1820, but did not make a permanent 
removal until 1833, when he settled the place he afterwards lived on up to 
the time of his death. When he located there Benjamin Brown was already 
in the neighborhood, and soon afterwards came Ezekial Scott, Bernis Brown, 
the county surveyor, Mortimer Gaines and Rice Wood. 

Major Thomas H. Harvey settled the same year in the ]\It. Carmel 
neighborhood, built a substantial brick house, where his son, Thomas, after- 
wards lived and which is yet standing and occupied as a residence in 1909. 
Robert C. Land also settled in the Shackelford neighborhood. At the same 
time, near Old Jefferson were located William T. Gilliam, George Hawkins, 
Doctor Kinear, Peter Huff" and Almond Guinn. Joseph and Samuel Grove 
came soon afterwards. The residents of Old Jefferson at that time were F. 
H. Gilliam, Thomas Lewis, William A. Wilson, Dr. John A. Hix, J. Davis, 
Nicholas Land, Perry Scott and Spencer Vaught. 

In 1838 there were two more of the Reavis family, Odon and Doctor 
Reavis, who moved into the Salt Pond country, and also John Berry, Thomas 
and Robert Hickinson, James G. Beaty and Thomas Hunter, John and Robert 
Owens, James Yantis, Asa, Henry and Simon Pennington, Ed Armentrout, 
Captain Bright, Charles Murray and George Francisco, and William B. and 
George Kincaid lived some miles east of the site of Brownsville. Thomas 
Miller settled here this year, and his son, Calvin J., the following year. About 
this time, John McAllister located at the springs which yet bear his name. 

In 1840 Beverly Carey moved down and settled Hazel Grove. Benjamin 
Miller and William Brown were his neighbors. The Lynches, Doctor Yantis 
and Ostrander, the Fergusons and others were on Blackwater near Browns- 
ville. 

In 1839 Judge W. B. Napton settled at Elk Hill. T. C. Duggins on Ed- 
mondson's creek. Henry and Tillman \^'eeden settled on Cow creek, where 
Henry built a mill about 1843. 



CHAPTER VI. 



EARLY HISTORICAL EVENTS. 



The circuit court was the first court ever held in the count}-, and was 
convened at old Jefferson, T-'ebruary 5. 1821. Hon. David Todd was judge, 
and Hamilton R. Gamble, prosecuting- attorney ; Benjamin Chambers, clerk, 
and Joseph Goodin, sheriff. The following attorneys were in attendance : 
Hamilton R. Gamble, Cyrus Edwards, George Thompkins, John S. Buckey, 
John F. Ryland, Dabney Carr, Abiel Leonard. Nearly every one of these 
afterwards became distinguished in his profession, and some of them promi- 
nent officials, governors, judges, etc. Of course, there were no cases t(^ be 
tried, because it was the first term of circuit court ever held in the county. 
The grand jury was empanelled, however, of wdiich Drury Pulliam was fore- 
man, the other members being Abram Garrett, Bartholomew Guinn, Jona- 
than English, William McKissick, Joseph Robinson, Osea Hampton, Alex- 
ander Goodin, Jacob Ish, John Land, Peter Huff, William Hayes, (ieorge 
Baxter, William Ramsey, John Colvin, John Jackson, John Sutton. Almond 
Guinn. Baker Martin, William D. Hampton, Jacob Wilhelm, Jeremiah Odell 
and David \\'arren, twenty-three in all, and it is recorded that after being- 
out some time, they returned and reported to the court that they had no 
indictments to present, and they were therefore discharged. The court there- 
upon adjourned until the next regular term. 

At the June term, 1821, there was some business to transact. The grand 
jury, of which Joseph Robinson was foreman, found an indictment against 
Rev. Peyton Nowdin for usurpation of the office of justice of the peace, and 
against three women for assault and battery, and against James Milsap and 
James Goodin for assault and an aft"ray, and also against Jeremiah Odell for 
an affray. Two civil suits were begun, Samuel Wall against Jacob Ish for 
debt, and one of the same character of Oldeman & Company against Sterling- 
Nuckolls. Court was in session two days, when it adjourned to the next 
regular term. 

At the October term of that year, the parties indicted at the June term 
were tried, and the first criminal conxiction in the county was that of a 
woman, Sara Shockley, found guilty of assault and l)attery, and was fined 
three dollars. Her sister-in-law, Rebeckah Shocklev, got her case continued. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 9I 

and the case against Jane Day was dismissed. 1die jury that tried and con- 
victed Miss Shockley was composed of John Jackson, Jacob Wilhehn. Robert 
Davis. \\'iniam AIcKissick. Wilham Hughes, Harrison Vaughan, Ehjah 
Guinn. Edwin Hix, John Copeland, John Brummett. Almond Guinn and 
A\'illiam A. Guinn. 

Rev. Peyton Xowhn was fried on the charge of usurpation of ofhce, and 
acquitted. James Millsap plead guilty of being concerned in an affray, and 
was fined three dollars. Ben Goodin, indicted with Millsap, entered a de- 
fence, was tried, convicted, and was fined five dollars. Jeremiah Odell plead 
guilty of being concerned in an affray and was fined five dollars. John B. 
Wall was fined five dollars for an affray in one case, and acquitted in another. 

In civil matters. Samuel Wall obtained a judgment against Jacob Ish 
for the sum of fifteen dollars, and the case of Holdeman & Company against 
Sterling Nuckolls was dismissed. The other cases disposed of were David 
AA^arren against Ira A. Emmons. Joseph Hazelitt against George Tennile. Ira 
Emmons against George C. Hart, and Simon Leland against George C. Hart 
and George Tennille. This is about all the records show of the proceedings 
of these early times. 

At the ]\Iarch term, 1824. Abiel Leonard presented a commission from 
the governor, appointing him to the office of prosecuting attorney in the 
place of Hamilton R. Gamble, who had resigned. 

At this term, a singular suit was begim. Jack, a slave, brought suit 
against ^^'illiam Chick. Sr.. and AMlliam Chick. Jr.. and Robert Wallace for 
damages for assault and battery and for false imprisonment. Jack, through 
his attorney. Abiel Leonard, asked leave to prosecute his suit as a pauper, 
which was granted, and the Chicks, defendants, were especially cautioned by 
Judge Todd, he making an order of record that they should permit Jack, 
plaintiff in the case, "to have a reasonable liberty of attending and consult- 
ing his counsel and this court, when occasion may require, and that he be 
not taken out of the jurisdiction of this court, or subjected to any severity by 
reason of his application herein to sue for his freedom." 

"Before the next term of court, at which the case was to be tried, the 
Chicks released Jack, and he dismissed his suit against them upon their agree- 
ing to pay the costs, which they afterw^ards did in open court." 

The foregoing paragraph in reference to the result of the suit of Jack 
for his freedom is not a fair statement of the record in the case as it appears, 
there being nothing to show that the Chicks released Jack or any thing of that 
sort, and the facts of the case were probably that Judge Todd, after consider- 
ing the subject during vacation, arrived at the conclusion that his action in the 



92 PAST AND PRESENT 

premises was altogether ill-considered, reaching- the proper conclusion that a 
slave had no right to bring a suit, no standing in a court of justice whatever 
in this state. At any rate, this was declared to l)e the law years after- 
wards by the highest courts in the land. Doubtless, young Mr. A. Leonard, 
who had but shortly before arrived in this state from Vermont, took a differ- 
ent view of the slavery question than that which was prevalent at that time 
in this state, and allowed himself to be persuaded into a false position, that 
of bringing a suit for a negro slave, the fact being that no slave had a right 
to bring a suit of any sort whatever to test his freedom or any other matter. 

Xegro slavery was not a creation of law, and as a matter of history there 
was never an}- statute law creating slavery in this or any other state. Negroes 
became slaves and property by custom — long usage. The savage negroes 
were captured in Africa and brought to the United States, mainly by the sea- 
faring and ship-owning men of New England, and sold by them as slave 
property, just as wild horses and other animals, and became slaves by custom 
and long usage, both in the northern and southern states. Laws were made 
to regulate slavery, but the condition itself was not created by law, and 
not being created by law slavery was not abolished by proclamation, for 
the negroes had all practically become free before the proclamation declar- 
ing their freedom was issued by the President of the United States. The 
situation at that time was inconsistent with the condition of slavei-y. The 
master had ceased to have any control over the slave, and he was free with- 
out law or proclamation. This subject of negro slavei-y in its legal aspect 
afterwards came to a final determination in the supreme court of the United 
States in the year 1857, ""^ ^ ^^^e reaching that court from Missouri, where 
Chief Justice Taney thus expressed the opinion of the court on negroes and 
slavery, saying in the Dred Scott case : 

"They had for more than a quarter of a century before been regarded as 
beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white 
race, either in social or political relations ; and so far inferior that they had 
no rights which the white man was bound to respect: and that the negro might 
justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit." 

While most skne holders regarded the institution as an evil, there seemed 
to have been no practical way of getting rid of it except the one finally adopted 
to go to war about it, everybody realizing that war would put an end to the in- 
stitution, at least in this section. In 1861 slaves had already become very un- 
certain property. A man was liable to get up any morning and find that his 
slaves had fled to Kansas or Iowa. 

But the North was responsible for negro slavery equall\- with the South. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 93 

The people of the northern states got rid of it first because negro slavery 
was not profitable in that climate, while an opposite and altogether different 
condition prevailed in the South, where negro slaves were healthy, profitable 
and well satisfied, raising cotton in a climate that was suitable for them. 

The first arid second terms of the court were held in a log house not 
completel}^ chinked or pointed. The grand jury is said to have deliberated at 
the first term in the kitchen of a dwelling house near by. being in session for 
an hour or two, and at the next term the grand jury transacted its business 
under the shade of a tree in the open. 

EVENTS FROM 1 822 TO 1 832. 

In 1822 the first murder was perpetrated in the county, and was long 
remembered by the people, the circumstances being as follows : 

The time of the tragedy was August 12th of the year named. The local- 
ity was at the ford of Cow creek, at the lower edge of the grove, on the Lex- 
ington road. There stood a large elm tree on the spot, and under it there 
lay down to sleep, on the evening in question, an old Frenchman named Jean 
Estelcjuay, alias Jean Sterkey, alias John Starkley. He had been a soldier in 
the war of the Revolution, and had been granted a pension. He lived in 
Lafayette, or some other of the western counties, and had made a journey on 
foot to Boonville, the government agency, to procure his pension money. 

A scoundrel, named Andrew Turpin, described as a villainous-looking 
fellow, with his nose pierced like an Indian (he had probably belonged to an 
Indian tribe at one time), also a Frenchman, was in Boonville, saw the old 
veteran get his money, and followed him all day, seeking an opportunity to 
kill and rob him. This opportunity presented itself when the old soldier lay 
down to pass the night under the famous big elm. Turpin had no weapons, 
and so he fashioned a lance, or spear, and with this killed the unfortunate 
Starkley, as he lay with his blankets around him, unconscious of any danger 
whatsoever. After robbing his victim, Turpin fled. The next day the body 
was found by some travelers on their way east from Lexington. An inquest 
conducted by Esquire Bartholomew Guinn was held, and the body buried at 
the foot of the big elm. 

Turpin was apprehended, and at the next term of the circuit court (in 
November) was indicted for murder. He was confined in an outbuilding at 
Jefferson, and one night in December pretended to have frozen his feet very 
badly. The sheriff thereupon allowed him a good many liberties, and he 
was not slow to avail himself of his advantages and soon made his escape. 



94 PAST AND PRESENT 

He was afterwards heard of in Ray county, and a capias was sent up to the 
slieriff of that county, but that official failed to arrest him, and soon after- 
wards he went west and, it is said, joined a band of Indians. 

Some time after the murder and burial of poor Starkley, a laughable 
incident occurred undei'' the same big elm. Another Frenthman traveling 
alone, overtaken by night, lay down to sleep just where his fellow-countryman 
had laid down and taken his last long sleep two years before. Hie last traveler 
was unconscious of what had happened, however, and slept serenely. The 
locality was said to be haunted, and the superstitious people of the neighbor- 
hood regarded it with something of dread and fear. A horseman living in 
the neighborhood came riding along. His horse, frightened at the object 
prone on the ground, started back in alarm. The Frenchman was awakened 
by the noise made by the horse, and started up, with his blanket around him, 
and hailing the horseman in broken English, or perhaps broken French, began 
making certain inquiries. This was enough for the horseman. He turned 
his horse about and hastily galloped away. Stopping at the first house he 
came to. he told the inmates that he had seen the ghost of John Starkley. the 
murdered Frenchman. "I am sure of it." he asserted, "for he stood up, with 
his shroud around him, and spoke to me in broken French." 

After 1822, the country began to assume a more civilized aspect. Farms 
began springing up in every direction and the two or three little towns in 
the county were doing a thriving business. Steamboats began ascending the 
river, landing in Saline county at different ports, and communication with the 
outside world became more frequent and important. 

The first steamboat that ever passed up the Missouri river was one called 
"The Independence," Capt. John Nelson being in command of her. the 
first to attempt the navigation of the Missouri river. "The Independence" had 
been chartered by Col. Elias Rector and others of St. J^ouis to ascend the 
Missouri as high as Chariton, two miles above Glasgow. She left St. Louis 
May 15, 1819. and reached Franklin, in Howard county, on May 28th. Upon 
the arrival of the boat at h^ranklin, a public dinner was given the passengers 
and officers, and a public meeting was held, of which A.sa Morg-an was presi- 
dent and Dr. X. Hutchinson was vice-president. She was joyfully met by the 
inhabitants of Franklin and saluted with the firing of a cannon, which was 
returned by the steamboat. 

The grand important fact was now ascertained that steamboats could 
safely na\igate the Missouri river. The "Independence" continued her voy- 
age to Chariton and returned to St. Louis in safety. Shortly after this, July 
13th, of the same year, two other boats arrived at Franklin belonging to the 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 95 

Yellowstone expedition carrying troops and provisions for establishing the 
fort at the mouth of the Yellowstone under command of Major S. H. Long 
and Major Thomas Biddle ; Lieutenants Graham and Swift; Major Ben 
O'Fallon, Lidian agent; and Daugherty, assistant agent and interpreter; Dr. 
^^'illiam Baldwin. Iwtanist ; Thomas Say, zoologist; Mr. Jessup, geologist; 
Mr. Sevmore, landscape painter; and Mr. Peale, assistant naturalist. Major 
Long's boat was called "The Western Engineer," and is said to have had an 
escape pipe shaped like a serpent, painted black with red mouth and a tongue 
the color of a live coal. The steam escaped from the month of the serpent, 
producing a rare effect. Some Indians who were at the Arrow Rock when 
the boat passed that point gazed on the monster with horror and astonish- 
ment, a band of them following it from Arrow Rock to Miami bottom, ex- 
pecting to see it give out, they said, for it was so short of breath and panted 
so. This boat was a side-wheeler and proved a great success, ascending the 
river as far as Council Bluffs. 

The name "The Arrow Rock," mentioned in the first instance by Lewis 
and Clark, 1804, and by nearly every one of the early navigators of the river, 
is derived from an interesting Lidian legend. At this place the river is about 
three hundred and fifty yards wide running north and south. On the Saline 
countv side there is a high rock l)luff. On the eastern bank of the river a 
band of Lidians were encamped in the river bottom. The beautiful daughter 
of the chieftain was much sought after in marriage b}- the }(xmg men of the 
tril)e. The old chieftain, not wishing to offend any of his tribe, told the 
young bucks that he would give his daughter in marriage to the one who could 
stand on the eastern bank of the river and strike with an arrow, shot from a 
bow, the rock bluff on the western bank. On the day of the contest, that was 
so full of interest to the parties concerned, the Lidian men took their bows 
and selected the best arrows thev could find, and entered the lists for the 
maiden's hand. One after the other, they attempted the shot, and one after 
the other, they saw their arrows fall short of the mark and their hopes of 
winning the coveted prize ^•anish, amid the rejoicing of those who were to 
succeed them. 

The last Lidian to shoot was the one that the maiden loved. He was 
a tall, straight, supple, bronzed child of the forest. His bow was twice the 
length of that of any other man in the contest. ^^lIen the thong of deer 
sinews was looped over the end of the bow, it seemed as though no man 
could draw it farther. The arrow was of a straight reed, barbed with a 
slender flint and headed with a feather from an eagle's wing. The youth 
smiled to his sweetheart and, stepping to the river's bank, placed his arrow 



96 PAST AND PRESENT 

across the bow. Pointing it at an angle of about forty-five degrees, he drew 
at the thong until the barb on the arrow touched the center of the quivering 
bow. The twanging of his bow string announced the beginning of the arrow's 
flight; it sailed high over the waters of the "Big Muddy" and as it struck the 
rock bluff on the opposite side of the river, the delighted maiden exclaimed in 
broken English to her father, "Arrow Rock." From this incident, the place 
took its name. 

The arrival of this steamboat, "The Western Engineer," made an in- 
delible impression on the minds of the pioneers at Arrow Rock and elsewhere 
along the river. In 1876. when Jerrold Letcher made his tour of inquiry 
through the county, there were several yet living who still retained a vivid 
recollection of the event. 

The most stirring and interesting' event of the year 1824 was the presi- 
dential election, the first ever held in the county, the candidates being Andrew 
Jackson of Tennessee, Henry Clay of Kentucky, William H. Crawford of 
Georgia, and John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. Henry Clay carried 
the county by a majority over all the candidates, and Saline county remained 
a Whig county for many years afterwards, in fact always except when Gen- 
eral Jackson was a candidate. The election precincts and the judges of elec- 
tion were as follows : 

Arrow township, at Jones' Mill ; judges, William Cooper, Asa Finley 
and Joseph Huston. 

Jefferson township, in the town of Jefferson; judges, Bartholomew 
Guinn, William M. Chick and William WolfskiU. 

Miami township, at the house of George Davis ; judges, Notley Thomas, 
George Davis and William McMahan. 

The election was held under the act of December 17, 1822, and the proc- 
lamation of Governor John Miller, and came off the first Monday in August. 
Doubt having arisen as to the legality of the election, the Legislature chose 
the three electors of state on the 20th of November, 1824. There was a 
failure to elect by the people or the electoral college, the election being thrown 
into the House of Representatives, resulting in the election of John Quincy 
Adams, his election being effected by an alliance with the support of Heniy 
Clay, and upon Mr. Adams' elevation to the presidency, Henry Clay was 
appointed secretary of state. Immediately the cry arose and the charges 
made that there had been a "bargain and sale" between Adams and Clay, by 
the terms of which the foiTner had been made President and the latter the 
premier of the government, and this combination gave John Randolph the 
opportunity to say from his seat in Congress that "he had been defeated 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 97 

horse, foot and dragoon, clean cut up by the combination of Bhffil and Black 
George. The unheard-of coalition till then of the Puritan and the Blackleg." 
This insinuation made in the Senate provoked Mr. Clay to challenge Ran- 
dolph, and they afterwards fought a duel. 

In 1825 the Legislature changed the boundaries of the county as they 
are at the present time, and which will be given elsewhere. 

In the presidential contest of 1828, between General Jackson and Mr. 
Adams, the General carried Saline county and the state of Missouri, but John 
Miller, an Adams man, was elected governor of state without opposition. 
Gen, Thomas A. Smith, Doctor Sappington, Peyton Nowlin and others were 
leaders of the Jackson party in this county. The election was held at the 
following places : 

Blackwater township, at the house of Jesse Swope; judges, Reuben E. 
Gentry, Jesse Swope and Solomon Reavis. 

Arrow township, at Jones' mill on Salt Fork; judges, Dr. John Sapping- 
ton, Joseph Robinson and Wyatt Bingham. 

Jefferson township, at Jefferson; judges, Thomas Shackelford, Able Gar- 
rett, Sr., and Jacob Ish. 

Miami township, at the house of George Davis ; judges, William Mc- 
Mahan, Charles Davis and Samuel McReynolds. 

In 183 1 the county seat was removed from Jefferson to Jonesboro. The 
first term of circuit court was held there the 27th day of June. The Hon. John 
F. Ryland had become the judge of the circuit court; Amos Rece, circuit 
attorney; Benjamin Chambers, clerk. 

The next year a case was begun in the circuit court which was of some 
celebrity in those days. Jim, a slave, was indicted for murder. He was tried 
four times, each time the jury failing to agree. Jim belonged to Judge Todd, 
who succeeded Ryland as judge. At the first term of court held by Todd af- 
terwards, Jim presented a pardon from the governor, but the Judge refused 
to act upon the case in any manner whatever, because of his relation to the 
prisoner, sending the case to Lafayette county, where Jim was discharged. 

The interest in the presidential election this year, 183 1, was diminished 
on account of the excitement over the Blackhawk war, Andrew Jackson and 
Martin VanBuren were the candidates of the Democratic party, Henry Clay 
and John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, being the Whig candidates; the Anti- 
Masonic party had for its nominees, William Wirt, of Virginia, and Amos 
Ellnaker, of Pennsylvania. General Jackson was chosen by an overwhelming 
majority of the electoral college, Henry Clay receiving only forty-nine votes, 
while Vermont chose Anti-Masonic electors. 

7 



98 PAST AND PRESENT 

The winter of 1830-31 was long rememljered as the cold winter. The 
temperature was unusually low and there was a great snow storm, phenom- 
enal as to magnitude and extraordinary as to character for this latitude and 
locality. Snow began to fall on Christmas day, and fell continuously until 
New Year's. It reached the extraordinary depth of four feet on an average, 
and in many cases well authenticated statements are to the effect that it 
drifted up to the roof of the cabins. The snow did not disappear until in 
March. The wind continued in the north and northwest for six weeks, never 
shifting or ceasing for a moment during that time. On the 13th of February, 
at noon, there was a total eclipse of the sun, and immediately thereafter a 
gradual thaw set in, which lasted until the snow melted away. The weather 
was intensely cold from January until the time of the eclipse. Game of 
every kind perished in the woods, as did the stock of the settlers that was not 
well cared for. It is said that the settlers even kept their dogs in the house 
to prevent them from destroying the famishing and half frozen game. 

Snow covered everything. The wells and springs were inaccessible and 
the people melted snow and used snow-water exclusively, for many days. 
There was but little, if any, communication with the outside world and many 
roads remained unbroken for weeks. It was with the greatest difficulty that 
Doctor Sappington and the other physicians of the county made their visits 
to the bedsides of their patients. 

In 1832 the county was visited by the dreaded pestilence, the Asiatic 
cholera. The victims were not numerous, but it caused widespread alarm, 
visiting Arrow Rock and Jefferson, and a few cases in the country, the whole 
number of deaths being about six, but it was very destructive in St. Louis 
and other towns in the state. 

THE BLACKHAWK WAR IN 1832. 

The proximity of the hostilities of the Black Hawk war in 1832 to the 
Missouri frontier caused Governor John Miller to adopt precautionary meas- 
ures to avert the calamities of an invasion which seemed imminent. There- 
fore, in Alay. 1832, orders were issued to the generals commanding the Mis- 
souri militia to warn the members of their commands, "to keep in readiness 
a horse, with the necessary equipments, and a rifle, in g'ood order, with an 
ample supply of ammunition." 

The nearness of Saline county to the hostile territory, the familiarity of 
Black Hawk and the Sacs and Foxes with this county, together with the 
general dread of Indians and Indian wars, led many settlers to fear a raid 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 99 

from the hostile savages, and many were the alarms, all of them false, that 
were raised. At least two companies of men, then belonging- to the county 
militia, kept their powder dry for an emergency. The fear of the people of 
Indian incursions was not confined to Saline county. From a fear of the 
Sac and Fox Indians the people gradually grew to be afraid of all Indians. 
Rumors were prevalent at one time that a general Indian uprising had taken 
place, in which even the friendly Osages had joined. Levens and Drake's 
"History of Cooper County," page 169, says: 

Some time during the year 1832 the people became terribly alarmed by 
the report that the Osage Indians were about to attack and massacre all the 
settlers in this vicinity. This report started first, by some means, at old Luke 
AVilliams', on Cole Camp creek. The people became almost wild with excite- 
ment. They left their plows in the field, and fled precipitatively in the direc- 
tion of the other settlements, towards Boonville. Some of them took refuge 
in a fort at Vincent Walker's, some at Sam Forbes', and others at Collin 
Stoneman's and Finis Ewing's. Hats and caps, shoes and stockings, pillows, 
baskets and bonnets might have been seen along the old military road to 
Boonville, lying scattered about in beautiful confusion all that day and the 
next, until the. excitement had ceased. Fortunately, the scare did not last 
long, as it was soon ascertained that the alarm was false, and that the Osage 
Indians had not only not contemplated a raid on the white settlements, but 
that they had actually become frightened themselves and fled south of the 
Osage river. But the panic was complete and exceedingly frightful while it 
lasted. 

A fellow named Mike Chism lived near the Bidstrup place. ]\Iike had 
a wife and two children. They were already preparing for flight. Alike's 
wife was on horseback and had one child in her lap and one behind her, and 
Mike was on foot. At this moment, a horseman came galloping up in great 
trepidation and informed the little famil}- that the Indians were coming bv 
the thousands and that they were already this side of Flat creek. On receiv- 
ing this intelligence, Mike, in great terror, said to his wife: "My God! 
Sally, I can't wait for you any longer!" Suiting his actions to his words, he 
took to his scraper in such hot haste that at the first frantic jump he made 
he fell at full length and trembling, on the rocks. But the poor fellow dia 
not take time to rise to his feet again. He scrambled off on all fours into 
the brush, like some wild animal, leaving his wife and children to take care of 
themselves as best they could. 

In August, 1832, Gen. Stephen Trigg was ordered to take a body of 
militia and make a scout southwest and west of this count v to see if the In- 



lOO PAST AND PRESENT 

dians were menacing the county from that (juarter. It had been reported 
that a general attack was to be made on the settlements of Saline, Lafayette, 
Cooper and the other counties adjoining. Saline county was called upon for 
a company and promptly responded. Her cjuota was raised in three days. It 
consisted of forty rangers or mounted riflemen. Each man furnished his own 
horse, arms, accoutrements and rations. Capt. Henry Becknell, who had for- 
merly owned and operated the ferry at Arrow Rock, was chosen captain; 
Jacob Nave was first lieutenant; Ben E. Cooper, second lieutenant; Jackson 
Smiley, orderly sergeant. Unfortunately it is impossible to obtain the names 
of all the members of the company, but some of them were William J. Wolf- 
skill, William Pruntin, Ephraim McClain, Henry Nave and Ephraim Prig- 
more. 

The command started some time in the month of August and there was 
"mounting in hot haste." Considerable marching was done. The expedi- 
tion went up the Lamine and the Blackwater to their respective sources. It 
passed out by Knob Noster, in Johnson county, crossed the Osage at a point 
just below Little Tebo, near where Warsaw now stands. Here a detachment 
was sent back for provisions and orders. Supplies were soon received and or- 
ders obtained to complete the scout — that is, to canvass the country thor- 
oughly and, if no hostile Indians were found, to return. Several bands of 
Kickapoos were encountered, undoubtedly on their way to join Black Hawk, 
as they were well armed and bore other indications of being on the war- 
path. These w^ere turned back without a fight and made to understand that 
it would not be healthy for them if they were caught out on the same busi- 
ness again. The camps of the Osages were visited, and the occupants found 
to be attending to their own legitimate business and entirely friendly. Lewis 
Rogers, their chief, assured General Trigg of his fealty to the whites and loy- 
alty to their interests. Very soon the command returned to Saline county and 
joined the main army at Jonesboro. The Saline company was absent from the 
county just twenty-one days. When it returned to Jonesboro it was dis- 
banded. 

General Trigg is descrribed by some of the men who were on this ex- 
pedition as "a mighty peart man, and a good judge of Indians." Being 
struck Avith the fine appearance of the Saline county company, the General 
chose it for his escort or body-guard. 

Captain Becknell had been a soldier in the war of 1812 and had seen 
considerable service. He was also well versed in Indian warfare and fighting, 
and would have made a good record with his company if he had had oppor- 
tunity. He was not of a religious turn of mind at all. Many a settler re- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI IQI 

members how volubly and with what wonderful force and power he could 
swear. He was a rough-and-tumble fighter of no mean ability and, as we 
hereafter show, was the originator of the Santa Fe trade and the locator of 
the Santa Fe trail. 

EARLY MARRIAGES. 

The first marriages taking place in the territory now forming Saline 
county are to be found in the records of Cooper county, which this county 
formed a part of. The first marriage that occurred for which a certificate 
was issued and recorded was that of John Tarwater and Ruth Odle. This 
took place on the 13th of September, 1820, the certificate being in w^ords as 
follows : 

"I, Jacob Ish, justice of the peace within and for Saline county, do 
hereby certify that on the 13th of September, 1820, I joined John Tarwater 
and Ruth Odle in matrimony as man and wife. 

"Jacob Ish, J. P." 

The next certificate was by the same justice, who, on the 27th day of 
November, 1820, joined Anderson Warren and Sarah J. Wilkerson in matri- 
mony as man and wife. 

The same official also reported that on January 14, 1821, he made happy 
John Job and Polly Clevenger; that January 26, 1821, he performed a simi- 
lar service for Thomson Wall and Polly Vann. 

January 18, 182 1, Elijah Guinn "was married to Rebecca McKissick," 
by Bartholomew Guinn, justice of the peace. 

January 25th, of the same year, "Neal Fulton was married to Lucy 
Harris" by Bartholomew Guinn, justice of the peace. 

February 21, 182 1, Joseph Burleson and Polly Warren were united in 
marriage by the foresaid Guinn. 

None of these returns specify the place where the marriage sei-vice was 
performed. The following is the first return particular enough to so state : 
"State of Missouri, Saline county. 

'T do certify that I did on the 8th day of March, 1824, join together by 
marriage Joseph Wilson and Polly Millsap, at the house of Mr. Kinney, in 
Arrow Rock township, in said county. Certified under my hand, April 10, 
182 1. Peyton Nowlin, Gospel Minister." 

Other early marriages were those of David Warren and Rachel Bur- 
leson, by Bartholomew Guinn, justice of the peace, May 3, 182 1 ; on the same 
date, bv the same, Laban Garrett and Rachel Baxter. 



I02 PAST AND PRESENT 

May 31, 182 1, George Nave and Nancy Jobe, "at the house of Wilham 
Jobe, her father," l)y (jeorge Tennille, a justice of the county court. 

July 5, 1821, James McMahan and Nancy Young, by Levin Green, min- 
ister of the gospel. 

July 5, 182 1, William Ferrell and Elizabeth Clemmons, by Levin Green, 
minister of the gospel. 

January 21. 1822, John Allen and Eliza Stone, by George Tennille, jus- 
tice of the county court. 

January 6, 1822, Julius Emmons, of Lillard (now Lafayette) county, and 
Thizra Smith, of this county, by Peyton Nowlin, minister of the gospel. 

Februai-y 28, 1822, Pethnel Foster and Margaret Bones, by Payton 
Nowlin, minister of the gospel. 

August 5, 1822, Robert Patrick and Ann Thomas, by William Mc- 
Mahan, justice of the peace. 

May 30, 1822, John Bogard and Mary Bones, by Rev. Peyton Nowlin. 

August 18, 1822, James McKissick and Polly Ann Guinn, by Bartholo- 
mew Guinn, justice of the peace. 

November 22, 1822, Benjamin Goodin and Sarah Osborn, by Bartholo- 
mew Guinn. 

December 29, 1822, James Warren and Eleanor Goodin, by Esquire 
Guinn. 

December 17, 1822, William M. Chick and Ann Pulliam, by Ebenezer 
Rodgers, justice of the peace. 

February 23, 1823, Thomas Mann and Mary Jeffries; March i6th, Jesse 
McMahan and Polly McMahan; July 17th, Hezekiah Copeland and Malinda 
Guinn, all by William M. Chick, justice of the peace of Jefferson township, 

June 28, 1823, Perry G. Buck and Rebecca Thomas, by Rev. Lot Dil- 
lingham. 

June 3, 1823, Christy Houts and Mary Falls, by Rev. Peyton Nowlin. 
January 5, 1823, Warren Reavis and Margaret Smeltzer, by Rev. 
Nowlin. 

December 24, 1823, John Nave ( Neff) and Elizabeth Kelly, by George 
Tennille, a justice of the county court. This marriage, according to return, 
took place "at the dwelling house of Thornton Adams, in the Big bottom." 

December 7, 1823, William Harris and Christiana Johnson, by William 
McMahan, justice of the peace. 

Richard P. Shelby and Rebecca L. Mitchell (Williams) were married 
June 6, 1 84 1. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI IO3 

February 17, 183 1. Claiborne F. Jackson, of Howard county, and Jane 
D. Sapping-ton, of Saline, by Justin Williams, ordained preacher of the Aleth- 
odist Episcopal church. This was Governor Jackson's first marriage. He 
afterwards married her sister, Louisa Sappington, and after her death, ]^Irs. 
Eliza Pearson, all sisters and daughters of Dr. John Sappington. 

January 4, 1826. M. M. Marmaduke, late of Westmoreland county, 
Virginia, and Lavinia Sappington, daughter of Dr. John Sappington, were 
married by the Rev. Peyton Nowlin. This marriage took place at Dr. John 
Sappington's, six miles west of Arrow Rock. The groom was afterwards 
governor of the state in 1844. 

The Rev. Peyton Nowlin, the officiating minister in many of these early 
marriages, was a Baptist and one of the first ministers, and preached (^ne of 
the first sermons in the county. He died in the year 1837. 

The details of many of these early marriage ceremonies of the pioneers 
would be interesting, but they are not obtainable. There were no newspapers 
in those days to publish any events of this character. 

EARLY SCHOOLS. 

The pioneers regarded education as very important, and as early as 181 7 
they had a school in the big bottom, taught by one John Hurd, and afterwards 
by William Hampton and Ebenezer Rogers. About the same time Daniel 
Johnson, Laban Garrett and William Rogers taught in the Edmondson creek 
settlement. Mr. Garrett contended that he taught the first school that was 
kept in the count}'. 

Subsequently, near where Concord church now stands, Edwin ]\Iulhol- 
land taught a school, and sometime thereafter David Howard and John Rob- 
ertson had a school on Camp creek. In the Nowlin neighborhood. Josiah 
Gregg, Jr., and young Peyton Nowlin were among the early teachers. 

In 1827 John Pulliam taught a school near \\'illiam Smith, and John 
Scott one at Wyatt Bingham's, midway between Salt fork and Blackwater. 
This latter school in after years was taught by one Pat Morris, who had a 
wide reputation as a school teacher in his time. 

Very soon after settlements were made across Blackwater, schools were 
organized and taught by Thornton Rucker, David Wooden, Thomas Thorpe 
and others. These were individual subscription schools and the teachers were 
usually well educated men — as a rule, much more thoroughly educated than 
the country school teachers are of late years. 

In the early days the school houses were usually built of logs, with punch- 



104 PAST AND PRESENT 

eon floors and seats made in a rude way without backs, and large fireplaces 
furnished warmth, wood being used for fuel. 

The first boarding school in the county was established by John Duggins 
and his wife, Frances E. Duggins, on the farm afterwards known as the Mose 
White place, three miles southwest of Marshall. This school was established 
in 1834 and maintained for ten years, the house being built part of logs and 
part of frame, the lumber being hauled from Chambers' mill over in the Big 
bottom. As the number of pupils increased, so did the size of Mr. Duggins' 
mansion and school house. Among the pupils who attended this school were 
Paris, Pleasant and Jane Walker, Royal and Dr. Anderson Brown, Samuel and 
Mary Miller, John Wall, Thomas W. Gaines, Liberty Green, David, Rebecca 
and Mary Vanmeter, Georgia Bruce, Mrs. Saufley (then Miss Brown), Eliza- 
beth and Edwin Oliver, Mary and Wallace Finley, Samuel, Joseph and Ezek- 
ial Scott, David and Marshall Durrett, Miss Susan Bates, of Virginia, and 
Miss Mary Howard, of Tennessee. 

The Rev. Dr. Yantis' school at Brownsville, now Sweet Springs, 
was the next high school in the county, after Mr. and Mrs. Duggins'. Doc- 
tor Yantis' school was begun in 1848 and was a first class institution, one 
of the best, if not the very best, in western Missouri, but by the middle of 
the last century ample educational facilities were established in the county, 
although the school houses were somewhat farther apart than they are at the 
present day. There was a good female seminary at Arrow Rock at that time, 
affording good opportunities for young ladies to acquire a finished educa- 
tion, but they usually married before acquiring a thorough schooling. 

The early records of the common schools were lost during the Civil war, 
and were very imperfectly kept for some years thereafter and no authentic 
account of the first establishment of the common schools can be g'iven. 

There were many private tutors in families in different parts of the 
county, and had been since the early settlement of the county, and there was 
no excuse for ignorance or illiteracy in this county at any time since it was 
occupied by white people. 

FIRST CONTRACT WITH SCHOOL TEACHER RECORDED. 

"August Term, 1837, County Court. 

"This day came William A. Gwinn, Peter Huff and Isaiah Huff, trustees 
of the third division of Jefferson school district, and made their report, show- 
ing the number of children entitled to the benefit of the school fund in said 
division, wliich report is received, and is in the following words, to-wit : 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI IO5 

Wednesday, August 9, 1837. We, the trustees of the third district of the 
Jefferson school district, pursuant to an agreement, met, and chose Peter Huff 
chairman, and proceeded to business, and in the exercise of our duty, chose 
John W. McMahan to teach a school for the term of six months, to commence 
the nth day of this inst., in consideration of which Ave bind ourselves to pay, 
or cause to be paid, unto the said McMahan the sum of one hundred and ten 
dollars, lawful money, at the expiration of said term, in consideration of 
which said McMahan obligates himself to teach orthography, reading, writ- 
ing, common arithmetic, English grammar and geography, to the best of his 
skill. The number of children is as follows, viz: W. A. Gwinn, three; E. 
Gwinn, two; P. Huff, five; Isaiah Huff, five; J. Copeland, one; John Copeland, 
six; E. Copeland, four; amounting in all to twenty-six scholars." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SANTA FE TRADE AND THE SANTA FE TRAIL. 

Although the Santa Fe trade did not originate in SaHne county, yet it did 
originate at Franklin, Howard county, and very soon afterwards entered this 
county at Arrow Rock, w^here the Santa Fe trail crossed the river; therefore, 
it becomes a very important part of the earlv history of Saline county, many 
of her citizens being- engaged in the trade soon after it commenced. 

To Capt. William Becknell, of Howard county, belongs the honor of 
being the founder of the Santa Fe trade and the father of the Santa Fe trail. 

One James Pursley, an Indian trader from St. Louis, visited Santa Fe 
in 1805, but he never returned. Gen. Zebulon Pike was sent out to explore the 
region about New^ Mexico in 1806, but he w^as taken prisoner by the Spaniards, 
and subsequently released, but he did not return to Missouri. 

The Santa Fe trade originated at Franklin in 182 1, that town then being 
the most important place west of St. Louis. Becknell was the first man to 
take wagons over the route. Li the Missouri Intelligencer, of Franklin, June 
10, 1 82 1, he had an advertisement for seventy-five men to go west. to trade 
for horses and mules. They rendezvoused at the home of Ezekiel Williams 
on August 4th, and crossed the river at Arrow Rock, September 21, 182 1. 

On the second trip, Becknell left Arrow Rock on the 22nd of May, 1822, 
with twenty-one men and three wagons. Becknell was joined by Heath on 
the Arkansas. 

In 1823 a company of traders under Colonel Cooper left the vicinity of 
Franklin on May 6th, each having two packs and two hundred dollars' worth 
of goods. They returned in October with jacks, jenneys and mules, and four 
hundred head of other live stock and some furs. 

Li 1824 the expedition organized at Franklin to rendezvous at Mt. Ver- 
non (afterwards changed to Lexington). A. LeGrand was elected captain. Col. 
M. M. Marmaduke was one of this party, and also Augustus Storrs, the latter 
being appointed consul at Santa Fe the next year. This company had eighty- 
one men, one hundred and fifty-six horses and mules, twenty-five wagons and 
about thirty thousand dollars' worth of merchandise, and was the first expedi- 
tion to use wagons extensively. They arrived at Santa Fe on the 28th day of 
July, and met wnth a very successful and profitable trade. Returning, they 



SALINE COUNTY, ^MlSSUl'Rl lO/ 

reached Franklin. September 24th, bringing back one hundred and eighty- 
thousand dollars of gold and silver coin, and ten thousand dollars in furs. This 
was one of the most profitable ventures in the history of the Santa Fe trade. 
Colonel Marmaduke remained all winter at Santa Fe, returning home the fol- 
lowing spring. 

Col. Braxton Cooper went out again in the fall of 1824, and lost two men, 
one by the Osages and another by the Comanches. 

The Missouri Intelligencer of April 19, 1825, contains Captain Beck- 
nell's account of a trip he made west from Santa Fe to the "Green River," 
or the Colorado. 

In 1827 a caravan of fifty-two wagons, one hundred and twenty-five 
men, with Ezekiel Williams, captain, A. Storrs and David Workman went 
out over the Santa Fe trail. 

In 1828, May ist, a party of Santa Fe traders left Franklin with one 
hundred and fifty men and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of 
goods. September 12th seventy to eighty of them, returning, reached Frank- 
lin. The venture was profitable, but lost two men killed by Indians, Monroe 
and McNees. These two men, Monroe and McNees, were killed at the cross- 
ing of a small stream about the edge of New Mexico, which has ever since 
been called McNees' creek. They were killed by Indians in the day time 
very suddenly, while lying down by the side of the road, probably asleep, they 
having ridden on ahead of the train some distance. A party of mounted In- 
dians rushed on them suddenly, killing them before they could get up and 
stampeding their horses. 

In 1830 a Santa Fe party left Franklin May 2d, with one hundred and 
twenty men and sixty wagons. They returned in October, having made good 
profit. 

A considerable number of citizens of this county joined these caravans 
after they had crossed the river at Arrow Rock, to engage in the Santa Fe 
trade also. Colonel Marmaduke making at least four trips, finding the busi- 
ness quite profitable. Besides Marmaduke from this county, there was W\\- 
liam and Darwin Sappington, and James W. Smith, son of Gen. T. A. Smith. 
Their wagons for Santa Fe were loaded at old Jonesboro, where the Sapping- 
tons had a store for some years. 

After 1830 the point of outfitting for the Santa Fe trade was transferred 
to Independence, in Jackson county, and there being no newspaper at Inde- 
pendence at that time, very little record of it was kept for a good many years 
afterwards. 



IC8 PAST AND PRESENT 

Prior to 1820 New Mexico had been supplied with goods imported 
through Vera Cruz, the Spanish port of entry, and enormous prices were 
charged, cahco bringing from two dollars to three dollars a yard. As traffic 
with the United States was smuggling, prohibited by law, the first caravan 
met with disaster and the traders were imprisoned until the Mexicans over- 
threw the sovereignty of Spain. Several events favorable to the trade took 
place about the time Missouri became a state. In 181 9 Spain sold to the 
United States the territory east of New Orleans, which was then called Flor- 
ida, and two years afterwards the United States took possession of it. 

In 182 1 the Mexican revolution under Iturbide was successful, and the 
next year the empire of Mexico was established. The Indian trade had proved 
profitable and the Mexicans used the same class of goods, and so the trade 
with Santa Fe at once sprung up. 

This Santa Fe trail, crossing the river at Arrow Rock, followed the old 
Osage trace across the county in a direct route to Grand Pass until after the 
location of the county seat at Marshall, in 1839, when it was changed to pass 
through Marshall. 

OTHER PUBLIC ROADS AND HIGHWAYS. 

For many years much of the time of the Legislature of the territory and 
state was occupied in passing acts to authorize state roads, and for that reason 
the matter of establishing and opening roads was conferred by general law 
on the county courts in the various counties. 

But for many years after the organization of this county the public roads 
were located, marked out and opened under special acts of the Legislature, 
and were called "state roads." These state roads were opened under the su- 
pervision of commissioners appointed by the governor, who selected a surveyor 
to survey and mark out the road. Nearly all of these original roads have 
long since been vacated or changed. 

And after the control of the public roads was conferred on the county 
courts, a general statute was passed authorizing a change in the ])ublic roads 
in any case where the owner of the land on which the road was located de- 
sired to fence and cultivate the same; it might be changed bv the county 
courts, on petition for that purpose, to the congressional lines. This statute 
resulted in almost every one of the old state roads being changed and put on 
other ground. Originally the roads were direct from one place to another on 
the most favorable and suitable route. Now, however, they follow all the 
right angles created by the rectangular surveys as originallv made. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



109 



Under the special laws creating state roads, there were at least two main 
state roads established, marked out and opened through Saline county. One 
from Boonville, west through Arrow Rock and Marshall, on to Lexington and 
Independence, a sixty-foot-wide road. This was a mail route over which a 
line of daily four-horse stages was operated for many years previously and up 
to the beginning of the Civil war, from St. Louis through Jefferson City to 
Lidependence. This stage route was usually well equipped with large, roomy 
and comfortable coaches, and good teams of four horses each that were 
changed every eight or ten miles at stage stands along the route. When the 
weather and roads were good, travel by these stages was quite comfortable 
and expeditious, but decidedly otherwise in winter, when cold and rough. 

There was also a state road through the southern part of the county, 
from Boonville through Warrensburg to Independence, following the divide 
between Rlackwater and Heath's creek. But this road was never traveled very 
much by movers, at least, the main travel being on the road near the river. 
There were other state roads in the county, but they were nearly all disre- 
garded when the matter of roads was turned over to the county courts. 

There was a great throng of emmigrants through Saline county to Cali- 
fornia on the river road in 1849 and 1850. In the early spring of that year, 
the covered wagons of these immigrants were hardly ever out of sight at 
Arrow Rock. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EVENTS FROM 1 834 TO 184O. 

1lie winter of 1834 and 1835 was very severe, the intense cold being 
long remembered. Cattle had their horns frozen off and, in some instances, 
their feet. Hogs and fowls perished in great numbers, and there was great 
damage done to the peach trees and other fruit trees. It was probably the 
most severe winter ever experienced by the early settlers of this county. 

The most notable event of 1836 was the ])residential election, the candi- 
dates being Martin VanBuren and Richard M. Johnson, of the Democratic 
partv; ^^'illiam Henry Harrison and Francis Granger, of the Whig party, 
and Hugh L. AVhite, of Tennessee, of the Independent, the latter being the 
brother-in-law of Gen. Thomas A. Smith, General Smith having married his 
sister. Dr. John Sappington was one of the Democratic electors, and his son- 
in-law, Claiborne F. Jackson, then a resident of Arrow Rock and a rising 
politician and a promising young canvasser, took an active part as a stump 
speaker for the Democratic party. The vote of Saline county was, Van- 
Buren, 178: White, T25: Harrison, 50. The vote of the state was, Van- 
Buren, 10,995; Harrison, 7,337; White, 3.256. The election resulted in 
the choice of VanBuren by the electoral college, he receiving one hundred and 
seventy votes, seventy-three for Harrison and twenty-six for White. South 
Carolina cast her vote for W. P. Mangum, of North Carolina, Massachuscttes 
gave her fourteen votes to her favorite son. Daniel \\>bster. There was no 
choice of Vice-President by the electoral college, no candidate receiving a 
majoritv of all the votes. The Senate was called upon to elect, and that body, 
being largelv Democratic, chose Col. R. M. Johnson, who killed Tecumseh. 

Cholera appeared again in the county this year, occasioning some excite- 
ment, l)ut there were only a few victims. Travel to St. Louis, though, was 
entirelv cut off and all intercourse suspended with infected places. 

In this year, 1837, Colonel Gentry's regiment of volunteers left the state 
to take part in the Seminole w^ar in Florida. '^^Fhis Seminole war was the most 
serious one the government ever had with the Indians, lasting for seven years 
and refjuiring the whole power of the United States to overcome them. There 
were a few of Saline county citizens from the Big bottom who volunteered for 
this w^ar, joining Capt. Congreve Jackson's company from Howard county, 
which was one of the best companies in Gentry's regiment. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI HI 

At the battle of Okechobee, December 25, 1837, Colonel Gentry and a 
number of his men were killed amidst the canebrakes in the Florida swamps. 
Col. James Chiles, of Jackson county, Missouri, was lieutenant-colonel of the 
regiment and in the midst of the fight when Colonel Gentry was killed. 
Colonel Chiles told the author of this book, years afterwards, that Gentry was 
killed in the midst of the battle, and the men falling in every direction around 
him, while there was not an Indian to be seen, and on being asked how he felt 
at that time, he said he never wanted to get away from a place as bad in his 
life. The Indians were entirely hidden from view by the dense canebrakes. 
Colonel Chiles became distinguished in command of the Missouri troops in 
the war against the Mormons the next vear. 

At that time several settlements of Mormons had congregated in the 
western part of the state, and the people determined to drive them out, and 
did so in what was called the Mormon war. A company of men from Saline 
county, under Captain Wolfskill, took an active part in this war against the 
Mormons. The members of this company were all well mounted and armed, 
and at the end of the campaign against the Mormons the latter were driven 
out of the state, taking refuge for a while in the state of Illinois, and eventually 
in the valley of the Great Salt lake in Utah. 

ESTABLISHMENT OF A PERMANENT COUNTY SEAT. 

In 1839 the county seat was removed from Jonesboro, where it had been 
for eight years past, to Arrow Rock, and from thence it was removed to Alar- 
shall, the permanent county seat. 

February 5, 1839, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the removal 
of the county seat of Saline county to the center of the county, or as near 
thereto as practicable, naming five commissioners to fix the site for the new 
county seat. These commissioners were Hugh Barnett, of Lafayette, Amos 
Home, of Johnson, Joseph Dixon and George McKinney, of Carroll, and 
Caton Usher, of Chariton. The commissioners met on Thursday, April nth, 
at the home of David Bailey, and on the 13th made the following report: 

commissioners' report. 

"To the Honorable Circuit Court of Saline County, Missouri : 

"In obedience to an act of the General Assembly, approved Februarv 8, 
1839, we, Hugh Barnett, of Lafayette county; Amos Home, of Johnson 
county; Caton Usher, of Chariton countv, and George McKinnev, of Carroll 



112 PAST AND PRESENT 

county, met at the house of David Bailey, in SaHne county, Missouri, on 
Thursday, the nth day of April, 1839, for the purpose of carrying into effect 
the provisions- of said act of the Assembly, and after learning the reasons 
why Joseph Dixon, of Carroll county, did not appear, we proceed to appoint, 
in lieu of Joseph Dixon, James Lucas, of said county of Carroll, and after 
being duly sworn, according to the act of the Assembly, we did proceed to 
ascertain, as near as possible, or practicable, the center of the county of Sa- 
line, according to a map of the said county, furnished us by the register of the 
land ofifice, at Fayette, Missouri, which we deemed to be in the center of sec- 
tion 10, in township 50, range 21, and not finding it to be a suitable place for 
the location of a county seat, we proceeded to examine the lands generally 
around the center of section 10, as aforesaid, and found, as we deemed to be 
the most suitable place nearest the said center of section 10 to be upon the 
lands of Jeremiah Odell, in section 15, in township 50, and range 21. Where- 
upon, the said Jeremiah Odell agreed to give, or donate, to the county of Sa- 
line, for the purpose of locating thereupon the permanent seat of justice for 
Saline county, sixtj^-five acres, to be taken from the north end of the east 
half of the northeast quarter of section 15, as above described: and upon ex- 
amining the title papers exhibited, and being satisfied that the said Odell's 
title was good, we have located the permanent seat of justice for Saline county, 
according to the act of Assembly aforesaid, upon the sixty-five acres of land, 
to be taken from, as above stated, the north end of the east half of the north- 
east quarter of section 15, and in township 50, and off of range 21. donated 
by Jeremiah Odell, and have received from him a deed of general warranty 
for the said sixty-five acres of land, which is herewith respectfully submitted." 
(Signed by the five commissioners serving, April 13, 1839.) 

This report of the commissioners was approved by the Hon. ^^^illiam 
Scott, at that time a judge of this circuit, July 18, 1839. The Hon. William 
Scott was afterwards for many years a very distinguished judge of the su- 
preme court. Two men, by their attorney, the Hon. David Todd, offered a re- 
monstrance against the confirmation of the report, but their objections were 
disregarded, being considered trivial, and so the report was approved by the 
circuit judge. The judge then appointed Cornelius Davis to superintend the 
survey and platting of the town and sell the lots. The commissioner was 
ordered to advertise the sale of the lots in the Boone's Lick Democrat, the 
Howard county paper, which he did, naming September 23d, following, the 
date for said sale. Notice of the sale as it appeared in the Boone's Lick Dem- 
ocrat gave a very flattering description of the town site and the surrounding 
country, commending it to the business men as a desirable point at which to 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



113 



locate. One hundred lots were ordered to be sold, and the sale came off as 
advertised, Thomas M. Davis acting as auctioneer and Horatio S. Cham- 
mers was clerk. The first lot, number one, in block four, was sold to William 
Miller for fifteen dollars. The second, lot eight, in block four, to William 
Hook for ten dollars. The third lot, number two, in block seven, to Clement 
Craig for nineteen dollars. The highest price lot was sold to Asa Finley for 
one hundred and thirty-six dollars, but Governor Marmaduke paid one hun- 
dred and eighty-five for lot three, in block nine, and William Lewis paid one 
hundred and eighty-two for lot two, in block twenty, being lots fronting on 
the public square. 

The judge of the court ordered an election to be held August 5th. for the 
purpose of allowing the voters of the county to select a temporary seat of 
government for the county. At the election. Arrow Rock was chosen by the 
voters, and the county seat was moved there about the middle of August, 1839. 
Arrow Rock remained the county seat for only a few months until it was re- 
moved permanently to ^Marshall, which has remained tlie countv seat ever 
since. 

The first term of county court in Arrow Rock was held November 11. 
1839. Gilmore Hayes and William A. W^ilson were the justices present. The 
first term of the circuit court was held there in November. 1839. William 
Scott being judge ; John A. Trigg, clerk, and David S. \\'ilson, sheriff'. The 
house occupied by the courts belonged to Benjamin Huston. 

At the session of the court in August, 1840. the new county seat was oc- 
cupied by the court. The court made an order that the countv seat should be 
called Marshall in honor of John Marshall, late chief justice of the United 
States. 

At the November term of the court, the commissioner of the countv seat 
was required and authorized to give notice in the Boone's Lick Democrat that 
sealed proposals would be recei\'ed by him for the building of a court house 
in accordance with the plan suljmitted by Henry Hook, said plan ordered to 
be filed. 

- At the same term of court, it was ordered that the sum of twelve thou- 
sand dollars be and the same is hereby appropriated for the building of the 
court house, and in addition thereto, any amount of money, which might be 
donated by patriotic citizens for that purpose. 

At the February term, 1840, the contract for building the court iKuise 
was awarded to William Hook for the sum of nine thousand dollars, payable 
in three installments, the building to be completed by November i. 1841. 
There was one other bid, which amounted to eleven thousand, seven hundred 

8 



114 PAST AND PRESENT 

and forty-eight dollars and forty cents. The plan called for a court house of 
brick, forty-five by forty feet, on a stone foundation, two stories high, the 
roof to be sufficiently strong to support a cupola, well sheeted and shingled, 
two staircases to connect the lower and upper floors, to be painted and finished 
in good style, in a neat and workmanlike manner and with good material. 

The house built at that time stood until the Civil war, being burned in 
the year 1864. 

EARLY RECORDS. 

There was nothing very remarkable or peculiar about the early records 
of Saline county. The first deed to real estate was dated 14th day of January, 
1 82 1, it being a deed to a New Madrid claim on the river in the northern part 
of the county. The next deed recorded was made by Taylor Berry and Fanny 
Berry, his wife, to Gen. Thomas A. Smith for a New Madrid claim, also, of 
six hundred and forty acres. The grantor in this deed, Taylor Berry, was 
a distinguished citizen and a leading man of Franklin, Howard county, and a 
lawyer of prominence. He and another lawyer, Abiel Leonard of that place, 
had a difficulty in the court of the justice of the peace, where Berry struck 
Leonard with a cowhide. For this offense, he was challenged by Leonard, 
and a duel arranged to be fought several months afterwards on an island in 
the Mississippi river, opposite the line between Missouri and Arkansas, called 
Wolf island. This duel proved fatal to Mr. Berry, his antagonist, Leonard, 
escaping without injury. The date of this deed was March 13, 1821. 

There were various other conveyances recorded at that time, bonds, for 
deeds, deeds of trust, chattel mortgages, etc., and a deed of a gift of a slave 
in the following language : 

"Saline County, State of Missouri, 
"February 28, 1825. 

"We, the undersigned, do certify that Anthony Thomas, Sr., did, this 
morning, about nine o'clock, being indisposed in health, though of sound mind 
and memory, call on us both to bear testimony to his declaration, which, after 
calling his youngest son, Anthony C, and his slave, George, before his pres- 
ence, then (spoke) as follows, to-wit : Tn consequence of Anthony having 
been afflicted with a scrofulous white swelling, and his liability to further af- 
flictions of the kind, I believe him to be constitutionally debilitated, and 
have, therefore, thought it expedient (to give him) this boy, George.' He 
then, taking the slave, George, by the hand, delivered him to the said Anthony, 
saying: 'Before these witnesses, I give, bequeath and deliver to you, An- 
thony, my son. for yourself, your heirs and assigns, forever, this slave. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI II5 

George ; but you are not to take full possession of him during your mother's 
or my lifetime.' In witness of which we have hereto set our hands and seals 
the day and year above written. 

"(L. S.) Perry G. Buck. 

"(L. S.) John D. Thomas." 

INCIDENTS FROM THE EARLY RECORDS OF THE CIRCUIT COURT HELD AT OLD 

JONESBORO. 

At the November term, 1836, ^^'. B. Xapton, who lived at Jefferson 
City, presented his commission as attorney general, having been appointed 
by the governor. Under the law at that time, it was the duty of the attorney 
general to prosecute all state cases in the trial court in the first circuit, of 
which this county formed a part. It was also his duty to prosecute all state 
cases in the supreme court. 

At the March term, 1837, William Scott, of Cole county, produced his 
commission as judge of the circuit court, had the same filed and took his seat 
as such. 

At the same term, Dewitt McNutt was admitted to the bar to practice 
as an attorney, and some years afterwards represented the county in the 
Legislature. 

At the same term. Gen. George R. Smith was admitted to practice as an 
attorney. He lived at Georgetown, Pettis county, Missouri, and was the man 
who afterwards founded Sedalia. 

Many of the well-known people were engaged in civil suits pending in 
the courts at that time. One firm, Jackson & Miller, who kept a store at 
Arrow Rock, had several suits pending as plaintiffs against some defendant, 
and also the firm of Darwin, Sappington & Company, who had a store at 
Jonesboro, were plaintiffs in several suits for the collection of debts. 



• CHAPTER IX. 

AFFAIRS FROM 1 84O TO THE MEXICAN WAR. 

Tlie presidential campaign of 1840 excited general interest throughout 
the state of Missouri, and in fact all over the United Steates. The Whig party 
nominated General Harrison as its candidate for President, with John Tyler 
of Virginia for Vice-President. The Democrats renominated VanBuren and 
Johnson. The candidacy excited more interest and enthusiasm than any that 
had ever taken place in the history of the country. There had been a great 
stringency in the money market, the financial embarrassment occasioning- hard 
times throughout the country. In the Western states there was scarcely any 
currency at all, and the traffic was reduced to an exchange of commodities be- 
tween the farmer and the merchants. The laboring men were either out of 
employment altogether or compelled to work for very low wages, and prices 
of all produce had fallen to the lowest figures, producing general discontent 
throughout the western country. Very naturally the people contributed the 
distressing condition of affairs to the administration of VanBuren of the Dem- 
ocratic party. The Whigs took advantage of this situation, conducting their 
campaign with great ardor and enthusiasm. Mass conventions of great num- 
bers of people were held, converted into regular political campmeetings in 
many instances, and remaining in session for several days at a time. The ob- 
ject of both parties seemed to be to carry the election by music and banners. 
At the time General Harrison was clerk of the court of Hamiltfin county. 
Ohio, living in a house of one room built of logs. A Democratic editor vis- 
iting the place observed that in addition to the humble style of the General's 
dwelling, on the outer walls of the log kitchen a coon skin was nailed up in 
the process of curing. Returning home, this Democratic editor commented 
facetiously upon these things, sneering at a party whose candidate sought 
the exalted office of President living in a log cabin, ornamented with a coon's 
skin, having nothing better to drink than hard cider. Ihimediately the \\diigs 
took up the statement of the Democratic editor, acknowledging the facts, of 
which they were justly proud, and the campaign was thereafter known as the 
"Log Cabin, Coon Skin and Hard Cider Campaign." Monster \\'hig meet- 
ings were held all o\er the country, at which l(^g cabins of all sizes, live coons 
and veritable hard cider were displayed. Processions were formed miles in 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI II7 

lengtli. containing every unique feature that could be conceived. Cannons 
were fired, bells rung", amid all sorts and kinds of fuss and fustian indulged 
in by the partisans of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." 

To counteract the influence of these great meetings, the Democrats held 
their great meetings also, which equalled, if they did not surpass, the efforts 
of the \Miigs. Invoking the name and the prestige of (General Jackson, who 
ardent!}' supported Mr. VanBuren. they adopted hickory boughs and chicken 
cocks as their party emblem and defiantly waved the former and caused the 
latter to crow exultantly in the faces of their opponents. 

In this county, for the first time in its history, the campaign was very 
exciting. One of the oldest and most prominent citizens. M. M. Marmaduke. 
was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor. He and his friends 
made extraordinary efiforts to carry the county. Meetings were held at Arrow 
Rock, Miami, Old Jefiferson and other points, Claiborne F. Jackson leading 
in the canvass. The Democratic candidate. Thomas Reynolds, made one 
speech in the county at Marshall. The Whigs were equally as active and de- 
termined as the Democrats. They had the majority of the voters of the 
countv. and they permitted no changes to take place if they could possibly 
help it. Their organization was very complete and managers very active, 
carrving the county by the following vote : Harrison and l\vler, three hundred 
and seventy-five; VanBuren and Johnson, three hundred and twenty-two; 
leaving fiftv-three majority for the Whigs. At the preceding presidential 
election, the regular Democratic candidate had carried the county by a plu- 
ralitv of forty-three. In this campaign, the Democrats carried the state, how- 
ever, the governor being elected by seven thousand four hundred and thirteen 
majority, and the presidential candidate by six thousand, se\-en hundred and 
eighty-eight. 

On September 2 1 St of this year, the first term of the county court was 
held in Marshall, the new county seat. Gilmore Hayes and W. A. ^^'ilson 
were present as justices, John A. Trigg was clerk, and Robert Fields, sherifif. 

On the morning of the 9th of February, 1844, Governor Thomas Rey- 
nolds committed suicide in the governor's room at Jefiferson City by shooting 
himself in the head with a rifle. Thereupon, M. !\[. ^larmaduke. of this 
county, became governor. His administration was short comparatively, and 
the Legislature assembling in November, he sent in his first and only annual 
message. 

In June of this year, 1844, occurred the high water in the Missouri river, 
in wdiich all the bottoms were overflowed. All the river bottoms in Saline 
county were overflowed and the people were forced to retreat to higher lands, 



Il8 PAST AND PRESENT 

the rise exceeding that of all others by at least ten feet. According to R. C. 
Land, the river was eight or ten miles wide. 

In the presidential election of this year, James K. Polk, of Tennessee, 
and George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, were the Democratic candidates 
against Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jer- 
sey, the nominees of the Whigs. The canvass this year was almost as excit- 
ing and conducted with as great an amount of warmth and enthusiasm on 
either side as it was in the campaign of 1840. The Whigs carried the 
county by one hundred and forty-five majority. The Democrats, however, 
carried the state with forty-one thousand three hundred and sixty-nine for 
Polk, and thirty-one thousand two hundred and fifty-one votes for Clay. 

MEXICAN. WAR. 

Our war with Mexico came on in 1846, the annexation of Texas to the 
United States being declared as the cause of the war by Mexico. The Pres- 
ident of the United States announced that war actually existed between Mex- 
ico and the United States and called on the Congress to so declare and pro- 
vide for the declaration of war and the raising of troops. 

At this time the army under General Taylor, in what is now southwestern 
Texas, was found in a somewhat perilous situation, and General Gaines, then 
in command at New Orleans, being advised of this fact and believing that an 
action of the authorities at Washington would be too late to afford relief, re- 
quested of the different states lying west of the Mississippi to raise volunteers 
for the service. Edwards, the governor of this state, promptly responded, 
calling on Saline county for fifty men. Gen. George AV. Lewis, commanding 
the division of the Missouri militia, appointed May 21st for the meeting of 
the people for the purpose of raising the requisite number of men by volunteer 
enlistment if practicable, or by draft if necessary. On the day so appointed, 
more than the required number volunteered for the war. A company was 
organized, and John W. Reid, then a lawyer at Marshall, was elected cap- 
tain, Calvin J. Miller, first lieutenant, and Thomas E. Staples, second lieuten- 
ant. At their own expense, the members of this company went down to St. 
Louis and reported to Col. Robert Campbell for service, but were refused. 
The government had annulled or disregarded the order of General Gaines 
and placed him under arrest for issuing it. Mortified at the turn of affairs, 
the Saline county men came back home. They were joked at l)y their neigh- 
bors for a time, but all this soon passed away. 

On the 13th of May Congress passed the requisite law for raising volun- 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI I 19 

teers to conduct the war. President Polk called on Governor Edwards for 
a regiment of volunteers to join the Army of the West, then under command 
of Col. Stephen W. Kearney, of the First United States Regular Dragoons, 
in an expedition against Santa Fe and other Mexican possessions belonging to 
the territory of Mexico and known as New Mexico. Then Governor Edwards 
called on Saline county for a company of eighty men. The response was as 
prompt and eager as could have been desired, and some of the best men of 
Saline county prepared to rally for the conduct of the war. The people as- 
sembled at Marshall and a company of one hundred men volunteered for the 
service. On the 30th of May they elected John W. Reid, captain, by acclama- 
tion. There were two candidates for the office of first lieutenant, resulting 
in the election of C. J. Miller, and for second lieutenant, F. A. Bush was 
elected. Non-commissioned officers were also elected. 

Thursday, June 4th. was named for the day appointed for rendezvous- 
ing in Marshall for the purpose of appraising the horses and equipage. 

The next morning, June 5, 1846, the company was presented with a 
handsome flag by the ladies of Marshall, which they promised to return un- 
sullied, or not at all, and, with goodbyes and stirring emotions, the company 
rode away, with the best wishes for success and fervent prayers for safe re- 
turn by a great concourse of people, who had assembled to witness the depar- 
ture. They marched off for Fort Leavenworth, to which point the regiment 
had been ordered to rendezvous. 

The company made its first camp upon the fami of John Lewis near 
Grand Pass, Lewis and Captain Reid having been particular friends of long 
standing, and the entire company was treated to a bountiful supper and break- 
fast and their horses furnished abundant forage, receiving very hospitable 
treatment and a royal welcome. The following day, June 6th, the company 
arrived at Dover, Lafayette county, where it was received and welcomed by 
a public meeting of the citizens of the town and surrounding country. Mr. 
O'Bannon made an eloquent speech on behalf of the people, to which Captain 
Reid, who was himself a very gallant and gifted man, responded. The mem- 
bers were also treated to several other speeches in addition to mint juleps in 
abundance to such an extent that both horses and men were too highly elevated 
to continue the march, camping for the night near Dover. 

On Sunday, June 7th, Liberty, Clay county, was reached, where the 
company was right generously entertained at supper and breakfast at the 
hotel, and their horses all fed and cared for at the livery stables. The hospi- 
tality received at Liberty might have been attributed to some extent to the 
fact that Hon. A. W. Doniphan, a prominent and leading citizen of that place, 



I20 



PAST AND PRESENT 



had declared himself a candidate for colonel of the reg-iment to which this com- 
pany expected to be attached. 

The next day the company proceeded on its journey and reached Fort 
Leavenworth on the 9th of June, 1846. 

At Fort Leavenworth, before they were mustered into the service of the 
United States, the men were told if there were any among- them who wished 
to withdraw, now was their time, for after they were sworn and mustered in, 
desertion would be punished with death. One man, John Miller, withdrew, 
and M. A. and Oscar Haynie and William Bartlett were rejected. 

The following is the role of the company that was mustered in at Fort 
Leavenworth June 10, 1846, all of whom were from Saline county except 
seven, who joined at the fort. The company was styled Company D, First 
Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers : 



First Sergeant, William P. Hicklin. 

Second " T. E. Staples. 

Third " \y. H. M. Lewis. 

Fourth " A. Cain. 

First Corporal, L. A. McClean. 

Second " James A. Gaines. 

Third " Isaac Hays. 

Fourth " R. P. Hayne. 

Alder, C. B. 

Albertson, Jesse. 

Beatie, William. 

Brown, Benjamin. 

Brown, John. 

Berry, Robert H. 

Clarkson, Chris. 

Cowan, Andrew. 

Campbell, Andrew. 

Coffey, B. F. 

Craig, H. H. 

Dresslar, G. W. 

Durrett, J. M. 

Durrett, B. B. 

Dille, Squire. 

Dille, S. H. 

Edwards, T. J. 



Edwards, M. B. 
Ferrill, John. 
Farris, Warren. 
Furguson, Isaac, 
Fizer, Joseph. 
Gwinn, Bart, 
(iilmore, C. 
Garrett, J. M. 
Garrett, C, K. 
Green, Alex. 
Green. \\\ M. 
Hays. J. C. 
Hays. Isaac. 
Henton, Andrew. 
Harrison, Daniel. 
Herkins, J. H. 
Jackson, Alfred. 
Jones, John C. 
Johnston, E. J. 
Kile. Joseph. 
Ivile, William. 
Lansdell, William. 
Lankford, Thomas. 
Lewis, John A. 
Lewis. John S. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



121 



Lvle, U'illiam. 
Lemon, Scott. 
Lynch, A. W. 
Long-. J. P. 
Martin, John. 
Morris, Mathew. 
Marshall, Joseph. 
Moore, H. W. 
Neff, H. \V. 
Nichols, James. 
Osburn, W. M. 
O'Bannon, Thomas H. 
Obeishon, B. 
Patterson, George W. 
Pemberton. 
Reese, Bradford. 
Reed, James. 
Robinson, Jacob. 
Shannon, J. D. 
Steele, James A. 



Sheridan, John. 
Sullivan, William. 
Strother, William. 
Stephenson, Charles. 
Stewart, Alex. 
Smith, Bart. 
Smith, Saul F. 
Smith, Samuel. 
Smith, Benjamin F. 
Smith, Fred. 
Vaughan. J. P. 
Wheeler, Thomas. 
Whitson, Lipton. 
Wall, John. 
Wallace, R. M. 
Winkle, Adam. 
Wilpley. Redman. 
Wayne, J. T. 
Waugh, Thomas. 
W^alker, T- P. 



The regiment was organized at Fort Leavenworth and designated as First 
Regiment Missouri Mounted Volunteers, and was composed of eight com- 
panies. Company A was from Jackson county. Captain Waldo ; Company B, 
from Lafayette county. Captain Walton ; Company C, from Clay county, 
Captain Moss ; Company D from Saline county. Captain Reid* ; Company E, 
from Franklin county, Captain Stephenson ; Company F, from Cole county. 
Captain Parsons ; Company G, from Howard county. Captain Jackson, and 
Company H, from Callaway county. Captain Rogers. The field officers were 
elected by these companies, and commissioned afterwards. There were two 

* John W. Rcid, captain of Company D, Saline county, was born at Lynchlnirg, 
Virginia, June 14, 1820; died suddenly at Lee's Summit, Jackson county, Missouri. 

Captain Reid came of patriotic families, and his ancestors fought in the Revolution : 
one of them founded Liberty Hall Academy, now Washington and Lee University, Vir- 
ginia. He grew to manhood at La Porte, Indiana, where he was given a classical educa- 
tion. When but little more than twenty, he moved to Alissouri, and lived in Saline count}^ 
He first taught school, then studied law, and was admitted to the bar; he practiced with 
considerable success. His record as a soldier in the Mexican war was famed for gal- 
lantry and courage. It was claimed that he was put forward on all occasions to enable 
him to make a great record ; other captains claimed that he was too much favored, and 
on this account, he was not generally popular in the regiment. He was prominent in the 



122 PAST AND PRESENT 

candidates for the colonelcy of the regiment, A. W. Doniphan, from Clay, 
and Colonel Price, from Howard. Doniphan was chosen colonel by a nearly 
unanimous vote, and after a spirited contest between C. F. RufT and William 
T. Gilpin for the office of lieutenant-colonel, the former was elected, Gilpin 
being chosen major of the regiment. 

To the First Missouri Mounted Volunteers were afterwards joined Cap- 
tain Hudson's company, the Laclede Rangers ; also two companies of artillery 
from St. Louis in charge of Captains Weightman and Fisher and under com- 
mand of Major Clarke, and two companies of infantry under Captains Murphy 
and Augney. Besides these were Kearney's dragoons ; and these commands 
composed the members of the famed "Doniphan's Expedition." 

After a brief period spent in arming, drilling and disciplining the men, 
the expedition prepared to set out for Santa Fe in New Mexico. Alexander 
\\\ Doniphan, who had been elected colonel, was a private in the company 
from Clay county, an eminent lawyer, and a man who had distinguished him- 
self as a brigadier-general in the campaign of 1838, against the Mormons in 
the far West, and who had also honorably served his countrymen as a member 
of the state Legislature and the foremost criminal lawyer then living in the 
state. During his career as a lawyer in Missouri it is said he defended fifty- 
six men indicted for murder in the first degree, all of whom were acquitted 
but two, those two receiving penitentiary sentences. 

When the column was on the eve of departure for the distant borders of 
New Mexico, the people in western Missouri collected in crowds at the fort to 
bid their sons, brothers and relatives adieu before they launched upon the 
boundless plains of the W^est. The ushering of an army upon the bosom of 
the great prairie, with flags and pennants gaily streaming in the breeze is a 
sight no less interesting in its nature, and there can be no less solicitude felt 
for its safety than is manifested at the departure of a fleet for some distant land 
when, with spreading sails, the vessels launch upon the restless, heaving deep. 
Before the expedition set out, the patriotic ladies from the adjacent counties 

border troubles between i\Jissouri and Kansas prior to the Civil war and commanded the 
, Missouri forces that burned Osawatomie, Kansas territory. In iS()0 he was elected to 
Congress, but the coming of the w'ar caused him to resign. He was appointed a com- 
missioner to adjust claims against the Confederate govermncnt, but seems to have done 
little work in that capacity. He spent a year in the federal military prison at St. Louis, 
at the end of which time he was released on his parole and agreement to take no further 
part in the war. In 1865 he located in Kansas City and began the practice of law. He 
amassed a large estate. He did much for the growth of Kansas City. He was twice 
married, first, to a Mrs. Flourney, second, to a Miss Magraw, daughter of AI. V. Magraw, 
a pioneer Santa Fe trader of Independence. Missouri. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I23 

came to the fort on several occasions on board the steamboats, which were 
then almost daily arriving and departing, to present their countrymen with 
flags wrought by their own hands, — at once the token of their regard, and the 
star bedecked emblem of their country's liberty. On presentation of these 
flags, the ladies usually delivered addresses, which inspired every heart with 
courage and nerved every arm for the dangers of the campaign. 

Early in September the regiment reached Santa Fe. their objective point, 
after suffering many hardships. After they had remained in Santa Fe a 
week or two. Company D with two other companies, under Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Jackson, were sent against the Navajo Indians, upon which which ex- 
pedition they set out on the 21st of September, 1846. On this journey, Bart 
Gwinn. of Saline county, died. After scouting out among the Navajos and 
eventually forming a treaty of peace with them. Colonel Doniphan collected 
his forces for the famous march to Chihuahua, December 12, 1846. On this 
march, they were engaged in two principal battles, the battle of Bracito and 
the battle of Sacramento, in both of which they acquitted themselves with 
great credit, so much so that on the connection of the Missouri Volunteers 
with the army of Taylor, General Taylor was pleased to say in the following 
general order: 

"Headquarters of the Army of Occupation, 
"Camp near Monterey, April 14, 1847. 
"General Order No. 32. 

"The commanding general would at the same time announce another 
signal success won by the gallantry of our troops on the 28th of February, 
City of Chihuahua. A column of Missouri Volunteers less than a thousand 
strong, with a light field battery, attacked the Alexican force many times their 
superior in numbers in an entrenched position, captured its artillery and bag- 
gage and defeated it with great loss. 

"By Command of Major-General Taylor." 

The vast superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race, though only one to four, 
carried all before them and the battle was decided, though not finished, in 
an hour after it was begun. The battle of Sacramento was fought on the 
28th of February, 1847. After the battle, Doniphan took possession of the 
city of Chihauhua, the capital of the state, containing a population of twenty- 
five thousand. 

Remaining in Chihuahua two months, on the 24th of April the regiment 
was ordered home, the news being joyfully received, and the men beg"an their 
march for Missouri on the 26th of April, 1847, marching down into Mexico 
to General Wool's headquarters, where they were discharged, their year's 



124 PAST AND PRESENT 

service having expired. Being' mustered out and receiving their pay, they 
marched (in to the seahoard, to the mouth of the river Rio Grande, or Brazos 
island, where they found water transportation to Xew Orleans. Before the 
regiment left Xew Mexico, it receixecl the following \'ery com])limentar)- men- 
tion from Brigadier-General \\'oo], commanding' division : 

"Headquarters at Buena Vista, 
"May 22, 1847. 
"Special Orders, No. 273. 

"'I'he general commanding takes great pleasure in expressing the grati- 
fication he has received this afternoon in meeting the Missouri Volunteers. 
Thev are about to close their present term of military service, after having 
rendered, in the course of the arduous duties they have been called upon to 
perform, a series of highly important services, crowned by decisive and glori- 
ous victories. No troops can point to a more brilliant career than those com- 
manded by Colonel Doniphan and none will ever hear of the battles of Bracito 
and Sacramento without a feeling of admiration for the men who gained them. 
The state of Missouri has just cause to be proud of the achievements of the 
men who represented her in the anny against Mexico, and she will no doubt 
receive them on their return with all the joy and satisfaction to which a flue 
appreciation of their merits and services so justly entitle them. In bidding 
them adieu, the general wishes to Colonel Doniphan, his officers and men, a 
hajipy return to their families and homes. 

"By command of 

"Brigadier-General John E. A\'ool." 

The members of the Saline county compau}- did not all return to their 
homes at the same time. However, all of the survi\ors were at home by the 
4th of July, 1847, ^^^^ oi'i tl^3-t *^^'^y tli^ returned volunteers were given a grand 
reception by the people of the count}-. The place selected was in Walnut 
Grove, a beautiful, grassy wood on the level ground east of the bridge on 
the road from Miami to the bottom lands Ijelow. The assemblage, including 
the soldiers and many people from adjoining counties, was very large. The 
order of the day was as f(^llows : .\ procession was formed in Miami and 
regularly marshaled and marched with music and banners to the ground, 
forming quite an imjiosing pageant. .\ magnificent barbecue was served in 
the old-fashion style at noon day, the meats being cooked in deep pits dug 
in the ground and served to the multitude on long tables. Col. John Brown, 
then the representati\'e in the Legislature, presided at the table W T. 
Hewitt was the orator of the day, and his address (^f welcome to the Saline 
a^unty heroes was replete with elo(|uence, cordialitx- and patriotism. After 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 1 25 

dinner many congratulatory and patriotic speeches were made and offered 
and cordiall}- responded to. One of the toasts remembered was "This Bar- 
l>ecue. a Home Harvest Feast for the Brave Boys Who Have Been Reaping- 
Laurels on the Field of Bracito and Sacramento." The celebration was 
closed with a grand ball in a large warehouse at the foot of Main street in 
Miami, which was largely attended and participated in by the best people of 
the countr^■. 



CHAPTER X. 

FROM THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR TO 185O. 

In accordance with a treaty made mth the Sac and Fox Indians at their 
agency in southern Iowa in 1842, they were removed from that state in the 
fall of 1845 and the spring of 1846 to a reservation for them in Kansas. 
Those who left in the fall of 1845 were not in charge of the government 
agent, but came voluntarily down the Grand River to its mouth, and then 
crossed over to the Saline county side to spend the winter in the bottom 
nearly opposite Brunswick, waiting for the mild weather of spring to open 
before removing to their reservation in Kansas. They arrived in the Miami 
bottom in January, 1846. The band was in the charge of the renowned chief, 
Keokuk ("the watchful fox"), and young Blackhawk, and other prominent 
braves. The band numbered about five hundred, men, women and children, 
or rather braves, squaws, and papooses. 

Soon after the arrival of the Indians, the people of the northern part of 
the county grew indignant and resentful, chiefly because the Indians were 
destroying the game, and efforts were being made to call out the militia, when 
unexpectedly Major T. H. Harvey,* superintendent of Indian affairs, arrived 
at his home a few miles south of Miami. On learning the state of affairs, 



* Major Thomas H. Harve}^ was superintendent of Indian affairs, appointed by John 
Tyler, President of the United States, in 1843, the office and headquarters of the superin- 
tendent of Indian affairs at that time being St. Louis. 

Major Harvey was born in Northumberland county, Virginia, February 22, 1799. Major 
Harvey's father, Thomas, died when he was quite young, and he being the eldest of a 
large family of children, a great portion of his time was necessarily taken up in assisting 
in providing for the wants of his younger brothers and sisters, thereby limiting his own 
opportunities. He early developed a fine, vigorous constitution and precocity of intellect, 
and had married twice before he reached the age of twenty-one, being married first just 
before he reached the age of eighteen. His second wife was formerly Miss Elizabeth S. 
Edwards, daughter of Richard Edwards, of Northumberland county. 

In 1835 Mr. Harvey made a trip west on a prospecting tour, traveling on horseback 
through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Being highly pleased with the soil of Saline 
county, while here he purchased the iMiller tract on Salt fork, afterwards known as "Har- 
vey's Grove," which then embraced four hundred acres, principally timber. He returned the 
same year to his family in Virginia, and in 1836 moved his wife and children to this 
county. He afterwards entered two thousand eight hundred acres of adjoining prairie 
land just north of the first tract, which, taken altogether, constituted one of the finest 
estates in the county. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 12/ 

he came to Miami and sent messag'es to the Indian camp, requesting the 
chiefs and head men to come up and have a talk with him. These chiefs 
promptly responded, and the council met in the town of Miami. Keokuk and 
young Blackhawk, with a number of their sub-chiefs, and their interpreter, 
Joseph Smart, represented the Indians, Major Harvey and a deputation of 
citizens represented the whites. There was considerable discussion as to the 
situation on both sides. The Indian chiefs evinced great indisposition to 
moving at that time of the year, the weather being severe, saying that much 
suffering must necessarily ensue among their women and children. The 
matter was at last settled by the philanthropic Major Harvey. He owned 
a large tract of timbered land on the bottom above Miami, to which the In- 
dians consented to remove their camp, and to remain there until the next 
spring, and not to trespass upon the lands owned by other whites in the 
meantime. This arrangement satisfied both parties, and the Indians were 
soon established in their new quarters. 

The Indians left in March for their Kansas reservations, and not long 
afterwards the great chief, Keokuk, died, it was said of delirium tremens 
after a protracted debauch. Young Blackhawk had a white woman for one 
of his wives, it was said, a daughter of a woman who had been captured by 
the Sacs in early times. This, however, was a mistake. The woman in 
question was a white woman from a small town in Iowa, who had been forced 
to leave her home and join the Indians at their camp, at a small town in Van- 
Buren county, Iowa, becoming the wife of Young Blackhawk, or Pete, as 
the whites in Iowa called him. These Indians were well acquainted in Saline 

Major Harvey represented his county in the Virginia Legislature several times before 
coming to !\Iissouri. He was elected to the Legislature in this state in 1838, as a Demo- 
crat. Li 1840 he was chosen state senator, his district comprising the counties of Saline, 
Pettis and Benton. 

President Tyler appointed him superintendent of .Indian affairs for the western In- 
dians in 1843, and he was continued in the same position by James K. Polk, President, 
during his administration, being ultimately superseded during the succeeding administra- 
tion of President Taylor, and this terminated his official experience. 

Major Harvey joined the Methodist Episcopal church while in Virginia, and ever af- 
terwards maintained a Christian standing. When the division in his denomination occurred 
in 1844, he cast his associations with the Methodist church South, in which he continued 
fellowship up to the time of his death, February 5, 1852. His- health had been for several 
years considerably impaired by exposure endured on the western plains in discharge of 
his duties as Indian agent and superintendent, and which laid the foundation of a pul- 
monary affection that finally terminated his life, dying in the prime of manhood at the 
meridian of his usefulness. He was a good legislator, a fluent speaker, and one of the 
most popular men that ever lived in Saline county. 

Major Harvey's wife succeeded him to the grave in about a year, dying in January, 
1853, and also had been many years a member of the IMethodist church South, having a 



128 PAST AND PRESENT 

county and in this part of Missouri generally, having lived here in the long 
ago and others of the band hax'ing visited here during the war of 1812. 

In the presidential campaign of 1848, General Zachary Taylor, of 
Louisiana, was the Whig candidate for President, with Millard Filmore, of 
New York, for Vice-President. The Democratic candidate was Gen. Lewis 
Cass, of Michig"an. for President, and Gen. \\'illiam O. Butler, of Kentucky, 
for Vice-President. There was not much excitement over the campaign in 
Saline county that year. The Whigs carried the county by a reduced ma- 
jority, the vote being, Taylor and Filmore, five hundred and twenty-six ; Cass 
and Butler, four hundred and thirty-eight; majority for the Whigs, ninety- 
eight. Not all the Whigs voted for General Taylor. Some of the returned 
soldiers did not like him and voted against him. There was a third presiden- 
tial ticket in the field, that of the Freesoilers. composed of Martin VanBuren. 
fomierly a Democrat, and Charles Francis Adams, but it received no \otes 
outside of the Northern states. The Whigs made great and strenuous efforts 
to carry Missouri for "Old Rough and Ready", as they called General Taylor, 
as also they did throughout the L^nited States, and although the Whigs suc- 
ceeded in electing their nominees, the}' failed to carry Missouri. The vote 
was for the Democratic electors, forty thousand and seventy-seven; for the 
\\'h.ig electors, thirty-tw'o thousand six hundred and seventy-one. majority 
for the Democrats, over seven thousand. 

In Januarv of the }'ear 1849 began a series of animated discussions in 
Congress and the Legislature of the state concerning the (;|uestion of slavery, 
and of the power of Congress to legislate over slavery in the territories. Mr. 
W'ilmott. of Pennsylvania, had sometime before introduced into Congress a 

religious history similar to that of her husband. Five sons were reared to manhood. T. 
R. E. Harvey, one of his sons, represented tliis county in the Legislature in 1872. One 
of Major Harve_\'s sons, Theodore L., is yet living in Alonett, Missouri. His grandson, 
T. H. Harvey, an attorney-at-lav^-. is a resident of this city, Marshall; H. VV. Harvey, 
another grandson, lives on a farm near Fairville, Missouri. Other grandchildren live in 
Kansas City, Missouri, J. G. L. Harvey being county counselor of Jackson county. 

Major Harve\- had a social, genial nature and was exceedingly popular with his 
Indian wards. On one occasion he spoke to a chief of his twin sons he had left at home. 
Soon afterwards, the chief sent the twins a jiretty Indian jiony as a gift. They also gave 
the Major wampums, bows and arrows, tomahawks and calumets, to indicate their regard 
for him. And when Major Harvey lay on his death bed, a band of Indians was hunting 
in his woodland, and hearing of his illness, asked the i)rivilege of seeing him, but the 
physicians thought it improper. Then the Indians built a tire and danced around it chant- 
ing the death song, and saying, "Major Harvey good man, Major Harvey die," and all 
these evidences of affection by the Indians were pleasant for his family to know. He 
died at his home, six miles northwest of Marshall, February 5, 1852, leaving a handsome 
estate for his familv. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I29 

proviso in a bill appropriating- money to carry on the Mexican war. in words 
as follows : "That as an express and fundamental condition to the ac- 
quisition of any territory from the republic of Mexico by the United States, 
bv virtue of any treaty that may be negotiated between them, and to the use 
bv the executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor in- 
voluntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for 
crime whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." 

While the debate over this question of slavery in the territories was 
going' on in the Missouri Legislature. Hon. C. F. Jackson, of Howard county, 
introduced a set of resolutions on that subject that created considerable ex- 
citement in this state for several years following. The fifth clause in said 
resolutions took the position "That in the event of the passage of an act of 
Congress conflicting' with the principles herein expressed, Missouri will be 
found in hearty co-operation with the slave-holding states in such measures 
as ma}' be deemed necessary for our mutual protection against the encroach- 
ments of Northern fanaticism." Afterwards, when the author of the resolu- 
tions had become governor of the state, and the war came on over this c[ues- 
tion, he adhered to the opinion expressed in the foregoing resolutions, which 
had passed the Legislature ten or twelve years before, holding the position 
that this state should co-operate with her sister slave-holding states as to 
the issues brought on by the war. 

EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA IN 1849. 

In the spring of 1849 '^ great migration from Saline county to Cali- 
fornia in sea'rch of gold took place, gold having been discovered there the 
previous fall, and the author can yet recollect the interest and excitement that 
was occasioned in this county. About one hundred and fifty men left this 
county that spring for that distant territory, crossing the plains and moun- 
tains to the west of us. California was regarded by the people generally as a 
far-away terra incognita, or unknown region. But as a matter of fact Cali- 
fornia was settled by the Spaniards long before Missouri was by the Ameri- 
cans, and it is a singular fact that the immense deposits of gold had not been 
found by the Spaniards long before discovered by the Americans at Sutter's 
Mill in 1848. 

During the spring and summer of 1849, o^ the main traveled state road 
up the river on the south side through Saline county, there might be seen 
almost a continuous caravan of covered wagons moving westward. After 
reaching the borders of Missouri, and the territory to the west of us. the 

9 



1^0 PAST AND PRESENT 

emigrants would band together, forming a caravan controlled by a captain, 
who was at that time elected by vote in order to assure co-operation and 
mutual protection against the Indians as they traversed the plains and moun- 
tain country then almost entirely inhabited by these savages. 

The discovery of gold in California soon created a wonderful change in 
the currency here, and also in the prices of commodities, products of this 
county and state, particularly of cattle, horses and mules, all of which ad- 
vanced greatly in value, and the demand for the same being also much ac- 
celerated. Although there were cattle in California, and had been for hun- 
dreds of vears, they were mostly wild and unfit for domestic use. and after 
the mines were open there was a great demand for work oxen and milk cows, 
that were largely supplied from this state, large droves of milk cows and oxen 
were collected and driven out to California and sold there for a handsome 
profit. 

After a while great quantities of gold taken out of the mines in Cali- 
fornia began to be converted into money and. finding its way into the cur- 
rency of this county, gave additional acceleration to commerce as well as 
adding further enhancement to the value of property. 

These Argonauts, gold seekers to California, notwithstanding the lure of 
the gold, preserved a strong attachment for their native state, Missouri. An 
interesting incident illustrative of this has been related of a company in Cali- 
fornia from the eastern part of this county about the confluence of Salt fork 
and Bldckwater, of which the late Dabney Marshall was one. This particu- 
lar band of gold seekers having reached the auriferous section of that won- 
derful state, and having worked steadily and energetically and successfully 
for several months back in the interior of the territory, probably on the Amer- 
ican river, the entire party determined to make a visit to the seaport, San 
Francisco, as a matter of rest and recreation. Reaching there, and having 
spent several days and nights in viewing the sights of the city, at last they 
determined to visit the coast to get a view of the grand Pacific ocean, the 
majority of the party never having had a view of the ocean before that time. 
The entire party were walking along the l)each when the tide was coming in. 
and the waves running high. The weather being fine and the atmosphere 
clear, there were many exclamations of the magnificence and grandeur of the 
view, the sight being novel to all of them. After a while, Dalmey Marshall 
spoke up, saying, "Yes, gentlemen, it is all very fine and grand, but I would 
much rather see Blackwater." Dabney had been born and reared and had 
fished on Blackwater and was unable to appreciate the beauties of the Pacific 
ocean while so far away from the local attachments of his boyhood. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I3I 

Some years before this trade with CaHfornia sprung up, the people of 
Sahne county had begun the improvement of their cattle by the importation of 
the Durham breed from Kentucky, of later years called Shorthorns, Gen. 
Thomas A. Smith being- among- the first owners of thoroughbred cattle in 
Saline county. Col. John O'Fallon, of St. Louis, who was an intimate friend 
of General Smith, having served under him in the army, while the General 
was in command of this western country, had become wealthy by the ad- 
vancement of real estate in St. Louis and was the owner of an extensive herd 
of Durham cattle at his farm, then in the suburbs of St. Louis, but now con- 
stituting a portion of O'Fallon Park in that city. 

In the month of June, 1843, Colonel O'Fallon sent up to General Smith 
by steamboat a fine Durham bull and two cows as a present. At that period, 
1843, Colonel O'Fallon was the owner of the largest and best herd of Dur- 
hams in the state, and this present sent up to General Smith doubtless re- 
sulted in a very great improvement of his herd of cattle, not only of his 
own herd, but those in the vicinity. About the same time, or perhaps a year 
or so before, Col. Thompson Gaines, of Kentucky, brought out a considerable 
number of thoroughbred Durhams, which were distributed from the farm 
of his brother-in-law. Gen. William Miller. This herd of Colonel Gaines 
comprised a dozen or more of fine animals, male and female, which were ulti- 
mately distributed over Saline county and, of course, resulted in a much im- 
proved class of cattle. 

In the year 1843, o^ 1844, Richard P. Shelby (the uncle of the author 
of this work, and subsequently father-in-law) received from his father. Gen. 
James Shelby, of Fayette county, Kentucky, a famous imported Durham bull 
named "Welby," a large blood-red animal, whose back was as straight as an 
arrow, that had been imported from England by the Kentucky Importation 
Company, a company wliich was at that time extensively engaged in the 
importation of these high-bred animals, and of which company Gen. James 
Shelby was a member and a stockholder. The author of this work can well 
recollect this famous Shorthorn animal. He was kept confined in a stable the 
greater part of the time, but occasionally would escape to roam over the 
prairie with utter disregard of fences. 

The stock of cattle in Saline county prior to that time was called scrubs, 
but subsequently became what is known as graded cattle. There were other 
herds of Durham cattle brought to Saline county about the same period, but 
of which no account has been preserved for the historian. The stock of cattle 
at the present time is either graded or thoroughbred throughout the county, 
there being no scrubs whatever. 



132 PAST AND PRESENT 

HEMP CULTURE. 

Saline county was a great hemp producing- country, this crop requiring 
the very best land. Between 1840 and 1850 the people of Saline began the 
extensive culture of hemp. The crop ultimately became the main income, 
producing crop of the county, its cultivation continuing to increase in acreage 
and quantity up to the beginning of the Civil war in 1861. Aaron F. Bruce, 
west of Marshall, was one of the largest hemp growers in the county, usually 
having several hundred acres. The crop required great and severe labor in 
its preparation for market, and it ceased to be a favored or a profitable crop 
after the abolition of negro slavery. None is now raised in Saline county 
so far as known tQ the author, while for twenty years previous to the war it 
was the main and ruling crop of all our agricultural products. The most 
severe and arduous labor connected with its culture was in the cutting of the 
hemp and in "breaking" it in the removal of the lint from the stalk. How- 
ever, about 1850, John Lock Hardeman, one of our most intelligent and ex- 
tensive hemp farmers, invented a hemp breaking machine, which lessened 
that labor to a considerable extent, and about the year 1854 an attachment 
had been added to the McCormick reaper by which hemp was cut by machinery 
also. The inventor of this attachment to the hemp cutting machine was old 
Mr. McCormick, the father of the McCormick Brothers, who invented the 
reaper and established the great manufacturing concern for making these 
machines in Chicago. During the summer of 1854 (known as the dryest 
year that ever occurred in the history of Missouri, when there was almost a 
complete failure of the corn crop) this old Mr. McCormick, who was a Vir- 
ginian by birth, the inventor of the hemp-cutting attachment, made a visit 
to Saline county in order to look after the operation of his machines. During 
this visit, he came to my father's house, he having one of his machines for 
cutting hemp, and the author yet retains a vivid recollection of the old gentle- 
man who took dinner at our house at that time. It was a season of extreme 
drought and hot weather, no rain having fallen hardly during the entire 
summer, and at the dinner table the old gentleman, who was an interesting 
talker, related an incident of his experience in the forenoon of that day as he 
was traveling from Pettis county to our house. Stopping at a farm house on 
the high ridge between Heath's creek and Blackwater, to ask for a drink of 
water, a negro woman had brought out a pitcher full and a glass in answer 
to his call, and, handing him the glass, as she poured it full of water, re- 
marked at the same time, that "We sell our drinking water at five cents a 
glass"; whereupon he said he immediately poured the water on the ground 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I33 

and, handing the glass back to her, said, "Well, I never paid for a drink of 
water in my life, and I am not dry enough to do so now", and riding off, 
he left the negro servant much amazed at his conduct. The old gentleman 
was a good talker, entertaining us all the while at dinner, appearing to be 
in the neighborhood of seventy years old. 

In the summer of 1849 cholera again made its appearance in this county 
and was very fatal and destructive. Arrow Rock, Saline City, Cambridge, 
Miami, and Marshall were all visited by the dreadful scourge, and there 
were sporadic cases in the country. The country people were afraid to visit 
the towns and kept away except when it was absolutely necessary for supplies 
or medical attendance. When they did come to town, they would ride up 
to the front of a store, call for what they wanted, get it, and ride away as 
quickly as possible. Mr. Snoddy's was the first case brought to Marshall. He 
had been to Miami and contracted the disease. Riding into ^Marshall from 
his farm, he had to be helped down from his horse, and died in a very short 
time. Dr. Hicks, a prominent physician of Marshall, attended Mr. Snoddy. 
In a short time, the Doctor was taken with the disease, suffering apparently 
very little, underwent no pain, although he felt certain that he would die, 
and passed away in a brief period. There were six deaths from cholera in 
the town of Marshall, and about fiftv throughout the countv. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE DECADE OF THE FIFTIES. 



From 1850 to i860 the county steadily achancecl and prospered. With 
the exception of the year 1854, the seasons were good and propitious and the 
harvest universally bountiful, prosperity being general and substantial. 
Thousands of tons of hemp and of bushels of wheat and pounds of tobacco 
were annuall}- raised and shipped, from the sale of which abundant returns 
were received. This was true except the year 1854, when a general drought 
prevailed throughout this part of Missouri, resulting in an almost total fail- 
ure of the corn crop in Saline county. In the spring of 1855 corn was higher 
than ever known before, selling readily at one dollar a bushel. The large land 
owners and slave holders were particularly prosperous from the growing of 
hemp, which had become the most important crop of the county. Miami and 
Arrow Rock were the principal shipping points for hemp and other products 
and were then the most flourishing towns in the county, all the surplus prod- 
ucts of the county being shipped by steamboat down the Missouri river. 

In the years 1852 and 1853 efforts were made by the people of this 
county to procure the location of the Missouri Pacific railroad, the construc- 
tion of which had been begun at St. Louis and which was designed to extend 
across the state to Kansas City. Many public meetings were held for the 
purpose of considering the railroad question and the county court, then ha\-- 
ing authority to subscribe to railroad building, agreed to make an order issu- 
ing bonds to a considerable extent in favor of the Pacific Railroad Company 
when it had completed its road through the county. The people of Saline, 
Lafayette and Cooper counties expected to ha\e the road from Jefferson Cita- 
to pass through the counties by way of Boonville and Marshall. But greater 
inducements were offered for the building of the road on the Southern route 
through Pettis county, where it was needed much worse than it was here in 
Saline. So the road was located from Jefferson City to Sedalia on its way 
to California, where it was eventually built. 

At the session of our county court. September, 1852. an electi(in was 
ordered to be held October 2d, for the purpose of taking the census of the 
people upon the proposition for the county to subscribe one hundred thou- 
sand dollars for stock in the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and if it should be 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I35 

necessary, in order to secure a location of the road through SaHne county 
and to pass within a reasonal^le distance of the county seat, that said court 
should subscribe for stock to the amount of two hundred thousand, and au- 
thorized to go as far as three hundred thousand dollars' worth of stock rather 
than to fail in securing said road. 

A considerable canvass was made throughout the county 1)\ the sup- 
porters of the project, attended with much discussion of the suljject. The 
election came off, and an examination of the poll books disclosed the fact 
that four hundred and seventy-three votes were cast at the election. For 
subscribing one hundred thousand, there were two hundred and seventy-four 
votes; for subscribing two hundred thousand, there were two hundred and 
forty-four votes; for subscribing three hundred thousand, there were two 
hundred and five votes, and against subscribing' at all for any stock, there 
were one hundred and ninety-nine votes. 

At the November session of the court, it was ordered that two hundred 
thousand dollars' worth of stock be subscribed for, provided the rcmd should 
be built by way of Arrow Rock and Marshall. John Lock Hardeman was 
appointed agent of the county to subscribe for this stock to that amount, and 
to attend any other business in relation to railroad matters required of him 
by the court. 

No opportunit}-, howe^■er, was ever given Mr. Hardeman to make the 
subscription, for, as above stated, the road was located upon the southern line, 
and not upon the river route. Of course, this was considered a great calam- 
ity by the people of Saline, who favored the building of the railroad. But 
there were many sensible men who thought the ri\-er was sufficient to trans- 
port all the products of this county and were opposed to building tlie rail- 
road on any terms. This was the first effort upon the subject of railroads 
by the authorities of Saline county. 

Several years afterwards, in January, 1857, to ascertain the sense of the 
people, an election was held in regard to the propriety of subscribing on be- 
half of the county for stock in a railroad "which shall run from Lexington 
and pass centrally through Saline county to connect with the Pacific road at 
some point west of Jefiferson City." wdiich subscription was to be of the 
amount of three hundred or four hundred thousand dollars. The election 
showed that the people did not take kindly to this proposition, and it was 
\-oted down by a majority of four hundred and t^^•enty-fi^•e. 

At this period, 1852 to 1854, the people of this county were highly in- 
terested in the politics of the state and nation. The adoption of the Jackson 
resolutions by the Legislature of the state and the issue thereafter raised by 



136 PAST AND PRESENT 

Colonel Benton in refusing to be instructed as to his duties as senator, cre- 
ated a split in the Democratic party, which had completely governed the 
state from its organization in 1820 up to that date, the two divisions being 
called the Benton and the Anti-Benton Democrats. The discussion in con- 
troversy over the questions involved created a great deal of acrimcMiy and 
ill-feeling and hostility between men, who had formerly been warm partx' and 
political friends. At the session of the Legislature in 1851. whose dutv it 
was to elect a successor to Colonel Bent(jn in the United States Senate, the 
contest over the subject was very warm, resulting in the election of a compro- 
mise candidate, Henry S. Geyer, of St. Louis, a Whig in politics, who de- 
feated Colonel Benton by a combination of the Whig party with enough dis- 
cordant elements of the Democrats. This defeat terminated the career of 
Colonel Benton as a senator from Missouri, embracing a ])eriod of thirty 
years. Although a senator of glaring faults, he was yet distinguished for 
great and important services to the state and the country generally. 

In the presidential contest of 1852, Gen. Franklin Pierce was the Demo- 
cratic candidate, with Gen. Winfield Scott, the hero of the Mexican war, the 
candidate of the Whig part}-. This campaign was a memoralile one on ac- 
count of its being the last in which the old Whig party had a presidential can- 
didate. General Scott was favorably known throughout the cmuitry. He 
was a hero of two wars, and then commanding chief of the L'nited States 
army. But during the campaign he was a subject of general ridicule and 
was defeated by Franklin Pierce, one of his subordinates in the Mexican war. 
Saline in this contest gave a majority of seventy-one for the Whig candi- 
date. Letcher and Maupin being the leaders of the Whigs, the Democrats be- 
ing led by C. F. Jackson, Doctor Penn and others. Soon after this ])resi- 
dential election, the Whig party fell into a gradual disintegration and decay, 
and from its ashes sprang up, in the year T855, the great American, or 
Know-nothing party, which most of the old-line Whigs became members of, 
and supported its candidate, but thev failed to get control of tlie state through 
the American party. 

The defeat of Colonel Benton for senator was not. however, the hnal 
termination of his political career b}- any means. He was afterwards elected 
a member of the house of representatives from St. Louis, and in 1856 was 
a candidate for governor of the state at the special election held that year. 
Li that campaign he made a general canvass of the state, but having failed 
of election, he devoted the balance of his life to literarv pursuits, writing 
and publishing his "Thirty Years' Wgw of the Cnited States Senate," and 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 1 37 

*'An Abridgement of the Debates in Congress," two very important and use- 
ful books. The great Senator died at his home in Washington City. April 
10, 1858. 

Stephen A. Douglas had succeeded in having ])asse(l the hill for the or- 
ganization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in which bill squatter 
sovereignty was recognized as being the criterion of the sla\ery issue in the 
new territories. That is, the people of the territories, when it came to the 
formation of the constitution, had the right and should determine whether 
the state should be slave or free. This left Kansas a hghting chance to be- 
come a slave state, there being already some slaves in the territory, when the 
law for its admission was passed, and the matter must be ultimately settled 
])v the people themselves \\hen the}- undertook the formation of the state gov- 
ernment. The proximit}- of Saline county to this new territory about to be 
opened naturallv gave the people a particular interest in the settlement of the 
slaver\- cjuestion. It was very natural for the people of this county to de- 
sire Kansas to be admitted to the Union as a slave state, and the}" took an 
active part in efforts to settle up the state with pro-slaver}- men, and very lib- 
eral inducements were offered to people of that sort to emigrate to and take 
up their residence in Kansas, so as to be able to control the politics of the 
state. After the country was opened for settlement, many people from Sa- 
line county moved into Kansas. Capt. John \A'. Reid. who had commanded 
the Saline county company in the Mexican war, then li\-ing in Jackson 
county, had gone into Kansas and was a prominent leader of the pro-slavery 
party. ]\Iany Saline county men took service under him. and were with him 
in several fights with the Free-soilers from Massachusetts. 

A number of prominent men from this county were in the territory froni 
time to time, giving advice and consulting among themselves, and from time 
to time provisions, such as bacon, flour, potatoes, etc., together with amis 
and ammunition, were sent to the settlers in Kansas, from Saline county. 
Among the leaders who visited the territory from Saline count}- were T. \\\ 
B. Crews, William H. Letcher, Frank Mitchell, Clail)orne V. Jackson and 
others. 

PUBLIC MEETINGS IN 1 859. 

On the 15th of September, 1859, the former soldiers of the war of 1812 
residing in this county and the western part of Lafayette county met here at 
the residence of one of their number, Benoni Robion. There were present 
Col. W^illiam Bovce, Boston Poisal and Jacob Funk irom Lafavette county, 



138 PAST AM) PRESENT 

and ex-( Governor Marmaduke. P. W. Thompson, James Valdenar, G. T. 
Chrisman, B. E. Hale, John Murphy, Benoni Robion and others from this 
county. Col(Miel Marmaduke presided. Resohitions were offered and adopt- 
ed, requestint;- the general government to grant aid to those old soldiers of 
the war of 181 2, who were needy and in distress. 

The capture of Harper's Ferry by John Brown in October, 1859, and 
other movements of the abolitionists of the North greatly excited the peo- 
ple of the entire South, and especiallv of the border states. Public meetings 
were frequentlv held, and speeches were made and resolutions ado])ted, at- 
tended by the leading men of all parties. 

On the 26th of December, 1859, a public meeting was held in the court 
house at Marshall, pursuant to calls made b\' former meetings at Arrow Rock 
and Marshall. This meeting was presided over by R. E. Snelling, Esq., of 
Miaini, and G. W. Allen, editor of the Herald, and J. S. Davis, editor of the 
Democrat, ^^'ere the secretaries. 

The object of this meeting was fully explained by Col. J. W. Bryant and 
M. W. O'Bannon, Esq., Dr. M. W. Hall, Col. Vincent Marmaduke, Dr. Eliza 
Clarkson, T. R. E. Harvey, Dr. Crawford E. Smith and M. A. Gauldin were 
appointed a committee on resolutions. This committee reported nine reso- 
lutions, condemning in the severest terms the Harper's Ferry outrage and their 
sympathizers, aiders and abetters, declaring that the "union would be prized" 
onl}- so long as the Constitution in letter and in spirit is the supreme law of the 
land ; that the Southern states have a right to demand of the Northern states 
that they shall pass such laws as will put a stop to the ceaseless war made on 
the Southern people by their citizens in abolition harangues, circulation of the 
incendiary papers and resistance to or the evasion of the fugitive slave laws" ; 
"that the election to the Presidency, in i860, of William H. Seward or any 
other member of the Republican party avowing the same principles would be 
virtual dissolution of the Union," with other sentiments of the same spirit 
and purport. 

A committee of three, Williarti B. Sappington, Dr. LeGrand Atwood and 
T. R. E. Harvey, were appointed to memorialize the Fegislature on the fol- 
lowing subjects : 

First, pledging the state of Missouri to unite with the other Southern 
states in such measures as may be necessary for the maintenance of their rights 
under the Constitution. 

Second, to revive the militia laws. 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I39 

Third, to make void negro testimony received in the courts ag-ainst the 
citizens of those states, where negroes are permitted to testify against white 
persons. 

Fourth, to amend the Constitution so that negroes convicted of rape or 
other high crimes should suffer death. 

Another resolution v^as offered by ]\Ir. Shackelford, and adopted, as 
follows : 

"That in the event of the election of a black Republican President, in 
i860, that a convention of the Southern states be called to take such measures 
as will conduce to the great interest of the South." 

There can be no question but there was great distrust of the people of 
the North by the slave-holding people of the country at this time, and, as 
subsequent events showed, with good reason. The people of the South had 
g'reat capital invested in slave property and there was a large element in the 
Northern states constantly increasing, which desired to deprive them of their 
property. It was a common talk that a dissolution of the Union would occur, 
and many were already preparing for such an event in this section of the 
country. 

The county election of 1859 was one of the most exciting ever held in 
Saline. Party lines were drawn with exceeding bitterness and a rigor never 
known before. William A. Wilson, who had held nearly all the county of- 
fices for many years, and a leader of the old Wliig and American party, was a 
candidate for re-election. The Democrats were determined to beat him if 
possible, nominating John Sheridan for circuit clerk, and Jesse Davis for 
county clerk. The election resulted as follows : 

FOR CIRCUIT CLERK. 

Townships. \\'. A. \\'ilson. John Sheridan. 

Arrow Rock 120 198 

Jefferson 160 160 

A'liami 182 137 

Grand Pass 48 49 

Salt Pond 120 129 

Blackwater 49 55 

Marshall 116 170 



Total 795 898 



140 PAST AND PRESENT 



FOR COUNTY CI-ERK. 



Townships. W. A. Wilson Jesse Davis. 

Arrow Rock 1 1 1 203 

Jefferson 152 I59 

Miami 180 142 

Grand Pass 22 89 

Salt Pond 105 1 54 

Blackwater 60 43 

Marshall no 179 



Total 740 969 

Sheridan was elected circuit clerk bv a majority of one hundred and three 
votes, and Davis county clerk by a majority of two hundred and twenty-seven 
votes. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 ITS RESULTS AND EFFECTS— THE CIVIL WAR 

In i860 the population of Saline county was fourteen thousand six 
Inindred and ninety-nine, over one-third of which, four thousand eight hun- 
dred and seventy-six, were slaves. 

The August election in i860 and the campaign preceding it were the 
most interesting and exciting ever held in Missouri. Claiborne F. Jackson, 
who liad then become a citizen of Saline county, was nominated by the Demo- 
cratic convention as its candidate for governor. For a time he had no op- 
position, but notwithstanding, he undertook to make a canvass of the state, 
and when he had gotten down to Springfield, in the southwestern part of the 
state, and was making a speech at that place, he scared up Sample Orr, the 
probate judg-e of that county, who got up, made a speech, answering Jackson, 
declaring himself a candidate for g()\'ernor in opposition to him. This man, 
Sample Orr, ^•er^• much resembled .Vbraham Lincoln, and was almost as good 
a campaign speaker as Lincoln was, and from Springfield he followed Jack- 
son throughout tile state, making one of the ablest and best campaigns made 
in the state. Jackson for a while endeavored to avoid taking sides in the 
campaign between Douglas and Breckenridge, but before the campaign had 
progressed the St. Louis Republican notified him that unless he should sup- 
])ort Mr. Douglas for President, that the support of the paper would be 
withdrawn from him, forcing Jackson to take sides for Douglas. Then the 
Democratic Breckenridge party called a convention and nominated Han- 
cock Jackson for governor. This state of affairs aroused great interest among 
the people. The following is the result of the election of i860, for governor, 
lieutenant-governor, congressman, representative and sheriff. Gardenshire, 
the Republican candidate for governor, received no votes in Saline countv : 

FOR GOVERNOR. 

Dem. B. and E. Breckenridge. 

C. F. Jackson. S. Orr. Hancock Jackson. 

Arrow Rock 149 128 3 

Saline City 86 14 — 

Jefferson 152 150 2 



142 



PAST AND PRESENT 



Miami 157 

Grand Pass yy 

Salt Pond 95 

Blackwater 69 

Marshall 148 

Total 933 



221 


— 


80 


I 


203 


— 


81 


3 


1^5 


10 



1004 



19 



FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR. 



Dem. 
T. C. Reynolds. 

Arrow Rock 146 

Saline City 90 

Jefferson 154 

Miami 158 

Grand Pass JJ 

Salt Pond 104 

Blackwater 69 

Marshall 152 

Total 950 



B. and E. 




Brecken ridge, 


J. T. Fagg. 


M 


. M. Parsons, 


130 




4 


15 




— 


151 




I 


220 




— - 


80 




— 


195 




— 


81 




4 


124 




7 



956 



16 



CONGRESS. 



Dem. 
John W. Reed. 

Arrow Rock 149 

Saline City 90 

Jefferson 153 

Miami 164 

Grand Pass 72 

Salt Pond 113 

Blackwater 72 

Marshall 1 58 

Total 971 



B. and E. 

F. T. :^Iitchell. 

3 



I 



150 
203 

81 
177 

83 
120 



961 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 1 43 
SHERIFF. 

Dem. B. and E. 
R. Ruxton. D. R. Durrett. 

Arrow Rock 115 1 54 

Saline City 69 26 

Jefferson 148 146 

Miami 200 167 

Grand Pass 65 91 

Salt Pond 98 191 

Blackwater 65 89 

Marshall 151 120 



Total 911 984 

REPRESENTATIVE. 

Dem. B. and E. 
M. \\'. Hall. I. S. Parsons. 

Arrow Rock 159 112 

Saline City 90 13 

Jefferson 153 152 

Miami 139 236 

Grand Pass 70 85 

Salt Pond 117 178 

Blackwater 82 80 

Marshall 167 1 10 



Total 977 966 

As above stated, Judge Sample Orr, whose opposition Governor Jack- 
son aroused at Springfleld. very much resembled in personal appearance 
Abraham Lincoln and. as experience proved, was a remarkably strong- cam- 
paigner, in this campaign for governor with Claiborne F. Jackson in i860. 

Afterwards, Judge Orr was elected a member of the state convention 
called in 1861, where he stood up for, and voted to adhere to, the Union. 
But for some reason, the loyal people afterwards lost confidence in him. and 
he was arrested and imprisoned for a while at Jefferson City. Being ulti- 
mately paroled, in 1865, he moved to the Montana territory with his family, 
where he afterwards resided for many years up to his death, holding various 
places of public trust. He was a member of the state Senate. 



144 PAST AND PRESENT 

As it will be seen by the foregoing tables, the Whigs carried the county 
in most places, except for representative in the state Legislature and for 
member of Congress. Doctor Hall, who was a very popular man. took his 
seat at the beginning of the session in Jefferson City, giving GovenK)r Jack- 
son very earnest support in all his measures. Afterwards, he went to Neosho, 
where the Governor had convened the Legislature to meet in November, 
1861, where he voted for the ordinance of secession, which was passed by the 
Legislature there. 

The presidential election in November, i860, stirred the popular feelings 
to its greatest depth. For ten stormy years, the agitation of the slavery ques- 
tion had kept the people in a state of continued excitement and turmoil, and 
all these stormv scenes in and out of Congress culminated in the election of 
i860. The Democratic party itself was divided between Breckenridge and 
Douglas. Saline county had given a larger vote for Bell and Everett than 
for Douglas and Breckenridge combined. Not one vote in the county was 
cast for Lincoln, and Douglas carried Missouri, the only state he did carry, 
by a bare plurality of four hundred and twenty-nine votes. The presidential 
election in November was followed by a foreboding calm. Men were brought 
face to face at last with the disruption of the Union and the magnitude of 
the crisis seemed to calm and quiet both sides, but it was the calm preceding 
the storm. In Saline county there were very few who were really secession- 
ists. Some saw clearly from the attitude of. the North and the South that 
war was imminent, but there were many in each party who were willing- to do 
yet what they could to bring-" about reconciliation. The people came together 
to discuss the troubled state of the political outlook. 

MASS MEETING AT MARSHALL. 

December 15, i860, a mass meeting of the citizens was called to meet 
in the court house to consider the disturbed condition of the country, and 
show the really conservative sentiment of the citizens of Saline county as late 
as the winter of i860 and 1861. Reference is here made to the proceedings 
of that meeting as given by the Marshall Democrat of that date. The ablest 
and best men of the county were present at that meeting, all of whom are 
now dead. Ex-Governor Marmaduke was called to the chair, and the editors 
of the two county papers were requested to act as secretaries. On motion of 
Colonel Allen, a committee consisting of T. R. E. Hai-vey, Dr. William 
iPrice, Colonel Allen, Dr. E. S. Clarkson, Hugh A. Thompson, Col. J. M. 
Lewis, and T. W. Gaines were appointed to draft resolutions to be submitted 



SALINE COL'XTV, .MISSOIRI I45 

to the meeting. After a short absence, the committee returned with a ma- 
jority and a niinorit}- report. After a warm discussion, these reports were 
referred to a special committee, consisting of Col. C. P. Bell, Doctor Towles, 
J. W. Bryant, Doctor Hardeman and E. D. Graves, and the meeting ad- 
journed until Monday, December 17th. Governor-elect C. F. Jackson was 
present, taking- a leading and active part in said meeting. 

On Monday a very larg'e mass meeting assemljled in the court house, and 
the special committee made its report, submitting the following resolutions, 
which after much discussion b}' Messrs. Kelly, Mitchell, McDaniel, Letcher, 
Governor Jackson, Clarkson and others, were finally adopted unanimously : 

"Resolved, That the relation of the citizen to his government, requi ring- 
that he should render obedience and aid to it, while it, at the same time, 
extends to him security and protection, and it being a feature of the govern- 
ment under which we live that the citizen has the government under his 
control and direction, he cannot, consistently with honor or duty, abandon 
that government until the evils become such as to justify revolution and until 
a fair and honest effort to redress them by constitutional means shall have 
been tried and failed. 

"2. That we consider the Constitution as the basis of the Uni.on, and 
that the Union cannot be preserved if the Constitution, and the laws made 
in accordance with the provisions thereof, be condemned, disregarded or 
nullified. 

"3. That the unconstitutional and unfriendly action of the Northern 
states in regard to the execution of the fugitive slave law evinces a determina- 
tion on their part to interfere with rights conceded to the South by the Con- 
stitution, and that the election of a president of these states upon a sectional 
issue is a just cause of irritation and alarm to the people of the South, that 
the principles upon which a Republican president has been elected, if acted 
out, will be a just cause for dissolution of the Union. 

"4. That in this emergency it becomes all good citizens, especially those 
of the South, to maintain their constitutional rights — asking what the Consti- 
tution grants to them, and giving what it concedes to others. 

"5. That the South should demand as conditions upon which fraternal 
feelings can again be restored between the North and the South, a speedy 
repeal of all laws made to interfere with and defeat the execution of the 
fugitive slave law, the punishment of citizens who do interfere to prevent its 
execution, and non-interference by the North with slavery in the states, in the 
territories, and in the District of Columbia. 

"6. That if these just demands be not acceded to by the North, — much 

10 



146 PAST AND PRESENT 

as we are attached to the Union and desire its preservation, — we oi the 
South will heartily unite for the maintenance of our rights, if need be, out of 
the I'nion. 

"7. That we recommend to the Legislature of the state of Missouri a 
rexival and reorganization of the militia laws, under such limitations and 
restrictions as to make it so efficient as to guard our rights against all hostile 
inroads. 

"8. That the federal union can only be maintained and preserved by 
securing to the people of the several states their equal and just rights. Any 
attempt, therefore, to coerce by physical force any of the Southern states into 
the Union (in the event of secession) should be condemned by every lover of 
his country. 

"9. That the Legislature of Missouri be asked to take immediate ac- 
tion for the call of a state convention in Jefferson City, on date, and 

to take such steps, in concert with other states of the Confederacy, as the 
exigencies of the crisis may demand; and we further recommend, that all the 
slave-holding states meet in convention at Nashville, Tennessee, or some 
other point, at as early a day as such convention can possibly be assembled, 
to consider the imperilled condition of our country, and to concert measures 
to harmonize conflicting opinions, and presence the union if it can be done ; 
and if such desirable end cannot be accomplished, then to take measures for 
their own safety and union in a Southern confederacy." 

THE STATE CONVENTION OF JANUARY, 1861. 

In January, 1861, the Legislature sitting in Jefferson City, passed an act 
to elect a state convention, and fixing the meeting on the i8th day of February, 
following, at Jefferson City. The delegates to said convention were to be 
selected from districts designated by the act. Saline county being in a district 
with Lafayette and Pettis counties. The election showed that the Union 
sentiment was very strong in this district, resulting in the election of Vincent 
Marmaduke from Saline county, Samuel L. Sawyer from Lafayette county, 
and John F. Phillips from Pettis county, who were very i)ron(mnced Union 
men at tliat time. The result of the election very much surprised the strong- 
Southern element in the county, as well as disappointing, and this condition 
of aft'airs lasted until the proclamation of President Lincoln, issued on the 
15th of April, 1861, calling for volunteers to suppress the rebellion. A large 
majority of the people of these three counties were from Virginia, Tennessee 
and Kentucky, and while they had a strong attachment for the Union, they 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I47 

were opposed to coercion, or sovereign states tacked together by bayonets, and 
the President's proclamation produced a complete revulsion of feeling and 
sentiments, leaving for a time hardly any Union men in the county. The 
Legislature at that time was strongly Democratic and Southern, the House 
particularly being led by the able and alert George G. Vest, the representative 
from Cooper county, and when the Legislature provided for the calling of 
the convention, that body evidently supposed that the convention would be 
made up of men whose political opinions were very much in accordance with 
those of the Legislature, but the result proved very disappointing. When the 
convention assembled at Jefferson City, it was expected that the state house 
would be surrendered to the convention, but instead of doing that, the Legis- 
lature rented a church for the convention to assemble in, and this was re- 
garded as shabby treatment by many members of the convention. In a speech 
on the subject, Mr. Vest exclaimed that "if he had his way, he would put them 
(the convention) in a church not made by hands but eternal in the heavens." 

This Legislature adjourned sine die March 28, 186 1. It was, however, 
re-convened by Governor Jackson on the 22d of April, "for the purpose of 
enacting such laws and adopting such measures as may be deemed necessary 
and proper for the perfect organization and equipment of the militia of the 
state, and to raise money and such other means as may be required to place 
the state in a proper attitude of defense." 

The Legislature passed the various acts suggested by Governor Jackson, 
one of which provided for calling out, organizing and supporting the militarv 
forces of the state, called "The Missouri State Guard." This bill passed 
within fifteen minutes after receipt of the news of the capture of Camp 
Jackson by the Federal troops. , 

Now, the people of Saline county had Ijeen making some preparations 
for the war, believing that war was obliged to come. The situation absorbed 
the public minds and but little else was discussed or done. Those who wanted 
the state to secede immediately and cast her fortunes with the Southern Con- 
federacy were in the minority at first, but they were vastly more aggressive 
and earnest than the "submissionists," and this fact, together with the start- 
ling events which followed the refusal of the federal government to evacuate 
Fort Sumter, strengthened and increased their numbers ever}- dav. 

The governor of the state was a citizen of the county, and the majority 
of the people looked upon him as their safe council. He was known bv his in- 
timate personal friends to favor secession, but his position and his desire to 
act for the best interests of the state made him cautious and reluctant to ex- 
press his sentiment. He w^as the author of many resolutions passed by the 



148 PAST AXD PRESENT 

people of various counties, all expressing the strongest sympathy and looking 
to ultimate co-operation with the Southern Confederacy. The people of 
Saline county, friends and neighbors of Governor Jackson, had full confidence 
in him, obeying his orders cheerfully and with alacrity. Companies were soon 
( rganized and made read}' under the law recently i)asse(l to take the field 
whenever he should call for them. One of the first companies raised was 
named in his honor, and was commanded by his nephew, John S. Marmadukc, 
who had resigned his place in the Federal army and offered his sword to his 
native state. 

Thereafter, there was no middle ground and men were divided by 
sharply defined lines into Southern and Northern sympathizers, or those wdio 
wished Missouri to join the Confederate states, and those who desired the 
state to remain in the Union, of w'hich the former were very largely in the 
majority in this county. 

THE MASS MEETING AT MARSHALL IN MAY. 

The capture of Camp Jackson by the Federal troops and the killing of 
some men, women and children by the Federal troops on the loth of May, 
1861, together with the call for troops by President Lincoln, created great 
excitement and apprehension and also a great change of sentiment among 
the people of Saline county. Under this state of excitement, a call was made 
for a mass meeting to assemble at Marshall to determine what measures 
should be adopted to resist the aggressions of the b'ederal troops. This meet- 
ing was largely attended, nearly all of the leading men of the county being 
present, and many of them on that day declared that they were in favor of 
the resistance of Federal invasion, wdio afterwards upon the arrival of Fed- 
eral troops in the county shifted their positions over to the Federal side. 

The meeting was organized in the court house. Judge McDaniel being 
elected president, and William A. \Vilson vice-president. \\'illiam A. Wil- 
son, who had been the county clerk for fifteen or twenty years, and a pop- 
ular man. brought forward a set of resolutions, strongly denouncing and 
reprobating the course of General Lyons of St. Louis and the President's call 
for troops, and calling on the people to resist coercion and asking for imme- 
diate action that would vindicate the majesty of the state. 

The meeting resolved to raise funds to enlist arms and equip troops, ap- 
pointing the following military committee, consisting of Dr. Crawford E. 
Smith, Henry S. Mills and T. W. B. Crews. Colonel Wilson and F. M. 
Fulker'^on. with one or two other prominent men, guaranteed the sum of 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI I49 

five thousand dollars for arming Saline county soldiers for the purpose of 
resisting- invasion of the Federal troops, but these two latter-named gen- 
tlemen soon afterwards withdrew their support from resistance to Federal 
authority. 

FIRST ORGANIZATION OF MILITARY COMPANIES. 

Some davs before this meeting at MashalK Capt. William B. Brown had 
organized a company of seventy or eiglit}- men, who were in camp near his 
residence. On the same day of this meeting. May 13th, there was a com- 
panv called the Jackson Guard organized and completed at Marshall. There 
was a parade by the company on that day following the election of its of- 
ficers. John S. Marmaduke, who had been a lieutenant in the Federal army 
and a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, was chosen captain ; 
Lucius J. Gaines, first lieutenant ; James H. Akin, second lieutenant ; and 
P. D. Craddock, third lieutenant. The company numbered oui- hundred and 
ten men from all parts of the county, being organized pursuant to orders of 
Governor Jackson for the state service, and was ordered immediately to Jef- 
ferson City for drill and other work. It was mustered in the next da}- by 
Colonel Clarke, district inspector. 

The ladies of Marshall presented the company with a beautiful flag on 
the day previous to its departure to Jefferson City, May 15, 1861. The flag 
was designed by and constructed under directions of Mrs. John S. Davis, 
wife of the editor of the Democrat. Its design was the state coat of arms 
in blue on a white field, bound with blue and finished with blue cord and tas- 
sels. It floated over the headquarters of the state troops during their stay 
at Jefferson City, and the design was afterwards adopted by the authorities 
as the state flag of Missouri. The names of the ladies who made the flag 
were embroidered in the corners. 

Miss Isaacs, on presenting the flag to Captain Marmaduke, said : 

"Gentlemen of the Saline Jackson Guards : I have the honor of pre- 
senting to you, in behalf of the ladies of Marshall, with this banner, the 
emblem of your state, hoping you will receive it as a slight token of the high 
regard which is entertained by them toward you, for the valor and patriot- 
ism you have displayed in the ready willingness to go where your country 
calls ; and while we feel confident that its honor will ever by you be gallantly 
protected and sustained, we hope that it may be to you in the hour of trial 
and of battle an evidence of the interest that will ever be manifested by the 
ladies of your county in the glorious cause you have so nobly espoused, and 



150 PAST AND PRESENT 

which we hope, ])\ the assistance of a (h\'ine providence (which we in\'oke). 
you may be ever as able, as we know yon are willing, to maintain." 

Captain Marmadnke gracefully received the flag, made an appropriate 
speech accepting it as a true soldier. Turning to the volunteers, asking them 
if they w-ere willing to stand by it, and there was a loud response, "We will! 
we will !" The Captain then delivered the flag over to its bearer, Sergeant 
R. Gaines, who delivered an elocjuent speech, in wdiich he said among other 
things, "We are called to repel the invasion of our territory, and our liber- 
ties as a state, and until that be effected, this banner shall float over our con- 
tending hosts. It is for you that we fight. The w'eakness of woman is no 
defence against the violence of fanaticism. It is to avenge the slaughter of 
women and children that we take up arms, and our grasps shall not be re- 
laxed, nor our energy abated until the barbarian emissaries of a ruthless ty- 
rant shall be driven beyond our borders. I am proud that to my keeping is 
permitted this banner, and though it may be shattered and torn in conflict, 
you have my pledge that it shall never trail in disgrace, but as the combat 
deepens, we will rally in the very desperation of energy, and proudly bear 
it aloft in the hour of victory, or compose it about us in the hour of death. 
It shall ever be found above us or around us." 

The next day the company went in wagons to Sedalia, and thence to 
Jefferson City over the Missouri Pacific Railroad. On its arrival at the cap- 
ital, Marmaduke was made a colonel, and Lieutenant Gaines became Cap- 
tain of the company. It was well uniformed and drilled, attracting the ad- 
miration of all who saw it. This company and three other companies from 
the county were present at the first fight at Boonville, June 17th, famous as 
the first fight of any consequence after Fort Sumter between the Federal and 
Secession troops, and sometimes facetiously called the "Boonville Races." 

At the time of the departure of the Jackson Guards to Jefferson City, 
there were two or three other companies wholly or partially organized in 
the county, awaiting marching orders. One of these, a cavalry company 
commanded by Capt. William B. Brown (who had been a soldier in the Mex- 
ican war), w^as raised in the eastern or northern part of the county. An- 
other w'as called the "Saline Mounted Rifles," composed chiefly of men from 
Miami township. T. W. B. Crews was captain, John C. Barkley, Frank S. 
Robertson and O. T. Simms were, respectively, first, second and third lieu- 
tenants. Another w-as raised about Fairville (then called Fairview) by Capt. 
Edward J. Brown; J. H. Irwnne, R. T. Hutcherson and John H. McDan- 
iels were the lieutenants. 

The next day after the presentation to the Jackson Guards, a beautiful 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOTRI 1^1 

flag- was presented to the company of Capt. William BrDwn by Miss Ethel 
Lewis, w'ho made a very fine effort in the way of a presentation speech on 
that occasion. Captain Brown and Sergeant Thompkins responded. The 
design of this flag was fifteen stars on a bine field in a corner, the remainder 
of the banner being in white. The ceremony took place in front of the conrt 
honse at Marshall. C. M. Sntherhn. Joseph Elliott and Richard Dnrrett 
were the lientenants of this company, which was the first cavalr\- companx- 
organized in Saline connty, the anthor of this Iraok being one of the high 
privates. Captain Crews himself states that this company- was neatlv nni- 
formed in gray and the only nniformed Confederates to leave the connt}". 

THE UNION MEN OF SALINE. 

\Vhile all this war preparation Avas going on, the lo}al people of the 
connt}-, if there were any, were doing nothing. Very few manifested a dis- 
position to fight against their neighbors and friends. Man}- were nnable to 
tell which was the strong side and were waiting for this question to be de- 
termined. Some few living in the northern part of the connty crossed the 
river later in the season of 1861, joining the Union organizations known as 
"Home Guards". Others went south to Pettis connty, joining a company 
of Home (iuards there, and a few went to Boonville, joining Eppstein's bat- 
talion of German Unionists. There was no company of Federal troops or- 
ganized in the count}- until the spring of 1862, when Ben H. A\^ilson, the son 
of Col. William A. Wilson, organized Company F, Sexenth Cavalry. Mis- 
souri State Militia, it being the first company of Federals organized in the 
county. 

CAMP MARSHALL. 

In July, 1861. a considerable body of state troops, at one time amount- 
ing to about three thousand, Avere camped at Robion Spring's, a short dis- 
tance east of Marshall. The camp was under command of Col. Ed Price, 
the son of Gen. Sterling Price, and Col. Congrave Jackson, who had been 
a lieutenant-colonel in Doniphan's regiment in the Mexican war. Recruits 
from all parts of the state joined this camp, squads, companies, .'ind bat- 
talions. From northern Missouri came quite a number of volunteers, who 
crossed the river at Brunswick. 

Camp Marshall, as it was called, was well arranged and well equipped 
with tents and other accommodations for the troops. Provisions and blank- 
ets had for the most part been furnished by the soldiers themselves, but what- 



Is2 



PAST AND PRESENT 



ever was lacking was provided l)y the people of the county, large numbers 
of whom visited the camp from time to time. The men were mostly mount- 
ed and ref|uired food not only for themselves, but forage for their horses. 

The camp was not under an\- \cr}- rigorous discipline, the military or- 
ganizations being mostly new and imperfect, the men having had no pre- 
vious experience in military affairs. No camp guard was established and 
the men went back and forth as thev pleased. At one time, a s(|uad of men 
refused to go on a reconnoiter because it looked like rain. 

At Camp Marshall the news of the battle of Springfield and the vic- 
tory won by Price and McCullough greatly elated the volunteers, who, 
though armed with onh- such weapons as they had at home for sporting 
purposes, were now more anxious than ever to join the main body of the 
army under Price. But some bad news was mingled with the good. Col. 
George W. Allen, a Saline county man and aide of General Price's, had been 
killed on the field of battle. 

At last this camp broke up at Robion Springs, and marched away to 
join General Price's army, which was reached near Nevada, on September 
2d, arriving- there just as the battle between General Price and Colonel Lane's 
forces took place at Dr}- Wood, in \^ernon county. 

THE FIRST BATTLE OF BOONVILLE. 



The battle between the state and Federal troops fought on the 17th day 
of June, 1861, was not only the first in which the citizens of Saline county 
were engaged, but also was the first engagement on land between the state 
and Federal troops, and may be called the actual beginning, in the West at 
least, of our Civil war. 

In the spring of 1861, Lieut. John S. ]\Iarmaduke, of Saline, resigned 
his commission in the Federal army and proceeded to raise a company in 
his native county under Governor Jackson's call for fifty thousand state troops 
on the 13th of June, 1861. This company of Mamiaduke's was received 
immediately and mustered in. Governor Jackson at the same time being in 
possession of Jefferson City, the capital of the state. 

Very soon after Marmaduke reached headciuarters at Jefferson City, he 
was elected colonel of the regiment, composed of the state troops assem- 
bled there. Soon afterwards, Governor Jackson determined to abandon the 
stale capital, moving westward with his forces to Boonville, forty miles 
above, where they began to collect and organize the state troops. But be- 
fore jjroceeding very far with the organization, it was ascertained that Gen- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 153 

eral Lyon with a considerable force of Federal troops had taken possession 
of Jefferson City and was making preparation to move on Boonville. Un- 
fortunately,, at this juncture, General Price was taken sick at his home in 
Chariton county. The brigadier-generals were all in different parts of the 
state, organizing their commands under the call of the Governor, leaving 
the troops at Boonville under command of Colonel Marmaduke. They did 
not number over fifteen hundred men, hardly one-third of whom had an\- 
arms at all, and these were mostly armed with shot guns, and having no 
artillery present. There was a council of war held at Boonville on the 
evening previous to the battle, at which both Governor Jackson and Colo- 
nel Marmaduke were present, and strongly opposed to giving battle to the 
well appointed and well disciplined army of from fifteen hundred to two 
th<3usand men that was moving against them from Jeft'erson City, under Gen- 
eral Lyon. At this council of war, the captains of the various companies 
were present, and several of them, particularly Capt. William Brown, of Sa- 
line countv. said they had collected there for the purpose of making a stand 
against the invasion of the Federal troops and they didn't intend to retreat 
without a fight. Captain Brown was the leader, who insisted on making a 
fight, and at the conclusion his views prevailed. Governor Jackson then is- 
sued orders to Colonel Marmaduke to meet General Lyon and deliver 

battle. 

Early the next morning, Marmaduke marched about six hundred half- 
armed troops down the river about five miles below Boonville, posting them 
on the bluffs, where the state road rises out of the river bottom and as- 
cends to the hills, and here they were encountered by General Lyon with some 
well armed regular troops, a lot of German volunteer regiments from St. 
Louis, and a full battery of artillery under Colonel Totten. The state troops 
received the first fire of the Federals with courage and unexpected steadi- 
ness, redeeming somewhat the rashness of their former counsels, and none 
more so than Captain Brown's company from Saline county. The explo- 
sion, however, of nine-pound shells from the enemy's battery was soon too 
much for them, they falling back into a wheat field on the crest of the 

bluffs. 

Here, for half an hour, they stood steadily, receiving the Federals with 
a fire so galling and well sustained that what before was a skirmish as- 
sumed the appearance of a real battle; but' the odds were" too great in favor 
of the Federals, and the state troops soon gave away, falling back towards 
Boonville, Marmaduke having given orders for a general retreat. ^ The state 
troops had by this time become satisfied that ^larmaduke was right in not 



154 PAST AND PRESENT 

wishing to give battle, and the order to retreat was obeyed with great wil- 
lingness. The number of killed and wounded were, of course, at the time 
greatly exaggerated. Two men were killed on the Federal side and nine 
woumled. Two were also killed outright on the side of the state troops, 
both of whom were citizens of the town of Boonville. the numlier of wounded 
never being reported. 

FIRST FEDERAL TROOPS IN THE COUNTY. 

Shortly after the battle of Lexington, and the retreat of General Price 
to the southwest, the Second Missouri Federal Cavalry Volunteers, some- 
times called Merrill's Horse, for Col. Lewis Merrill, made a raid through 
Saline county, being the first Federal troops to invade the county. The 
regiment, or part of it. crossed Blackwater at the Napton bridge, having 
passed through the yard at Judge Napton's house in the night-time before 
reaching the bridge, passing on to Marshall and continuing the scout to the 
northern part of the county. These troops committed no depredations on 
the citizens, the colonel in charge having been an officer in the regular army 
and a strict disciplinarian, who kept his men under complete control. The 
a|)pearance of Colonel Merrill's men in the county was regarded with much 
interest and some surprise. Many of the people had never seen any well 
armed and ecjuipped soldiers. 

CAPTURE OF Robertson's regiment. 

About the middle of December, 1861, a regiment of soldiers, nearly all 
of whom were residents of Saline county and destined for General Price's 
army, rendezvoused at Grand Pass church, and there elected their ot'ficers 
and effected a temporary organization. Col. Frank Robertson was elected 
colonel, and Alexander, lieutenant-colonel. The regiment was about one 
thousand strong. Captains Ruxton and Garrett were among the Saline 
county men elected captains on that occasion. On the i6th of December, 
1861, this regiment commenced its march south, and on that same evening 
reached Blackwater, in Johnson county, and camped in a horseshoe bend of 
the creek. Worn out with their long day's march of nearly forty miles, the 
whole regiment slept, sentinels and pickets, and two prisoners, whom they 
had captured, escaped, and, it was supposed, carried the news of their where- 
abouts to Gen. Jeff C. Davis, who, with two or three thousand Federal 
troops, was marching about to intercept bodies of Southern troops who were 
endeavoring to make their way to Price's army. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 1 55 

Early the next morning the regiment found themselves surrounded in 
the bend of the creek by a large force under General Davis. The Federal 
troops had approached very close before they were observed. The regiment 
was immediately thrown into line of battle and (leli\ered one fire, which the 
Federals returned, killing one man and then retiring for about four hundred 
yards. General Davis then sent, under a flag of truce, a communication stat- 
ing his force and position and demanding an unconditional surrender of the 
men under Colonel Robertson. Comparatively unarmed, and wholly undis- 
ciplined and unorganized, to fight with any hope of success was out of the 
question, and the whole regiment was surrendered except a few who by scat- 
tering escaped and returned home. Many of the very best and most sub- 
stantial citizens were in this Blackwater capture. The prisoners, in all about 
six hundred, were marched to Sedalia and there put upon stock trains and 
in stock cars and sent to St. Louis, where they were imprisoned in the old 
McDowell College building. Remaining imprisoned here for some time, they 
were afterwards sent to Alton, Illinois, where they were imprisoned in an 
old penitentiary building. Some took the oath of allegiance and were re- 
leased, while the majority of them were regularly exchanged and re-entered 
the Confederate army. 

It was said that General Davis's command had information of the raising 
of this regiment and of its designs to join Price's army long before it broke 
camp in Saline county. 

OTHER EVENTS OF THE FIRST YEAR OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

The year of 1861 wore on apace, the pall of war hanging heavier and 
heavier over Saline county, as well as over the whole state, but at the same 
time we had a magnificent season, the growing crops being especially flourish- 
ing and promising, and one of the finest crops of corn was grown ever pro- 
duced in the county. In June, 1861, the Saline County Herald, edited by 
Colonel Allen, and the Democrat, edited by John S. Davis, were merged into 
Marshall Democrat, finally suspended July 21st, and no further effort was 
made to print a paper in Saline county during the war, and we were without 
any county paper for five years or more. The Progress was established in 
1866. 

About the first of July, the mails stopped in Marshall and were suspended 
until the county was re-organized under the Gamble provisional government 
in the spring of 1862. Money became exceedingly scarce, necessaries, such as 
sugar and coffee, were difficult to obtain and the merchants were compelled 
to adopt the cash system. 



I 5() PAST AND PRESENT 

When Governor Gamble, then provisional governor of the state, issued 
his call for state militia to defend Missouri against the public enemy, that is. 
the Confederate state soldiers, very few individuals had up to this time en- 
listed or ^•olunteered in the h'ederal army. Under the stimulus of Governor 
Gamble's call, Union men volunteered and several companies were organized 
in the county, besides which many of its citizens joined military organizations 
elsewhere. 

At the battle of Lexington. September 12, t86i. in which, after a 
desperate siege of eight days. Colonel Aiulligan finally surrendered, many 
citizens of Saline went to Lexington to witness the siege of battle. Both 
sides were there as mere spectators, and some were there with ritles and 
shotguns making war on their own hook without joining the army. 

In the latter part of November, General Price issued from his camp at 
Osceola a second call, a most urgent and eloquent one. for fifty thousand 
additional men. and, stimulated by this call, large numbers of citizens pre- 
pared to join and did join his standard. 

Lnmediately after the battle of Lexington. Col. A\'illiam Brown, of 
Saline county (promoted to colonel since the l)attle of Springfield), in com- 
mand of a raw. undisciplined and half-armed regiment, recruited in Saline 
and neighboring counties, numbered about six hundred men. determined to 
attack the Federal troops at Boonville, who were there stationed in a fortified 
camp, instead of proceeding to the Southern army, as he was expected to do. 

THE SECOND BATTLE OF BOONVILLE. 

Colonel Brown was a native of Kentucky and one of the bravest of 
men. who distinguished himself and had his courage thoroughly tested in 
the ^lexican war before the Civil war began. The Federal troops were 
strongly intrenched at Boonville in the fair grounds, in a position absolutely 
impregnable without the aid of artillery. Colonel Brown was earnestly ad- 
vised before and after he reached Boonville not to undertake to capture this 
fortified camp by assault, but the same indomitable courage and headstrong 
rashness which characterized him at the first battle of Boon\-ille controlled him 
here and led him on to destruction. 

The fortifications were attacked simultaneously and imj^etiiouslv at three 
points. On the southeast. Colonel Brown led the attack in person, making 
two determined assaults on the breastworks, but each time was compelled 
to fall back. In the second charge. Colonel Brown fell mortally wounded 
within a few feet of the breastworks, and his brother, Capt. Mason Brown, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOCRI - 157 

in command of a Saline county company also, fell dead close to him. The 
same result attended the assaults at both the other points, and after the death 
of Colonel Brown, the command devolving- on ]\Iajor Pointdexter, the cessa- 
tion of hostilities ensued. Under a flag- of truce, an armistice of six days was 
agreed upon between the commanders, and during this time Major P'oint- 
dexter withdrew his forces from the city, returning to opposite Glasgow, 
and from thence marching south to Price's army, then moving to the south- 
west. 

In August. 1861. the state convention, then sitting at Jefferson City, by 
ordinance declared the offices of governor. lieutenant-go\'ernor and secretary 
of state vacant, and appointed Hamilton R. Gamble, of St. Louis, provisional 
governor, ^^'illard P. Hall, of Buchanan county, lieutenant-governor, and 
Mordecai Oliver, of Green county, secretary of state, proceeding then to 
vacate the offices of all the other state and county officials, who should fail to 
take the prescribed oath of allegiance and file the same b}- a certain date. At 
that time the county court of Saline county was composed of Robert Dysart. 
presiding judge, Joseph Field and A. P. Garnett, district judges : Jesse Davis, 
clerk ; and Darwin W. Marmaduke, sheriff. The court, under the state gov- 
ernment of Governor Jackson, met December 3, 1861. Dysart and Field be- 
ing present: Davis, clerk; and J. H. McAllister, acting sheriff, and adjourned 
to meet on the first Monday in February, 1862. But before that time, they 
having failed to take the prescribed oath, their offices had been declared vacant 
and the February session of the court never took place. The provisional 
governor, under the ordinance of the convention, had appointed three other 
county judges and had called the court to meet April 21, 1862. On that day, 
the new court did meet. 
"Saline County Court. 
"Special Term, 1862. 

"Robert Dysart, Joseph Field and E. P. Garnett. late justices of the 
county court of Saline county, having failed to take the oath of allegiance 
to the government of the United States and the provisional government of the 
state of Missouri, as prescribed by an ordinance of "the state convention of the 
state of Missouri, their offices as such were in consequence thereof vacated 
in accordance with the provisions of said ordinance. Whereupon Lieutenant- 
Governor Hall, acting governor, appointed William O. ]\Iaupin. Frederick 
M. Fulkerson and E. W. Simms to fill said \-acancies. who. having been 
commissioned and qualified according to law. and having given the requisite 
notice as required by law, called a special term of the Saline county court to 
meet in Marshall, on the 21st of April, 1862. 



I 58 PAST AND PRESENT 

"The county court, having met on said day in pursuance of said cah, 
William O. Maupin, F. M. Fulkerson and E. W. Simms, judges, being- 
present, and Pascal E. Maupin, coroner, proceeded to the transaction of 
business. I'iie judges then ])roceeded to draw lots for the terms, which re- 
sulted as follows : 

"E. \\\ Simms drew the term ending August, 1862; \A'illiam O. Maupin, 
the term ending August. 1864, and F. M. Fulkerson, the term ending August, 
1866. Then it was ordered by the court that all the attorneys at law be anc^ 
the same are hereby required to take and file the oath of allegiance, as pre- 
scribed by the ordinance of the state convention, before they shall be permitted 
to practice in this court. F. M. Fulkerson was chosen president of the court. 
Then it was ordered that James R. Berryman be and he is herebv appointed 
clerk of the Saline county court to fill the vacancy occasioned by the failure 
of J. F. Davis, late clerk, to take and file the oath of allegiance, as required 
by ordinance of the state convention." 

During the winter of 1861 and 1862 there were no military movements 
in Saline county of very great importance or interest. There were no Federal 
troops occupying the county for any great length of time, and the main body 
of Confederates were some distance away. Recruiting officers from the 
Southern army visited the county, however, and were fairly successful. Squads 
and companies of men were organized all through the county, and made their 
way south to join the main army under General Price, although there were 
bodies of Federal troops at Tipton, Sedalia and Warrensburg. who were en- 
deavoring to prevent this recruiting service for the Southern army. 

In the spring of 1862 a company of Colonel Eppstein's regiment from 
Boonville came up in Saline county on a scouting expedition. The company 
was commanded by Capt. John D. Kaiser, numbering about sixtv men, very 
nearly all of whom were Germans. They made Marshall their headquarters 
and place of general rendezNous. the company being divided up into 
squads and sent about throughout the county to reconnoiter. While one of 
these squads, numbering about a dozen men, was marching along north of 
Salt Fork between Miami and Afarshall, they were suddenlv surrounded and 
captured without the firing of a gun by a large company of newlv recruited 
Confederates from the north of the Missouri river, under a Captain Small, 
making their way to Price's army. 

These Germans were kept as prisoners for a few days on Cow creek and 
were confined for a time in the Rock Creek church, being guarded for a 
while by volunteer citizens from the immediate neighborhood. At last their 
comrades procured a reinforcement from Boonville and, making an incursion 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 1 59 

into the neighborhood where they were held, recaptured them at the church, 
bringing- them back to Marshall without difficulty. The church was set on 
fire and destroyed. Upon meeting each other, the two detachments of 
prisoners and their rescuers indulged in a joyful jabber in German, which was 
kept up long after their arrival at Marshall. 

One of the volunteers who guarded the Germans at the Rock Creek 
church was a young man who had returned a few months before from service 
in Price's army, his term having expired. He therefore was performing 
military duty while not in military service, a very serious violation of the laws 
of war. 

FIRST FEDERAL TROOPS STATIONED IN THE COUNTY. 

The first United States troops regularly stationed in Marshall came in 
April, 1862. Captain Wakefield's Irish company of the Seventh Regiment 
Missouri Infantry Volunteers, Col. John D. Stephenson's regiment. From 
this time on, Marshall was almost continuously a post occupied by Federal 
troops. Captain Wakefield's company remained only a short time, being suc- 
ceeded in May or June, 1862, by a battalion oi the Seventh Regiment, 
Missouri Cavalry Volunteers, under Major McKee. Under the general or- 
ders of General Fremont, declaring marshal law throughout the state. Major 
McKee established the post and appointed Captain Love of Company L, of the 
same regiment, provost-marshal of Saline county. Major McKee remained 
in command only two or three months, being succeeded by Lieut. -Col. W. A. 
Wilson, of Marshall, then of the Seventy-first Regiment Enrolled Missouri 
Militia. A large force of Confederates had organized under Colonel Cock- 
rell, Jackman, Coffey and others, and were in Jackson and Johnson counties, 
threatening Kansas City and Lexington. Colonel Huston, then in com- 
mand of Lexington, called in all the militia of Lafayette and Saline counties 
to defend the post. A big fight was expected and it came off, but at Lone 
Jack, in Jackson county, instead of Lexington. 

Upon the receipt of his orders from General Totten, Major McKee is- 
sued the following order to Lieut. A. Burnsides, of the Seventy-first En- 
rolled Missouri Militia : 

MAJOR M^KEE's ORDER. 

"Headquarters Detach. Seventh Cav. Mo. Vol., 
"Marshall, Missouri, August 9. 1862. 
"Lieutenant : Orders have just been received from General Totten, by 
telegraph, directing that the companies of the Seventh Cavalry now at Mar- 



l6o PAST AND I'RESENT 

shall, and all loyal militia of Saline county be ordered, forthwith, to march 
to Lexington. \'oii will, as soon as possible, on receipt of this communica- 
tion, marcli, with your entire command, including the militia, to this post. 
You will, before leaxing, publish an order, directing all the loyal citizens 
between the prescribed ages in Saline county to repair forthwith to Lexing- 
ton, and state therein that all who do ncH come will be held as traitors and 
hereafter can claim no protection from the Federal goxernment. Vou will 
subsist and forage the militia upon the rebels of all shades. When it is ab- 
solutely necessary to take from Union men. give them receipts in the name 
of the state of Missouri. Arms and ammunition will be furnished at Lex- 
ington to those who ha\'e not got them. 

"The above is an carder of Col. Daniel Huston, received by me this day. 
Bring all the arms and ammunition you can raise ; also for every man that 
has a horse, to bring him. Vou must provide yourselves with the necessary 
cooking utensils and blankets. Let every man bring with him two or three 
days' provisions, and report yourselves at this post immediately. I shall 
move from this post Tuesday at 12 o'clock. 

"Daniel McKee, Major, Comdg. Post." 
"To Lietit. Burnsides : 

"I certify that the above is a true and exact copy of the order calling 
this company into active service. 

"A. Burnsides, Co. F, Seventy-first Reg. E. M. AL" 

Colonel Wilson w-as in command of the post at Marshall until June, 
1863, when he was succeeded by Alajor George W. Kelly, of the Fourth 
Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, who continued in command for some months. 

On the 3d Monda}' of August, 1862, the proceedings of the county court 
contains the following entry : 

"In consecjuence of apprehended trouble from guerrilla bands, at this 
time infesting the country, no court was held according to adjournment. 
The court thereupon gave legal notice that a special term of said court would 
be held at the court house in Marshall on the 15th day of September ,1862. 

''J. R. Berryman. Clerk." 

FIRST FEDERAL TROOPS RAISED IN THE COUNTY. 

In the early spring of 1862 quite a number of the L'nion men of Saline 
county enlisted in the Federal seiwice in the various companies then being 
formed in the county. Many men who had been secessionists at the break- 
ing out of the troubles now became ardent loyalists, ready to justify their 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI l6l 

pretensions and seal their faith Avith their blood. The imposing display 
made bv the Federal troops that had passed through the county, their su- 
perior equipment to the half-armed, half-clad Confederates; the magnitude 
of the preparation then being made by the authorities at Washington "for 
the suppression of the rebellion;"' the continual demonstration of the im- 
mense resources of the North, and the probable failure ultimately of the 
Southern Confederacy, and the certainty of good pay in money nearly par 
value — these considerations may have moved some to abandon the stars 
and bars and rally around the "old flag." And, yet, without any positive 
evidence that this is so, it is but fair and just to believe that there was an 
actual change of heart, honest and sincere, among these men. and that they 
abandoned the Confederate and embraced the Union cause for the reason 
that they believed the former to be wrong and the latter to be right. 

The main reason and inducement for the change of sentiment with 
manv was to secure protection for property. As one prominent man said, 
'T have no use for any government except to protect my property, and I 
intend to support the federal government hereafter because it affords some 
prospect of protection to property." He had recently been a Confederate. 

March 24, 1862, Capt. R. L. Ferguson, then of Miami, received a 
commission to recruit a company for the Seventh Regiment of Enrolled 
Missouri Militia. The company (B) was made up of men from Saline and 
other counties in this part of the state. April 17, 1862, Capt. Ben H. Wilson 
and Lieut. John S. Crane recruited Company F of the same regiment, mostly 
in Saline county. 

The Seventh Regiment, whose colonel was John F. Phillips, afterwards 
member of Congress, and now United States district judge, and whose lieu- 
tenant-colonel was T. T. Crittenden, afterwards governor of the state, did 
a ereat deal of service for the Union cause from first to last in Missouri. 

FIGHTING BEGINS IN EARNEST. 

Hitherto there had been no collisions between the forces in this county 
of any consequence, but from the spring of 1862 to the close of the war 
there were many small skirmishes and unimportant encounters between the 
Confederates and Union men, or Federals. These were for the most part 
between scouting parties of the Federal militia and the Confederate partisan 
rangers, or "bushwhackers," or "guerrillas," as they were termed — the latter 
being organizations led by men who held no military commissions, but did 
as they pleased or as they could. They lived on the countrv^, armed and 
uniformed themselves, and took their pay out of what they could capture. 

II 



l62 PAST AND PRESENT 

These little skirmishes usually amounted to an exchange of shots, the 
killing or wounding of one or two men, and a speedv retreat. 

THE FIGHT AT MEADOW SPRINGS. 

In May, 1862, Captain Hawk, of a company ui Iowa r>deral cavalry, 
had been stationed at Waverly for some time, and being informed ]}\ two 
negroes belonging to Baltimore Thomas that some bushwhackers were near 
that place, he immediately started with his company in pursuit of them. 
Following up the trail into the timber north of Mr. Thomas's house, they 
came upon seventeen guerrillas seated around what is known as Meadow 
Springs eating their breakfast, and immediately charged them. The guer- 
rillas at once scattered and took refuge in the brush. A sharp fight ensued, 
resulting in the death of Lieutenant Wood, whose breast was riddled with 
buck shots, and the wounding of Captain Hawk in his right arm. The 
guerrillas made good their escape. Captain Hawk was tenderly cared for at 
the residence of George Hall, a Southern man in Waverly, and the dead 
lieutenant was buried with military honors at the Waverly graveyard at 
night, making a most impressive scene. 

The guerrillas were commanded by Capt. William B. Edwards, after- 
wards belonging to Shelby's regiment, and was known as "Squirreltail" 
Edwards from the circumstance of his having worn a scjuirreltail in his hat, 
while he was in command of this irregular organization. He afterwards 
deserted Shelby's regiment and engaged in robbing down in the state of 
Arkansas, and was killed by a company of Arkansas Confederate militia. 

In this engagement, the guerrillas lost their horses, but not a man of 
them was hurt. 

WAR DURING 1 863. 

Saline county during the year 1863 was under almost exclusive control 
of the Federal troops, as it had been from Febmary, 1862. Garrisons were 
stationed at Marshall, Arrow Rock and Miami for the greater part of the 
time. Federal scouting parties were almost constantly moving through the 
country from one side to the other. Federal militia were organized, armed 
and equipped in various places. Federal officials held all the offices in the 
county. 

Federal rule, however, was ^•ery obnoxious to the majority of the peo- 
ple. It was distasteful for many reasons, and obnoxious because it was op- 
pressive and because it was Federal and not Confederate. There was no 
way of concealing the fact that a large majority of the people of Saline 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I63 

county were at heart Confederates and sympathizers with the Southern 
cause, although many of them had been Union people at the beginning of 
hostilities ; but the course of Federal commanders, and the conduct of sol- 
diers under them, had changed them to pronounced Confederate sympa- 
thizers, and, in fact, made many of them Confederate soldiers. There were 
some who wished to take no part in the fighting then going on, desiring to 
remain at home to pursue their ordinary vocation in peace, desiring also 
that the soldiers of both armies should keep out of their neighborhoods and 
avoid fighting in the vicinity. They neither wished to fight against the flag 
of the stars and stripes, nor against their own race, neighbors and kindred. 

But the Federal theory of war was that there were only two parties, 
those favoring the Union and those against it. There could be no such 
thing as neutrality. He that was not for them was against them, and he 
that favored them must show his faith by his works and take part in the 
Avar. Hence they called on men freely for their property, and their ser- 
vices, demanding ready compliance. 'Tf you are a loyal man you will not 
complain. If you are a rebel it but serves you right," was the usual reply 
to any remonstrance, protest or expostulation. 

This theory had its advocates among the Confederates, who often car- 
ried it into practice, and it was probably the correct one .after all. While 
war exists, and in its immediate presence, men owing military duty can 
hardly expect to work a corn field in peace when every day there is a proba- 
bility that it may be the scene of a cavalry charge and plowed by shot and 
shell. 

In Saline county the people felt the hand of war heavily and there was 
destruction on every side. Bands of militia dail\- rode up to the houses of 
men of Southern inclination, demanding food for themselves and provender 
for their horses, obtaining them without money, or offering or giving any- 
thing in return. Companies of Confederates paid similar visits to the homes 
of Union people. Horses were pressed into service and provisions and 
material were confiscated by both parties. Excesses of various kinds, not 
to say outrages, were perpetrated daily. The scoundrels and villains of 
both sides enjoyed fine opportunity to pillage, rob and kill. The details of 
many instances of these crimes against humanity, and even against the laws 
of war, ought not to be perpetuated in history and will be passed over here. 

There were a considerable number of encounters in the county, too 
manv and too unimportant to be enumerated. The principal military event 
was a march bv General Shelbv, at that time a colonel, across the county, 
and generally designated as Shelby's raid. 



1^4 past axd present 

Shelby's command in saline county. 

In Seplen]l)er, 1863, Col. Joseph O. Shell)y, at that time with the Trans- 
Mississippi department of the Confederate army in Arkansas, selected a 
body of men from the Missouri cavalry regiments to go on a march up 
through Missouri, through the countn- where he had formerly lived and 
where the most of his men had formerly lived. The object of the excursion 
through Missouri was to obtain recruits for the Confederate army from the 
many yet remaining in Missouri, but wdio w-ere strong symi)athizers of the 
Southern cause. Some of these people had seen more or less service al- 
ready and w-ere at home on parole. Another object was to capture supplies 
from the Federals and to let the w^orld, and especially the people of Mis- 
souri, know that this portion of the American soil w^as still claimed as a 
part of the Confederate states and w-as not expected to be abandoned. The 
presence of a Confederate force was thought to be necessan^ to restore and 
maintain confidence with those who had begun to doubt the success of their 
cause, which had no other representatives in this territory but the guer- 
rillas, and who had for months been under the control of Federal troops. 

Just how many men Colonel Shelby had with him when he left Ar- 
kansas cannot now be knowm. Major John N. Edw^ards,* of Shelby's staff, 
placed the number at eight hundred. 

There w-ere Shelby's regiment, commanded by Capt. George P. Gor- 
don; Shank's regiment, commanded by himself; Thompson's regiment, com- 
manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper; Elliott's battalion and two guns of 



*John Newman Edwards, journalist and soldier, was born January 4, 1838, at Front 
Royal, Virginia, and died May 4, 1889, at Jefiferson City, Missouri. His parents were 
John and Mary (Newman^ Edwards, both natives of Virginia. 

Major John Newman Edwards received a common school education in Warren 
county, afterward studying Latin and Greek in Washington City. While but a boy, he 
learned typesetting on the Front Royal Gazette, and at the age of fourteen years wrote a 
story which won the commendation of his mother, a woman of strong intellect and who 
encouraged him to better efforts. Shortly afterward, at the solicitation of his relative, 
Thomas J. Yerbj^ of Lexington, Missouri, he removed to that place, where he worked at 
his trade until the beginning of the Civil war. He joined the command of Gen. J. O. 
Shelby, and became brigadier-adjutant, with the rank of major, and was made adjutant- 
general of the division when his chief succeeded to that command. The fortunes of the 
two were joined throughout the war. Major Edwards participated in all the battles of 
this famous corps and made a brilliant reputation as a soldier. He was engaged in some 
fifty actions of more or less consequence, and was several times severely wounded. In the 
attack on Cape Girardeau, a fragment of shell tore away the inside of his leg and he lay 
all night without surgical attention. He was found by the Federal soldiers, and was per- 
sonally cared for by Gen. John McNeil. Major Edwards remembered the kindness, and 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 165 

Collins' battery, in charge of Lieut. David Harris, when the expedition 
started. Afterwards, it was joined by Colonel Cojffey's and Colonel David 
Hunter's regiments, making a force of probably one thousand men. One of 
the guns was a ten-pound steel Parrott gun captured at Springfield from the 
Federals, and the other was a six-pounder brass piece captured from the 
Federals at the battle of Lone Jack in August, 1862. 

This expedition started from the camp on the Washita river in south- 
ern Arkansas, September 22, 1863. They struck straight for central Mis- 
souri. It seemed a desperate undertaking to ride with so small a force into 
what was virtually the enemy's country, occupied as it was with Federal 
troops at nearly every county seat and important town, which were easy to 
concentrate into a very formidable force upon either of his flanks, front or 
rear, or upon all sides; but Shelby was a desperate fighter, who took des- 
perate chances, and his men were ever ready to follow him wherever he 
should lead. They would do this upon any occasion, and more willingly 
now, as they were going back to old Missouri, and they were all, or nearly 
all, natives of the state. Such a ride meant iron endurance, with almost 
incessant fighting, and the alternative of death or capture. 

On the night of October 10, 1863, the regiment encamped on the farm 
of Judge Nathaniel Leonard, south of Boonville in Cooper county, and the 
next day marched into the town, capturing it and the garrison stationed 
there. Major Leonard, of Fayette, in Howard county, had shortly after- 
ward reached the river bank with his two hundred and fifty Federal militia. 
and a ferry-boat load of the same started across the river to Boonville, not 
knowing that it was occupied by rebel troops. When the ferry-foat had 



when his benefactor was most bitterly assailed, spoke well of him. He was exchanged 
soon after the Cape Girardeau affair, rejoined his command, and remained with it until 
the end of the war. He then accompanied Shelby and his fragmentary "Iron Brigade" 
southward. They sank their battle flag in the Rio Grande river, crossed into Mexico, and 
for more than a year acted in conjunction with the French army. Major Edwards be- 
came a favorite with Maximilian and the unfortunate Princess Carlotta. He assisted in 
establishing the Mexican Times newspaper, and there wrote his book, "An Unwritten 
Leaf of the War." 

In 1867 Major Edwards returned to the United States and became a reporter on the 
St. Louis Republican. In 1868, in connection with Col. John C. Moore, he established the 
Kansas City Times, w^ith which he remained until 1873, when he took employment with 
the St. Louis Dispatch, subsequently following its chief, Stilson Hutchins, to the St. Louis 
Times. While connected with the latter paper occurred his duel with Col. Emory S. Foster, 
of the St. Louis Journal. He subsequently conducted the Sedalia Democrat, and after- 
ward founded The Dispatch, which was but sliort-lived. For a time he was managing 
editor of the St. Joseph Gazette, from which he was recalled to the editorial charge of the 
Kansas City Times, occupying that position until his death, which resulted from heart 



l66 PAST AND PRESENT 

reached llie middle of the stream, it was confronted by the two guns of Col- 
lins' battery, one of which sent a shot, passing- through the upper works of 
the boat, but not hurting- anybody. The Ijoat immediately turned al:)out, 
returning- to the Howard side as soon as possible, followed by two or three 
niore shots of the artiller}-. The guns continued to play on the troops as 
they landed, and accordingly they beat a hasty retreat, not stopping until 
they reached Fayette. Colonel Crittenden, afterwards governor of the state, 
with a detachment of the Seventh Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, w-as in 
sig-ht of Boonville on a steamboat bound u[) the ri\'er, and becoming- aware 
of the condition of affairs at Boonville, very discreetly landed on the north- 
ern shore. 

Colonel Shelby took complete military possession of Boonville, placing 
guards around the stores and appropriating all the supplies needed by his 
troops, consisting of clothing, provisions, etc. He left Boonville for 
iMarshall on the morning of the 12th of October. Gen. K. B. Brown with 
a force of Missouri State Militia marched his command in pursuit of Shelby, 
it seems impossible at this time to tell with how many troops. There were 
about six hundred and fifty men of the First Missouri State Mihtia, under 
Lieut. -Col. B. F. Lazear ; three hundred and fifty of the Fourth Missouri 
State Militia under Major G. W. Kelly; a portion of the Missouri State 
Militia under Col. John F. Phillips (since a member of Congress, and now- 
United States judge at Kansas City, Missouri), and also some enrolled 
militia under Major Walker Ware, of Boonville. 

Sunrise on the 12th found Shelby on his march for Saline and Lafayette 
counties, the homes of very many of his men. Instead of traveling the 
main road from Boonville to Marshall, he deflected to the southwest on the 



failure, at Jefferson City, May 4, 1889. The Legislature, which was in session, adjourned 
out of respect to his memory. Both houses of the General Assembly, headed by Governor 
Francis, accompanied the remains to the depot, and a special car, provided by the Mis- 
souri Pacific Railway, conveyed the funeral party to Dover, where services were conducted 
by the Rev. George Plattenburg, a cousin of j\Irs. Edwards. The death of Major Edwards 
produced a profound sensation throughout the state, and the press of the entire country 
teemed with tributes to his memory. He was a peerless soldier, and, while abating noth- 
ing of his loyalty to the cause for which he had fought, or of affection for his comrades in 
battle, he deprecated the continuance of ill feeling and philosophically accepted the results 
of the bitter struggle. He was a surpassingly brilliant writer. His volumes of war amlals 
present vivid scenes of the events treated upon and w-ill be of great value to future his- 
torians. His editorial writings have never been surpassed in journalism. They were 
marked with independence of thought and expressed in vigorous English. Despising cant 
and pretense, he condemned the one in humor and punctured the other with the keenest 
thrusts of sarcasm. His heart warmed to all in suffering and distress, and the poetic ele- 
ment of his nature responded to their need for sympathy in touching phrase. 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI \(^■/ 

Sedalia road, pursuing" it for several miles in order to cross the Lamine 
river at tlie Dng ford, instead of the regular crossing on the main state road. 
All the morning- his rear guards skirmished with Brown's advance. Colonel 
Lazear and other officers of the Federal force were anxious to hring on a 
general engagement he fore he crossed the Lamine. but for some reason 
(ieneral Brown would not permit such action. He had been inf(jrmed by 
what he considered good authority, that the Confederates outnumbered him. 
and probably he may have been expecting and waiting for reinforcements 
from General Ewing's command, a portion of which was at Sedalia and 
could easilv have been moved in Shelby's front. 

At the Dug ford of the Lamine Shelljy, having crossed the river. 
ambushed Hunter's battalion, Jones', Langhorn's, Ferrell's and Lee's com- 
panies upon the west bank of the stream. When Brown's advance was al- 
most across, it was subjected to a terrible and destructive fire from the car- 
bines and revolvers of the concealed Confederates and driven back with a 
loss of from eight to ten men killed and three times that many wounded. 
Major Edwards' account of this affair places the number of Federals killed 
and wounded at one hundred and eleven, while Levens and Drake's "History 
of Cooper County" says there were two Federals killed. 

The author of a former history of Saline says no attempt will be made 
to reconcile the wide discrepancy of the various reports of this fight. \\ hat 
is here stated has been derived from participants in the Dug ford fight upon 
either side, and the Federal surgeon, who cared for the wounded, among 
others. 

The Confederates were not troubled any more that day until the evening 
when near Salt Fork, a mile or two below the town of Jonesboro. Here the 
Federals limbered up a section of artillery, two brass six-pound guns from 
Thurbers' Missouri Battery opening fire upon Shelby's rear. Harris's gims 
returned the fire and one Federal and one C(Mi federate were killed. The 
Federal had both legs shot (^ff. The Confederate was buried where he fell 
near the roadside. 

THE FIGHT AT MARSHALL. 

Shelby marched on that day to the farm of Lsaac Xave. where he 
camped for the night. His camp fires were in plain sight of those of Gen- 
eral Brown, and the pickets were still close to each other. Shelby's men 
helped themselves freely to the supplies, which were found in abundance 
upon the Nave farm, and made fire-wood of a great many fence rails. Dur- 
ing the evening Mr. Nave visited Shelby's headcjuarters and was paid five 



l68 PAST AND PRESENT 

hundred dollars in Confederate money for his property that had been used 
or destroyed. The following account of the movements of Colonel Shelby 
and his forces and also those of the Federals is taken from ''Shelby and 
His J\Ien," a book written several years after the close of the war by Major 
John N. Edwards. This account by Major Edwards of the battle of Mar- 
shall is copied here, not so much on account of its historical accuracy or 
value, but as a sample of the literature of the Civil war, on the Southern 
side, here in Saline county. The Major certainly drew on his imagination 
to a considerable extent in describing the fight between the opposing forces 
at Marshall. There was, though, undoubtedly a great deal of firing at long 
distance with small arms between the contending forces that day, though so 
far apart as to be not very effective or destructive of life. Two men, who 
were soldiers in that engagement, are yet living at Marshall in this year, 
1909, Col. James Gordon, president of the Farmers Saving Bank, and Capt. 
C. L. Minor, the latter being badly wounded in this fight, and a comrade of 
the former was killed in such proximity to him as to strike him when he 
fell to the ground. Captain Minor had a leg broken, preventing further 
service for a length of time. 

Major Edwards says : 

"A wet, clinging morning, cold and disagreeable, came at last, and 
Shelby began the march early for Marshall. There might be danger ahead, 
and he expected it, but not so sudden and appalling. When within two 
miles of Marshall, Thorp sent a swift courier. Weed Marshall, back with 
information that a heavy body of Federals were forming in his front. 
'Charge them !' was the laconic order. 'But, Colonel, they are four thousand 
strong.' replied the heroic Thorp, as he formed for the desperate attempt. 
'Ah, what?' said Shelby; 'four thousand devils! Then we are in for it deeper 
than I expected.' 

''True enough, just emerging from the little prairie town of Marshall 
and forming their lines so as to cover it, could be seen four thousand Fed- 
erals, of all arms, under General Ewing. * * * * Previous to Shelby's 
advance into the state, Ouantrell had destroyed Lawrence and annihilated 
Blunt's escort at Fort Webster, which concentrated a large force immedi- 
ately to pursue him, and this force, after his escape south, had returned to 
meet Shelby and crush him wherever encountered. In conjunction also 
with Ewing came General Brown from Jefferson City, with four thousand 
additional troops in the rear, and when at last Shelby was brought to bay, 
eight thousand soldiers girt him round with walls of steel. Two miles east 
of ]\Iarshall ran Salt Fork, a stream sometimes deep and rapid, but now 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 169 

offering small impediments against its crossing. A large bridge spanned it 
where the main road crossed, which he immediately destroyed after every- 
thing had passed, and Colonel Shelby then called up Alajor Shanks, com- 
manding the rear battalion, and said to him, very calmly, but with the 
deliberate utterance of a man terribly in earnest : 'Major, General Brown 
will be here in half an hour. How long can you hold this crossing with 
two hundred against four thousand?' 'As long as you wish it, Colonel — 
an hour, a day or a week.' 'Very well; I shall attack Ewing in front and 
endeavor to drive him from my path, but it is an up-hill business, I fear. 
However, if it takes just two hundred of your two hundred men, and your- 
self besides, never let go your hold on yonder stream until I order it; and 
when you do come to me come like the wind, for I shall be pressed to the 
wall before I cry for help.' 'Mounted or dismounted, Colonel, had I better 
form?' asked Shanks, as if the most ordinary commission in life had been 
given him. 'Dismounted, for your horses' sake. They will all be needed.' 
"Shanks threw forward two companies on either flank for a mile up 
and down the river and waited coolly for the avalanche. Shelby galloped 
to the front after grasping this peerless officer's hand as one he never ex- 
pected to see again. The Confederate war for independence furnished no 
grander example of heroic courage and defiance than was exhibited this 
day by Marshall town. The battlefield, rent and broken by hug'e gullies, 
and covered with a thick growth of hazel bushes, was peculiarly unfitted for 
the desperate charge Colonel Shelby intended to make squarely upon Ew- 
ing's center, and he was forced to dismount his brigade and fight at a dis- 
advantage. Hunter and Coffey were on the extreme right, operating 
directly against the town, Hooper in the center and Gordon on the left. 
Ewing formed his lines in the shape of a V". the point resting on Marshall 
and the tAvo prongs extending to the right and left of Shelby's position, 
thus enfilading his lines with artillery and musketry. Lieutenants Ferrell 
and Plattenburg, leading the skirmishers on the left, sprang away from 
Gordon's lines and engaged fiercely. Hunter and Coffey advanced upon the 
right through the dense bushes and under a dreadful fire, while Hooper 
and Gordon, moving' up to support their skirmishes, the action became 
bloody almost immediately. Eighteen pieces of artillery concentrated upon 
Shelby's two guns a withering fire, and not a portion of his lines were 
exempt from the bullets of the enemy. A charge along the whole front 
drove Ewing back upon the town, forced him to change his position and 
retire two of his batteries, which were admirablv served. He in turn con- 
centrated upon Hunter and Coffey, and drove them a short distance with 



I/O PAST AND PRESENT 

a severe loss, but Hooper swiuginj^- around !)}• a well executed llank move- 
ment, swept Ewing's left \vin<^' bloodil)- back and followed tlie survivors 
into tlie streets of the to\\u. b'resh masses ])oured from the rear, and made 
good the losses, and the battle raged evenly for two hours, eight hundred 
men fighting four thousand and driving them at all points. Confederates 
fell fast and Colonel Shelby saw^ go by him to the rear his best and bra\'est. 
now all pale and bloody, and the dark hour was on Saul. Ewing extended 
his cavalry to Salt Fork above and below, and thus rounded completely the 
little band of determined men fighting for dear life. Look where one would, 
the prairie was dark with uniforms and gristling with glittering steel. 

"In the rear, the conflict was darker still. Brown hurled his forces 
upon Shanks' in wave after wave, that burst in spray of skirmishes, and 
recoiled before the grim shore beyond held by two hundred desperate men. 
As the artillery fire deepened and rolled over the field, great cheers arose 
from the friendly ranks now closing and shoutiug around their prey. Shanks, 
enveloped and almost overpowered, fought on with a desperation rarely 
ecjualled. Brown bn^ught up his artillery, and swept the position with a 
hurricane of balls, but could not dislodge his enemies. Shanks asked for 
one piece of artillery to stem the hot tide, but it could not be given. Shelby 
only shouted back from his ow^i gloom : 'For half an hour. Shanks ; for 
half an hour, until I mount my men.' The woodwork of one of his Parrot 
guns had Ijeen shot into shreds, both wheels gone, and the trail clear broken. 
Even then he tried to save his darling cannon, and attempted to lift it into 
an ammunition wagon. The wagon, too, was shot away, and eight men fell 
around it. From all sides now death came leaping and insatiate. Brown 
extended his lines beyond the utmost of Shanks' skirmishers and crossed 
Salt fork three miles below the bridge, pouring up and joining Ewing by 
regiments. Fraternizing and shouting like devils, they came down upon the 
left as a vast torrent. But Shelby was prepared, his men mounted and 
closed up. solid and defiant, while the ammunition wagons had six drivers 
detailed to each team to whip them through with the charge. On the extreme 
left of Ewing's line could be seen drawn up across the only road at all 
practicable a splendid Federal Missouri regiment, with infantry skirmishes 
in front, in groups behind corn-shocks. Shelby determined to hurl his whole 
force upon this regiment, and crush it or double it back upon the center. 
The object was to break through the lines, now strengthening every mo- 
ment, even if it required the sacrifice of half the brigade. With this view 
he recollected Shanks, and ordered him to fall back immediately, but that 
devoted officer was so hard j)ressed and crippled that he mounted his men 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I7I 

with difficulty, and had to form and fight three times before he traveled the 
half mile between his position and Colonel Shelby's. Meantime, the danger 
thickened each moment, and Shanks had not arrived. Knowing he could 
well take care of himself, and believing that he would come up by the time 
the encircling lines of the enemy were broken. Colonel Shelby ordered the 
final charge in column, leading himself, though entreated not to take so 
much exposure. It was a fearful moment. The thin, gray wedge dashed 
down full upon the enemy's line, receiving the fire of three full batteries, 
but killing the skirmishers behind the corn-shocks in dozens. The Federal 
regiment swayed slightly as Shelby neared it, and from both wings the 
infantry double-quicked for its relief. Too late! That column, fierce as a 
full-fed river, and canopied in powder clouds, as the men fired right and left, 
swung into line with the rush of a whirlwind, and grappled with the foe, 
standing bravely to see the issue through. Short work and very bloody. A 
few first fell away from the flanks panic stricken ; the regiment then qui\-- 
ered and shook, from end to end. until. hea\'ing and collapsing to an im- 
pulse as swift and vivid as the lightning's flash, it broke away toward Alar- 
shall. hopelessly rent and scattered, ^^'ith this charge came the wagons, 
clattering along as fast as the fastest horsemen, and went through the gap 
white and huge as the new sails of a staunch, fleet frigate. Daylight ahead 
now, for in that thundering charge the entire left wing of Ewing's four 
thousand men gave way in wild disorder, and but for the arriving masses of 
Brown's division the day would have been lost to Ewing. Colonel Shelby 
knew salvation to be near at hand, and halted, even there, to wait for 
Shanks, giving time for new columns of attack to be formed against him 
and fresh forces to join in the battle; but Shanks could not reach him. 
Surrounded, hemmed in, fighting hand to hand, and bleeding at every step, 
he turned directly east, at the point where Colonel Shelby turned west, 
and cut through everything before him to the timber, bringing oiT the re- 
maining piece of artillery in safety. 

"Seeing Shanks cut off, and Brown throwing his whole force between 
them, Shelby determined to retreat toward Waverly, believing that Shanks' 
indomitable pluck and sagacity would carry him through, and whether they 
did or not, Shelby was powerless to assist him, and even his owai safety 
could not entirely be counted upon as certain, for great masses of cavalry 
came thundering after him, evidently bent on mischief. Capt. Reck Johnson 
held the rear, and repulsed two severe charges of the enemy ; but he, too, 
sent for help, and received two more companies under Edwards and Crispni. 
With these he held the pursuers in check until darkness settled down, good 
and black, and the brigade had gained the river road leading to \\'a\-erl>-. 



1 7-3 PAST AND PRESENT 

"A short halt for tliree hours gave time for a Httle rest and feeding, 
wlien sixty rounds of ammunition were issued to the men, and the wagons, 
now perfectly useless, since all the cartridges had heen used or distril)uted, 
were sunk many fathoms in the Missouri river." 

The Federal account of this battle dififers very materiallv from that 
gi\'en by Major Edwards. Horace Greeley in his historv of the American 
conflict says that Shelby was pursued by a hastily gathered body of Missouri 
militia under Gen. E. B. Brown, who struck them October 12th, near Arrow 
Rock at nightfall, fighting them till dark, renewing the attack at eight next 
morning, and putting them to flight with the loss of some three hundred 
killed, wounded and prisoners, and further, upon the strength of a dispatch 
from General Brown to General Schofield, commanding at St. Louis, the 
latter officer telegraphed the next day to the Federal authorities at Wash- 
ington, the following: 
"Major-General Halleck, General-in-Chief. 

"General Brown brought the rebels under Shelby to a decisive engage- 
ment yesterday. The fight was obstinate and lasted five hours. The rebels 
were finally completely routed and scattered in all directions with loss of 
their artillery and baggage, and a large number of small armed prisoners. 
The enemy's loss in killed and wounded is very great. Ours is also large. 
Our troops are still ])ursuing the flying rebels. 

"J. M. Schofield, Major-General." 

So it seems there was a wdde difference between the official accounts of 
the battle of Marshall, but as a matter of fact, there was a great deal of 
firing between the forces without any great loss or serious results, the com- 
batants being too far apart and too much sheltered by the irregular ground 
that was covered with young timber. Consequently, the loss on either side 
was not so great as it was reported to be. The number of \\ounded on 
either side was about twenty-five. Of these, the Confederates were the 
worst injured because they were shot with muskets and rifle balls, while the 
Federals were wounded with carbine and revolver bullets of comparatively 
small calibre. Six Confederates afterwards died of their wounds, eighteen 
were taken prisoners, but not a single Federal.* Shelby's men made no 
effort to take prisoners. Those killed on the field were buried on Mr. 



* Some years after the Civil war, the late Col. ^''incent !\Iannaduke, on meeting Gen- 
eral Brown, who was in command of the Federals following General Shelby, asked 
him w^hy he did not capture Shelby and his men at Marshall. General Brown said that 
his forces were in ample number to do so, but the regiments were made up of raw men, 
who he could not rely upon to stand up against such veterans as were following Shelb\-, 
and for that reason he did not undertake to capture him. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 1 73 

Mooney's place. Those who died in the hospital were buried a few yards 
from where they died, the hospital being at the eastern edge of Marshall, 
on the Arrow Rock road, in the house of "Black" Johnson, who was absent 
from home. 

A former historian of Saline county, says : WTiile the two forces of 
Brown and Shelby were encamped on the Nave farm, as before stated. 
Brown conceived the idea of dividing his forces and sending a portion of 
it in front of Shelby, and in that way place the Confederates between two 
fires. Accordingly Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear was directed to take his com- 
mand, numbering about three hundred and fifty men, and Major Kelly with 
about the same number, and Johnson's battery of four guns, and make a cir- 
cuit flanking Shelby to the southwest by way of Hook's mill on Salt Fork, 
thence to Marshall, and take up the position at Marshall, and await the 
advance of Shelby. Major Kelley, with a battery of Fourth Missouri Mili- 
tia, had the advance. He moved at three o'clock in the morning, crossing at 
Salt Fork at the old Hook's mill ford, arriving in Marshall about sunrise. 
At once, he sent out pickets on the Arrow Rock and Miami roads. The 
pickets on the Arrow Rock road were stationed on top of the hill over the 
bridge just east of Salt Fork. Kelley scattered his men about the east and 
southeast part of the town to get breakfast. Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear with 
his command of the First Missouri Militia started from Brown's camp im- 
mediately after Kelley, but got on the wrong road, and in the darkness did 
not get to Marshall until after the battle had commenced. Kelley's men 
had hardly finished their breakfast when the pickets on the Arrow Rock road 
galloped into town and reported Shelby's approach. Kelley instantly 
mounted his men and pushed out to dispute the road with the Confederates. 
At the edge of towni, he dismounted and leaving every fourth man to take 
care of the horses, he drew a portion of his force across the road, sending 
the remainder down into a deep ravine, running nearly parallel with the 
road. Just as he had completed this formation, Colonel Lazear arrived 
with the head of his command, the remainder following rapidly after him. 
Major Kelley here turned over the command to Lazear, who was the senior 
officer. Lazear did not disturb the position of Kelley's men, but sent his own 
regiment across the road to the left dismounting them, and leaving most 
of the horses in Marshall. 

When Shelby's advance struck the Federal pickets, Shelby himself rode 
liack along his line, ordering his men, in his short, nervous manner to 'Close 
up! Close up!' and adding, 'There is trouble ahead.' He had heard when 
near Boonville that General Ewing was at Sedalia with a considerable force 



174 PAST AND PRESENT 

of l<"e(lerals, and he believed that this force had been marched across the 
country and was now confronting- him. Tlie truth was, howexer, that neither 
Ciencral Ewing- nor an}' of his command were at Alarsliall at that time. 
She!l)\- pushed his wliole force ra])idly across Salt Fork, leaving- Major Shanks 
and Hunter to guard his rear with about two hundred and fifty men. He 
placed his two cannon on top of the hill west of the stream in plain view 
of his encnu' and the town in front of the mad to Hook's mill crossing to 
his left, along which Lazear's command was hurrying. Captain Thorpe 
with al)out tiftv men (some say seventy-five) was ordered to charge up the 
main road and into Marshall, on Kelly's command across the road, and feel 
of and discover the Federal strength. The charge was made in gallant style, 
but the Federals down in the ravine gave their enemies a flanking fire as they 
passed up the road and those in front stood their ground, and Thorpe soon 
retreated, losing three or four men, only one of whom was killed, however. 
He reported to Shelby that it was im^xossible for him to break through 
the Federal lines, and the Confederate commander was confirmed in the 
belief that it was Ewing, who was at his front.* Thereupon, he arranged 
his lines, and prepared to fight it out to the best advantage possible, determin- 
ing to escape to the northwest westward, and pass into Lafayette county 



* General Ewing wrote the following- letter to a former historian of Saline count}' : 

"Fifth Avenue Hotel, IMadison Square, 

"New York, May 24, 1881. 

"Dear Sir: — Vour favor of the i6th inst. is received. Neither I nor any of my com- 
mand participated in the engagement at Marshall, October 13, 1863, between the Confed- 
erates, under General Shelliy, and the Union forces, under General Brown. 

"Very truly xours, 

"T. Ewing." 

General Thomas Ewing, who wrote the foregoing letter, acquired a reputation for 
cruelty by issuing what was known as Order No. Eleven, an order requiring the removal 
of all citizens from the country in the counties of Jackson, Cass and Bates, which order 
made him odious to all Southern jjcople in this section. The execution of the order caused 
great hardship and suffering, many of the houses of the country people being burned by 
the Federal troops after they were abandoned by their owners. 

lUit General Ewing did not appear to be harsh, cold-blooded or cruel as a civilian 
after the war was over. Years afterward ( 1876J the author met General Ew^ing at the 
Democratic national convention at St. Louis, being introduced to him by Major Edwards, 
who thought he was lighting Ewing and his forces at Marshall, hawing was an exceedingly 
handsome man, appearing to the author as i)articularly amiable and gentlemanly in his 
manners and conduct, there being nothing about him to indicate cruelty, brutality or 
harshness towards others. But, notwithstanding, be ne\er reco\ered from the reputa- 
tion gained by ( )rder Xo. Eleven, thai had, in the meantime, been represented and per- 
petuated on canvas by the Missouri artist. Gen. George C. Bingham, who also fought on 
the Federal side, as General Ewing did. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



US 



bv \va\' of the I'iiinacles. His men knew the country very well for in the 
case of many of them their feet were on their native heath. 

Harris' two guns opened on the Federals and kept up a xigorous tire 
for some time, mainly directed against the town. Gordon's regiment was 
sent to the left (^f the road, dismounted, the Imrses left in a ra\-ine, and the 
regiment deployed and marched obliqueh' in line against Kelly's men down 
in the ravine. Gordon's men were as game as any of those in the fight, but 
they were driven back 1)}- the militiamen in the hollow, who kept themselves 
concealed and their numbers unknown. On the retreat, some of Gordon's 
men rallied around an old log house, but a couple of shots from a Federal 
gun on a hill on the road to Hook's mill drove them away. Thev fell back, 
and eventually were sent over to the right of the road, where thev co-oper- 
ated with the main body in the principal fight. Some of Gordon's men were 
wounderl in the assault on the ravine, and one John Corbin, a Lafavette 
county man, was mortally wounded, falling against Orderly-Sergeant J. A. 
Gordon, of Company C (now of the Farmers Savings Bank of Marshall), 
then in command of his company. Thompson's regiment, commanded bv 
Lieutenant-Colonel Hooper, Elliot's battalion, Pickler's battalion, Thorpe's 
battalion, or company, and Hunter's regiment were to the right of the road 
fighting Lazear warily and cautiously, but not very vigorously, as Shelby 
was gradually getting ready to make his escape. His men were well shelr 
tered, as were the ^>derals, by timber and raxines. and firing was mere 
l)astime; it was not at all dangerous; lead enough was thrown to kill and 
maim a (li\ision, but the protection afforded by nature, the inaccuracy of 
the Federal fire, being mostly delivered from muskets, and the distance of 
the Confederates from their foes, prevented any \ery great slaughter, for 
which we may all now be verv thankful. 

When General Brown arrived at Salt Fork he found Shanks holding 
the post and fighting with all of his great deal of braveiy. He could, how- 
ever, have made a charge and with his superior force overthrown the brave 
Confederates on the south bank. True, he would have lost a few men, but 
he would have gained a victory — and soldiers ought to expect to die. But 
Brown was afraid of Shelby. He imagined the Confederates to be twice 
as strong as they were. Citizens along the road had told him that Shelby 
had two thousand five hundred men, and he believed them. So, after plant- 
ing two guns of Thurber on the hill and firing a few shots, one of which 
disabled Shelby's brass "Lone Jack" gun. Brown left about two hundred 
men to keep up a constant firing on Shanks and keep him from co-operating 
with Shelby's force, and passed around with the remaiTider of his force and. 



176 PAST AND PRESENT 

crossing' the Salt Fork at Hook's mill, joined Kelly and Lazear at Marshall 
at about ten o'clock. His command did not all get up until two hours later. 
It was some time before Brown seemed to comprehend the situation. La- 
zear had been taken sick, his horse had Ijeen shot, and he had turned the 
comman(J over to Kelly, who reported the condition of affairs and asked 
to be allowed to charge Shelby. After some charging and counter-hubbub 
generally, great cry and but little wool. Brown attempted to extend his line 
to his left completely around Shelby, who was in the timber and ravines 
northeast of town, getting his wagons together and his men well in hand 
to make a strike for the open air and freedom. Brown succeeded in getting 
his line extended, but it was a very thin one, a man every six feet or so, on foot 
and armed with a musket. At last Shelby had completed his preparations. 
He had one horse killed under him in a ravine, and he carried his arm in a 
sling, still suffering from a wound received at Helena, Arkansas, the 4th of 
July previously. But he had been all over the field and knew the situation 
of his men. He also thought he knew that of the Federals. Calling upon 
his men, he rode along the line and told them that he proposed to "cut out." 
"If you want to surrender, any of you," he said, "you can do so; but re- 
member that if you do, you surrender with your heads in halters, for these 
are militia, and you know what they are. Many of you have been captured 
l)efore, and released on taking the oath of allegiance to the United States. 
You are now fighting in violation of that oath, and if captured, are liable to 
be shot down like dogs. At the best, you can only expect incarceration in 
northern dungeons for an indefinite period. Which would you rather do — 
be shot like dogs or rot in northern dungeons, or cut your way out with 
Joe Shelby?" A general and hearty shout was the response, "We'll cut 
out! We'll cut out." Shelby thereupon sent word to Shanks to join him, 
and when he thought that officer had time to catch him, he gave command 
to "Charge." Away went his advance, breaking through Brown's thin 
line very easily, and without losing a man, the column steering northward 
toward the Miami road, which was soon reached. Just as Shelby charged. 
Major Kelly with his battalion of the Fourth Missouri, charged also upon 
the Confederate line. He was checked for a minute by only about twenty 
men of Gordon's regiment, but he soon went on and cut Shelby's line in 
two, cutting off Colonel Hunter with a part of his regiment, and Shanks 
with all of the men who had been holding the crossing at Salt Fork all day. 
With Hunter was the remaining piece of artillery, "The Springfield gun," 
and it was carried from the field in safety. Owing to this charge of Kelly, 
the most of Shelby's wagons were left behind, not being able to get out 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



177 



Ijefore they were o\-ertaken. Ouartermaster Neale, of Gordon's regiment, 
succeeded in saving about half his wagons and his own "bacon" by a very 
close sha\'e. 

Upon being cut off and pursued by the Federals, Shanks and Hunter 
went up the Salt Fork a short distance, crossed and went east for a few 
miles, then turned south, heading for Arkansas. They crossed the Pacific 
railroad near Sedalia, and after some unimportant skirmishes with militia 
joined Shelby about a week after the fight at Marshall. 

Shelby continued his retreat to the northwestward, leaving the Miami road 
and going through Grand Pass township in the direction of Waverly, 
reaching the river bottom about dark. Only one battalion of Lazear's and 
a company or two of the Seventh ( Phillip's) Regiment pursued the Con- 
federates at first. Johnson's battery of four-pounders was started, but the 
Federal commander ordered them back, saying he would rather have four 
big clubs. Shelby's rear guard, composed of the companies of Johnson, 
Edwards and Crispon, was hard pressed and compelled to halt and fight 
three or four times, once at Salt Fork, once at the crossing of Muddy creek, 
and at two other points between Marshall and the bottom. The Confed- 
era.tes fought hard and lost some men, one man being killed at Muddy 
creek and two others elsewhere. The Federals were kept back and some of 
them wounded. Upon reaching the heavy timber on the bottom, Shelby halted 
and rested for three hours. His men were ordered to take all the ammuni- 
tion from the wagons that they could conveniently carry, and when this 
was done the most of them were run into the river. A few wagons and two 
ambulances fell into the hands of the Federals. 

The Confederate wounded were gathered up and at first carried to 
the house of a Mrs. Johnson, in the east part of town, near wdiere the 
fighting occurred. While they were here a wounded Confederate sat lean- 
ing against a crab-apple tree in the door-yard, waiting to have his wound 
dressed. A brute of a Federal militiaman saw him and shot him dead with 
a revolver. Three days afterwards the wounded men were taken to the 
then Methodist church, which had been improvised for hospital purposes, 
and Dr. Spencer Brown, who had been sent back by Shelby for the purpose, 
was placed in charge of them. Among the Confederates were Captains 
Clanton, Brannon and Minor and Lieutenant Thompson. The latter was 
shot with a carbine ball through both temples. His wound was a dreadful 
one; his eyes protruded and he suffered very much; yet he recovered, and, 
in company with Captain Clanton and three others, made his escape within 
a few weeks. The following are the names of all of the Confederate 

12 



178 PAST ANM) PRKM'.XT 

Wdinided ijrisoners lliat were taken to the Methodist church hospital. The 
Hst was prepared 1>\' Miss Kitty Er\-iii. a }-onng- lady who lived near Mar- 
shall and who was a frequent visitor at the hospital. She died shortly after 
the close of the war. Cai)tain Clanton (escaped). Captain Minor. Captain 
Brannon. Lieutenant 'Jliompson (escaped), Zadoc R. Noe (escaped). Ross 
(escaped). Fountain (escaped), Tate Sherrill ( escai:)ed ) , John and Thomas 
Branncick, Mulot. Cephas \Villiams. White, Braden, h"o\-, Hiley, Barrette, 
Bird. Kirtley. (iraham. Lewis and Clasgow. The following died of their 
wounds: Corhin. Cotton. Pettis. Parkison. Richardson, Captain Frazier and 
Smith. John Corbin died at the residence of Mrs. Sheridan in Marshall, 
the rest in the hospital. 

Miss Mary Allen, Mrs. Shroyer, Mrs. Bryant and many other ladies 
were very attentive to the wants of the wounded men. These ladies were 
sympathizers with the Confederate cause and suffered more or less persecu- 
tion at the hands of unscrupulous members of the Federal force during the 
^var. 1diev were largely assisted in their errands of mercy by Mrs. D. Lan- 
don, a lady of northern birth, rearing and sympathies, whose many good 
deeds done for her neighbors will ever endear her to them. 

The Federal hospital was at tirst in the house of Jacob Smith, and in a 
few days was remo^•ed to the residence of Judge Bryant, then occupied by 
tlie family of Judge Landon. Here the man Etter died. His arm had been 
amputated and he was unable to survive its loss. 

The number of men engaged on each side cannot now be accurately 
given, and never will be certainly known. Greeley's history of the war esti- 
mates Shelbv's forces at two thousand five hundred; Edwai'd*^' "Shelby and 
his Men" put it at eight hundred : General Shelby himself told the writer that 
he had fourteen hundred ; others of the Confederates say he had about nine 
hundred old soldiers and two hundred recruits, one-half of whom were armed 
and participated in the battle. 

Edwards puts the number of Federals at eight thousand, half under 
Brown and half under Ewing; Colonel Lazear and Major Kelly say that the 
total Federal force did not exceed twelve hundred: other h>deral officers 
say it did not exceed one thousand, etc. This included two six-pound guns 
under Lieutenant Turber and Johnson's four four-pound guns. All of the 
Federals were Missouri militia. 

After carefully examining the testimony on both sides, and desiring to 
state tlie truth without prejudice, it is altogether probable that the force under 
Shelbv that took part in the fight numbered about a thousand men — not many 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 1 79 

more and not many less ; and the Federals had between twelve and fourteen 
hundred. 

Well it was for the Federals that General Shelby did not correctly esti- 
mate their number. He outfought Brown as it was. but he thought Ewing's 
forces were assisting in the attack, or he would have no doubt gained a com- 
plete victory. But either commander could have won great renown for 
himself had he been as well informed as he should have been. Shelby could 
have ridden over and through Brown's forces and escaped without the loss 
of a tin cup. and Brown could have completely broken up and dispersed or 
captured the most of the Confederates. It was the old, old case wherein 
the foresight was not equal to the aftersight. 

After remaining in camp about three hours at the point on the bottom 
wdierein he destroyed his wagons, Shelby passed on to Waverly. reaching 
that place at about three in the morning and scarcely halting. He was so 
closely pressed while passing through this county that but few of his men 
whose homes were here had time or opportunity to visit them. Many of 
them rode bv the homes of old neighbors, but only had time to ride in ranks 
and shake them by the hand as they stood by the road side, arid ask hurriedly 
after friends and relatives. About fifty recruits were obtained in this county. 

The Federals followed cautiously in Shelby's rear, the pursuing force 
being Phillips' Seventh Regiment. The command halted that night at the 
residence of Mr. Vanmeter, in the bottom. 

Durine the fioht at Alarshall, a citizen named Mitchell had a cow. which 
had strayed between the lines of the contending forces. Wdiile and where 
the bullets flew thickest Mr. Mitchell went calmly down after his bossy, and 
not seemingly caring whether blue or gray was the color of the victors, drove 
her back to a place of safety, amid the storm of whistling bullets and scream- 
ing shell. Approaching the Federal line, he called out to the soldiers to 
"Stand back out of the way and let this blamed old cow pass." and the 
soldiers stood back accordingly, and Mitchell saved his cow. 

A Mr. McCafferty had some choice pieces of bacon, which he was very 
anxious should not be captured or plundered by either side. His house w-as 
placed on blocks without any underpinning. He thought to "save the 
bacon" by hiding it under the house. His neighbor. Jim McKnown. had a 
pack of hounds, lean, lank and ravenously hungry. Affrighted at the noise 
of the battle, "the thunder of the captains and the shouting," these hounds 
had slunk under McCafiferty's house, and lay cowering right where he pro- 
posed to hide his meat. As he flung it under, piece by piece, the dogs seized 
it and gleefully carried it away to a place of safety, where it was devoured. 



l80 PAST AXD PRESENT 

McCafferty, strange to say (!), was laughed at by those of his neighbors 
who had no meat of their own to hide, as well as those who had, on account 
of his mishap. 

Two or three bombs from Shelby's cannon came into town. One struck 
a horse, hitched to the square fence; another hit a church, and one hit a store 
building. A good story is told of the effect of one of these shots. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CIVIL WAR IN 1 864-5. 

During the closing year of the war, 1864, many cruel and horrible deeds 
were charged to both Federals and Confederates under the excuse of military 
necessity. Early in the spring, the Confederate guerrilla parties began to 
move in the western part of the state, and the red-legs of Kansas and Kansas 
militia, together with the Federal Missouri militia, were all particularly 
active. Men were murdered and scalped, and their bodies mutilated, houses 
and barns were burned, women and children turned out of doors, whole dis- 
tricts laid waste, and whole counties devastated. 

Anderson, Ouantrell, Todd and Poole and other guerrilla leaders took no 
prisoners in fight, and took none elsewhere that they did not kill. They shot, 
stabbed and cut the throats of their victims, without mercy sparing none from 
the stripling to the patriarch who they thought needed killing. The Federal 
militia were equally merciless towards citizens, guerrillas and bushwhackers. 
Anyone who belonged to them, or who under any circumstances had been 
connected with them, or who had fed or harbored them, or given them in- 
formation, or had seen them and failed to report their presence to the Fed- 
eral garrison, if captured, was shot down with but little ceremony or none at 
all. Each party claimed to act in retalliation for offenses committed by the 
other. Robbery and pillage were so common as to become as a matter of 
course, and people were so much accustomed to it as to regard it almost with 
indifference. It was civil war in earnest and in fact here in Saline county. 

An unusual number of bushwhacking fights occurred, and an unusual 
number of captures and executions during the year. The leading events, 
those concerning the entire county, were the burning of the court house and 
General Price's march through the county with his whole command in the fall 
of 1864. 

BURNING OF OLD SALINE COUNTY COURT HOUSE. 

In August, 1864, the Federal garrison at Marshall was moved to Lex- 
ington. The force here had consisted of a detachment of the First Missouri 
State Militia under Major Mullins, and had been ordered to Lafayette county 
by Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear, of that regiment, in command of the district of 



l82 PAST AND PRESENT 

Lafayette and Saline. Col. W. S. Jackson, son of Governor Jackson, had a 
Confederate command, then recruiting and operating- in this county. Cooper 
and Howard. A portion of this force was in Howard county and another 
portion on this side of the river. 

As soon as the Federals had fairly abandoned Marshall, information of 
the fact was obtained by Colonel Jackson's force on the loth of August, and 
according to the best information obtainable, a dozen or two of Jackson's 
men. under Lieutenants Piper and Durrett, dashed into town, there being no 
one to oppose them, and they remained here for some hours, many of them 
being from this county and acquainted with the citizens of this place. 1lie 
old court house had been used by the Federals from time to time during their 
occupancy of the place as barracks and sleeping (|uarters of the men. The 
county officers had ceased to occupy the house and the records had been re- 
moved to Lexington for safe keeping. The building was not occupied by 
anybody. The lower rooms were littered up with hay and straw, which had 
been used by the Federal soldiers for bedding. Shortly after Jackson's men 
had arrived in the place, one of them went to the northeast corner of the 
court house on the outside of the building, picked up a whisp of hay, lighted a 
match and set it on fire, tossing it through the window- upon the hay and 
straw lying on the floor. Then he went away. In a short time, the building 
was completely on fire and was entirely destroyed. The building had stood 
for forty years and w^as in a very good state of preser\-ation, but had been 
used so much by the Federal soldiers for their (piarters that the Southern 
men thought they w-ere justified in destroying it. Many other court houses 
W'-ere burned in Missouri during the Civil war. 

News of the burning of the court house having been received by Colonel 
Lazear at Lexington, he immediately came down with a detachment of his 
troops, proceeding to take severe measures to punish the people of the county 
for suffering and allowing something to be done which they could not help. 
A number of citizens, male and female, were arrested and brought to Mar- 
shall, where they were confined and kept in prison for different lengths of 
time and released only upon taking the iron-clad oath and giving heavy bond. 
Some of the men were not allowed to do this. It was at this time that Mr. 
Gilliam was apprehended on a charge of having fed the guerrilla. Captain 
Yeager, and afterw-ards released on the statement of Miss Jennie Flannery 
that she was the guilty party, mention of which circumstance is made else- 
where. 

Some of the ladies who were arrested by Colonel Lazear were Miss Sue 
Bryant, of Marshall, Misses Bennie Elhott, Jennie Flannery and Sallie Pear- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 183 

son, of Arrow Rock, Alisses Amanda and Missouri Jackson, of Saline Ciiy. 
sisters. The charges against these ladies were generally for harboring, feed- 
ing and giving information to bnsln\hackers. Miss Bryant, a daughter of 
Col. John W. Bryant, of Marshall, was charged with encouraging liush- 
whackers by way of waving something in imitation of a Federal flag while 
they were burning the court house. Miss Bryant, afterwards Mrs. Cason, 
denied the charge altogether, but she was taken to Boonville, thence to 
\\"arrensburg, and from there to a prison in St. Louis, where she was kept 
for some months, being released at last on taking the oath of allegiance and 
filing a bond for three thousand dollars, being then seventeen vears did. 
Miss Bryant, Miss Elliott and Miss Flannery were the only ladies taken out 
of the county. The Misses Jackson and Miss Pearson w^ere released on 
taking the oath. Miss Flannery took the oath at \\'arrensburg and was set 
free there. Miss Elliott proved contumacious and was, it was said, eventually 
confined in the penitentiary at Jefferson City. The men arrested were re- 
leased upon taking the oath of allegiance and filing a bond as securit}- for 
their good behavior. 

A few days after the burning of the court house, some of the members 
of Jackson's command were in attendance at church in Blackwater town- 
ship. A company of militia rode up and tried to capture them. Their ap- 
proach had been noted by a watchful picket, who sounded the alarm. All of 
them escaped but Lieutenant Durrett. who was shot throug"h the ankle and 
fell, fainting, from his horse. The militia soon made him prisoner, took 
him to Arrow Rock, tried him by drumhead court-martial, and sentenced 
him to be shot. The sentence was executed in a very brief time. The 
Lieutenant, unable to stand by reason of his broken limb, was proppetl up 
against a fence and riddled with musket balls. His ofifense, as alleged by 
the militia, was that he had assisted in burning the court house and was 
guilty of being a bushwhacker generally. His comrades gave as a reason 
why they did not try to carry off the wounded man, that they were pressed 
for time, and besides, they thought him dead. Durrett died "game." His 
last message to his friends was: "Tell the boys to keep on fighting." 

At Arrow Rock, a detachment of Lazear's troops arrested Marshall 
Piper, tried him by some sort of court-martial and shot him within an hour. 
He was universally regarded as a harmless and very excellent man. .and one 
who had taken no part in the war whatever. He was always peaceable and 
inoffensive, and his execution was not only a regret, but a surprise to all who 
knew him. Colonel Lazear says : "Piper was shot for harboring and feeding 
bushwhackers, and refusing to give information concerning the same: and 



184 PAST AND PRESENT 

you will please allow me here to say that it had more good effect in giving 
the Union people of Saline peace and protection than any one act I had 
done during the war." Mr. Piper's relatives deny yet that he was guilty, as 
charged, and his friends and neighbors, both Union and Confederate, all 
pronounce his execution simply an atrocity. Piper, with sixteen or eighteen 
of his neighbors, was first arrested, released on parole, and ordered to re- 
port regularly at Arrow Rock every morning. The next morning he left his 
home and went to town, in compliance with the terms of his parole. Esquire 
Davidson, who was county assessor at the time and a firm Union man, was 
with him. Mr. Davidson says that a number of the citizens were gathered 
together by Lazear's order and addressed by him in a speech, full of reproach 
for their past conduct, and of threat and warning for the future. Closing, 
he pointed to Piper, saying, "As for that fellow, he will be shot today, at two 
o'clock." This was the first intimation that Mr. Piper had that he was not 
to be allowed to return home, as he had been promised. Mr. Davidson re- 
monstrated, expostulated, and entreated Colonel Lazear to spare the poor 
man, and so did others ; but he was inexorable, would listen to no explanations, 
would give no time for the procurement of testimony establishing- the innocence 
and harmless character of the condemned — would have nothing but his blood. 
Promptly at two o'clock, Piper was led out. He did not shrink from the 
ordeal. He said he was not afraid to die, but, especially for the sake of his 
family, did not wish to. A detail of ten men carried out Lazear's order and, 
strange to say, eleven bullet wounds were found in the body. Piper's hands 
were bound with his own handkerchief. He stood up and received the fatal 
fire without a tremor, protesting his innocence of intentional wrong to the 
last. 

Esquire Davidson took charge of the remains and traveled home with 
them, meeting the family of the dead man, who had heard of the sentence and 
were coming to see their respected head before the sentence should be carried 
out, but had arrived too late. He lay a mangled corpse, the victim of a 
horrible, outrageous murder, inexcusable and uncalled for and productive of 
no good, but exasperating and harrowing and bringing only retaliation upon 
innocent men for its commission. 

Soon thereafter, the county was occupied by General Price with several 
thousand men on his famous march into Missouri in quest of supplies and 
recruits. It was intended, so says General Marmaduke, to capture not only 
the small Federal depots in Missouri, but the great military^ post at Fort 
Leavenworth as well. If the expedition had been entirely successful, com- 
munications would have been opened with Arkansas and then Price's army 
would have become an army of occupation. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 185 

GENERAL PRICE's LAST MARCH THROUGH MISSOURI. 

In the summer of 1864 there was an army of about sixty thousand in 
the Trans-Mississippi department under the command of Gen. Kirby Smitli. 
who ordered Gen. SterHng Price with ten thousand cavah'y to make a march 
into Missouri. The expedition contained three divisions, under Generals 
Marmaduke, Shelby and Fagan. They started from Dallas county, Arkan- 
sas, on the 30th day of August, 1864. 

Nearly an entire month was occupied in reaching Pilot Knob, on the 
Iron Mountain Railway, and the road to St. Louis was then open for a 
swift and decided movement. But General Ewing was allowed to escape 
from Pilot Knob, and so much time was wasted that St. Louis could no 
longer be taken, because Gen. A. J. Smith, with his army corps, had reached 
St. Louis from Cairo. General Price then turned off to the northwest and 
struck for Jefferson City. 

The state capitol was swarming with troops and, though encamped with- 
in sight of its dome for one night, the expedition avoided it and pushed on 
slowly to the west, now encumbered with a tremenduous train of wagons, 
cattle and supplies of all kinds, marching not more than twelve miles a day. 

Reaching Boonville, the expedition halted three days. Here at Boon- 
ville, General Price and his staff were recipients of great hospitality and 
attention from the citizens and particularly the ladies. General Price's ad- 
jutant-general and chief of staff was Lachlan Allen MacLean, * a remarkably 
handsome man, a former citizen of Saline. He, particularly, was shown 
great attention by the ladies of Boonville. General Price's headquarters were 
at McPherson's Citv Hotel. 



* Col. Lachlan MacLean was a native born Scotchman, highly educated, who came to 
Saline county about 1845 and taught school here for several years. He was a man of fine 
education and an artist of abihty, and then a remarkably handsome young man of striking- 
attainments. He moved from Saline to Lafayette county, where he was elected county 
surveyor, and served four years. Li 1849 he married Miss Eleanor M. Smith, of Lafayette 
county. In 1855 he was appointed to a position in the office of the surveyor-general of 
Kansas, and afterwards took a prominent part in the border troubles. 

At the beginning of the Civil war Mr. IMacLean returned to Lafayette county, Alissouri, 
joined the Confederate army, and was made adjutant to General Rains. When General 
Rains joined Gen. Sterling Price, MacLean was made adjutant to General Price and chief 
of staff, and he served in this capacity until 1864, when he was killed in a personal en- 
counter with a subordinate officer, Col. Robert Wood, of Saline county. It was said that 
AlacLean threw a glass of whiskey into Colonel Wood's face, whereupon, Wood killed him 
with a bowie knife, stabbing him several times. 

In 1848 MacLean was well known here in SaHne county, and was a great favorite. 
He had taught school here for several years, lived at Marshall, and was a talented car- 



1 86 PAST AND PRESENT 

On tlie 15111 of Octoljer, General Price's army reached Saline conntw 
General Rosecrans was now in pnrsnit of Price with a \astly sn])erior force 
of infantry, caxalry and artillery. Still the expedition with its enormons 
train conid not mo\e faster than twelve or fifteen miles a da}-. Passinii;' 
across throni^h Saline connt}-. General Price halted and camped on the 16th 
of October at the Kiser bridge over Salt h'ork creek on the state road to Lex- 
ington. On the 14th General Shelby, with two hundred men and two pieces 
of cannon, had gone north across the county to attack Glasgow, so as to 
enal)le General Clarke, who was on the north side of the ri\-er with In's bri- 
gade, to cross over. Shelby opened lire on the garrison camp just at day- 
light, shelling it for a short time. A skiff was found and an attempt made 
to bring over a steamboat from the opposite side. The boat was reached, 
Init her machinery was found in too damaged a condition for use. The skiff 
returned without loss. The guns of General Clarke were soon heard north 
of town, and thus attacked in front and rear. Colonel Harding, who was in 
command at Glasgow, surrendered with all his forces. General Clarke 
crossed over his troops and, with General Shell)y. marched rapidly to Price's 
camp on Salt Fork. 

The angry roar of a great army behind him. with ample power to cut 
him off, accelerated the mo\ements of General Price and he loroke camj) in 
Saline as soon as General Clarke arrived, moving fifteen miles to Waverly 
in Lafayette county. On reaching Lexington, the amiy met the Kansas troops 
under General Lane and, after some fierce fighting. dro\'e them back to In- 
dependence. On the 2ist of October, a hard two or three hours' fight 
enabled the advance of the expedition under General Marmaduke, supported 
b}- General Shelby, to force back the L^nited States troops and cross the Lit- 
tle Blue, reaching Independence. Here the expedition seemed utterly 



toonist among his other gifts. At that time there was a man named McChire, who kept 
a hotel here, and was himself a character. IMcClure went to Independence, Missouri, to 
spend Christmas in 1848, and while absent the town wags started a story on him to the 
effect that at Independence he had bought a Newfoundland dog, supposing it to be a buf- 
falo calf, and to illustrate this story, MacLean drew a pen and ink cartoon, representing 
McClure standing in a stable lot at Independence, looking on with great satisfaction at 
a large Newfoundland dog tied up to a stake with a large strong rope and with a pile of 
hay under his nose. .\ hoosier looking over the fence says to McChire. "Hello, there ; what 
in the devil are you feeding that dog on hay for?" McClure answering, says, "Dog, you 
damn long-legged fool, that is a buffalo calf that I have just paid twenty-live dollars for." 

This cartoon by IMacLean came into the possession of the author of this book, and 
remained until MacLean liecame so conspicuous in the Civil war. wlien it was delivered to 
a lady, a great admirer of MacLean, and was lost. 

MacLean was a member of Captain Reid's company from Salini' in the Mexican war, 
and was one of the engineers detailed at Santa Fe to locate, design and l)uild h\irt Marcy. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 187 

doomed, for a large army was in front and a vastly superior force under 
Rosecrans in person, in sight behind. But, notwithstanding this, not a sol- 
dier moved, but all slept soundly. All day long on the 23d of October was 
spent in the battle of Westport, Marmaduke fighting in the rear to hold 
back General Rosecrans' forces, and Shelby fighting the army of General 
Lane in front in order to open the way for his huge train to travel towards 
the south. Some of the hardest fig-hting of the whole war was done on both 
sides along between Independence. Kansas City and Westport. Nature never 
formed a grander battle-field than that around \A^estport. Possibly General 
Price might have saved his wagon train b}' hurrying it through on the night 
of the 22d, and saved the lives of many gallant men, but blundering seemed 
the normal condition of the commanders in chief on both sides about Inde- 
pendence, Kansas City and Westport. Finally, after six hours" fighting and 
the loss of one-third of their men, Marmaduke and Shelby succeeded in hold- 
ing back Rosecrans and driving ofif Blunt and Lane until General Price 
with his long train got well through the defiles about Westport, and the de- 
voted Missourian closed up on the rear. The two iron brigades of Shelby's 
division, composed very largely of Saline and Lafayette county men. held 
the whole Federal army at bay through all this long retreat, sacrificing half 
of what was left of the division to save the train, that was really useless and 
had to he finally l^urned to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy. 

In this last fighting that was done in Missouri, there were many Saline 
county soldiers on both sides, all of whom bore themselves bravely and well. 
The last stand was made by Shelby at Newtonia. and in the demoralized con- 
dition of the retreat, was barely able to get far into Arkansas. Shelby with 
his Saline and Lafayette soldiers had saved the remnant of the expedition, 
but at the cost of many lives. 

While General Price was in this county, many of his men left him for 
a lirief y\sh to their homes. While the army was at camp on the Salt Fork 
near Kiser's bridge, nearly all the soldiers from Saline had a holiday, scat- 
tering in every direction and going almost where they pleased. Many of 
the Carroll county men went home, and also those of Lafayette. Ray and 
Chariton, and here was a grand opportunity for Rosecrans and Pleasonton 
to scatter and destroy Price's army, but, as was quite frequently the case, 
the Federal commander failed to appreciate the situation, allowing the Con- 
federates to rest themselves and their horses and have a good time gener- 
ally, while waiting the arrival of Shelby and Clarke with recruits from the 
north side of the river. 

General Price daily held levees and receptions at his head(|uarters. Hun- 



155 PAST AND PRESENT 

dreds of people from the county visited him; old and young, male and fe- 
male, the General being greatly admired by all classes of the people of Alis- 
souri. But while General Price was being petted and coddled, the Federal 
forces were gathering under Pleasanton in his rear, moving up along the 
north side of the river to get in his front, and also coming down and out 
from Kansas, swarming and preparing everywhere for the battle that after- 
wards followed at the Blue, at Independence and W'estpcjrt, and on the Lit- 
tle Osage. 

During this stay of General Price's army in Saline county, the Federal 
sympathizers felt the displeasure of the Confederates, in some instances very 
severely. Much foraging was done, horses taken, and many dollars' worth 
of other property was lost at their expense, and some suffering of a more 
serious nature. 

Price's men passed through the county on every road that ran from east 
to west. In Lafayette county, before reaching Lexington, the army was com- 
pactly organized. Shelby's division had been divided, a part of the com- 
mand went with their leader to Glasgow, a portion of his division assisted 
General Fagan in the capture of Sedalia, the latter rejoining the army at 
Waverly. Marmaduke passed through Marshall and the central part of the 
county with his division, while Pagan's Arkansas division passed south 
through Pettis county, and while near Dresden, captured a hundred head of 
fat cattle, which had been taken there a few days before for shipment to 
St. Louis. A large portion of this herd of cattle were killed and consumed 
by General Pagan's troops, and resulting from their capture a famous law 
suit took place between Reuben V. Harvey, a citizen of Saline county, 
against the Butchers' Association of St. Louis, which suit ultimately reached 
the supreme court, being decided in favor of the defendant, a report of 
which may be found in the 39th Vol. Mo. Rep., p. 211. 

General Price's army was in this county eight days, reaching" the county 
on the 1 2th of October, and departing on the 20th. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1 864. 

At this election, the first votes ever cast for a Republican candidate for 
President in Saline county were given. The total vote was small owing to 
the great number of men on the Democratic side that were not allowed to 
vote. The Republican candidates were Abraham Lincoln and Andrew John- 
son, while the Democratic candidates were Cien. George B. McClellan, a Fed- 
eral commander, and George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. The \-ote was: Lin- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 189 

coin and Johnson, one hundred and seventy; McClellan and Pendleton, 
ninety-eight. A great change had taken place. In i860 it would have been 
extremely perilous to vote for Lincoln. In 1864 it was dangerous not to 
vote for him. 

The following entry appears in the county court records for the Au- 
gust term, 1864, the old court house being burned shortly afterwards, but 
after all the records had been moved from it : 

"Whereas it appears to the county court of Saline countv that the rec- 
ords and other property of Saline county are in great danger of being de- 
stroyed by guerrilla bands. It is, therefore, ordered by the county court that 
a militan' guard to consist of not more than eighty men of cavalr\- arid in- 
fantry be employed by Saline county to protect said property and that said 
guard be paid for said services out of the public money of said countv not 
otherwise appropriated, the same wages per month that are paid to soldiers 
for the same class of service and that said guard be employed for two 
months from the i6th day of August, 1864, and no longer unless by fur- 
ther order of this court." 

These so called guerrilla bands w^ere much more interested in the pres- 
ervation of the records of this county than were any troops belonging to 
the Federal forces, and it was a false assumption by the county court that 
the records of the county were in any danger of being destroyed by them. 
They were more interested in the titles to land in this county than the 
county court, or such men that they would have employed to protect the rec- 
ords. Therefore, the order was altogether unnecessary, and merely another 
circuitous way of disposing of the public funds for the benefit of the people 
on their side. 

About this time, a company of militia stationed at Marshall, hearing 
of the approach of a considerable body of Confederates, became alarmed and 
made a precipitate retreat. Before they left they threw into the well in the 
court house yard a lot of muskets and ammunition of war, where the}- yet 
remained in 188 1. 

A former historian of this county says : 

"As evidence that the customs and laws of slavery were still observed 
by the Union authorities and as a record of the olden time and of a custom 
that has forever passed away the following entries may be seen in the pro- 
ceedings of the county court for the June term, 1862. and as late as 1864." 

But the real truth is that said order was made, and intended as an in- 
sult to the men mentioned in it for thev were not such men who held or 



UJO PAST AND PRESENT 

accci/ted the position as patrollers at am- time, during- the war or before 
it. The following being the order: 

"It is ordered by the Court that N'incent Marniaduke, Capt. James 
Boyer. Robert Xowlin, W'illian B. Sappington. John Durrett and James Nefif; 
Willis Piper. D. W. Marmaduke and William Durrett be and the same are 
hereby a])pointed a patrol fc^r Arrow Rock townshiji to serve for one year 
frnm this date, who will patrol not less than forty-eight hovu's in each month 
at the rate of one cent per hour." 

This order was a complete 1jurles(|ue upon the real state of atTairs at 
that time, for the negroes had all been free for some time before that, even 
before they were declared free by Mr. Lincoln's proclamation of January i, 
1863. 

At that time. January 1, 1863. when President Lincoln issued his procla- 
mation, declaring the end of slavery, there was a citizen of Marshall. H. J. 
Johnson, but familiarly called, "Black" Johnson by his friends from the fact 
of his being of an unusal dark complexion. Mr. Johnson was a stone mason, 
the man wdio built the first jail for Saline county, which was built of stone, 
as well as building many chimneys and foundations for private hcnises 
throughout the county, having been a citizen for many years and a man of 
family. Li 1863 he lived down on the Arrow Rock road on the outskirts 
of the town, his house being appropriated as a hospital for Shelby's wounded 
at the battle of Marshall. Johnson was a natural humorist, wit and wag, 
and very fond of jokes, and though illiterate, was a man with an exceed- 
ingly bright mind, always associating with lawyers, doctors, etc.. the more in- 
telligent part of the communit)-. Johnson on coming up town one morn- 
ing was told of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation, declaring the freedom of the 
slaves throughout the country. "W^ell." said Mr. Johnson. "1 am \'ery glad 
to hear it. for now O'Bannon will lie free, and his damn negroes will ha\'e 
to go to work." Mr. O'Bannon was a well known lawyer, a member of the 
Marshall bar, whose sla\'es were notorious for idleness instead of industr}-, 
their master having been under the necessit}' of supporting them, although 
he owned a splendid tract of h\e hundred acres of land in the near neigh- 
borhood at that time. 

THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL W^\R. 

The Civil war was virtuallv over so far as Saline count}' was concerned 
after the termination of Price's march through the count}-. But civil af- 
fairs were in a turlmlant condition for several months following. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



191 



On the 9th or April, 1865, lacking three days of four years from the 
capture of Fort Sumter by the Confederates, Lee's great army of Virginia 
surrendered to the Federal commander, General Grant. General Johnston's 
Confederate army surrendered a few days thereafter to the Federal General 
Sherman. On the 13th of May. Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi army sur- 
rendered to General Canby. Pretty soon thereafter the county began to fill 
up with returned Confederates, who were glad to get home again, under, 
however, unfavorable circumstances. Sometimes they were arrested by the 
militia. Col. William S. Jackson's command laid down their arms and sur- 
rendered to Colonel Denny at Glasgow. May igth. Colonel Jackson was 
paroled and allowed to retain his arms by the military authority, but was 
soon after arrested by the civil authorities. Some other men among the 
Confederates were confined, accused of being guerrillas, and some others 
were killed by the militia. Occasionally encounters of a personal nature took 
place between the militia and the returned Confederates, but nothing very 
serious or disastrous. The bad blood engendered b}' the Civil war had not 
yet become calmed or purified. There was not a very good condition of 
safety for life or property for some months afterwards. Cases of robbery 
were Cjuite frequent. Bands of men dressed in blue clothing paid nocturnal 
^■isits to citizens reputed to have money and, under threats of death, forced 
them to disgorge. The militia claimed that these robberies were returned 
Confederates, dressed in blue clothing, but the Confederates charged that the 
depredators were the militia themselves. Sometimes this land piracy and 
plunder was carried on by men in citizen's apparel. The details of these rc^l:)- 
beries in Saline have not been preserved. 

MINOR FIGHTS AND SKIRMISHES DURING THE CIVIL WAR. 

From the spring of 1862 to the close of the Civil war in 1865. there was 
more or less fighting, scouting, raiding, killing and all the incidental horrors 
belonging to a Civil war occurring between the citizens of the county. The 
Federals sought to maintain their authority through(~)ut the county, and gen- 
erally succeeded. In addition to the Missouri State Militia, armed and 
equipped by and under the pay of the United States, there were the En- 
rolled Missouri Militia, and also the Provisional Militia or Home Guards, 
ready to be and often called out and put in service. Of these latter com- 
panies, of the captains. G. S. and A. Burnsides. ('orum. Bingham and Elsea 
did the most service of any troops in the county, some of the companies be- 
ing constantly in the county, and the details of all the affrays that oc- 



192 PAST AND PRESENT 

curred or the people that were killed have not been preserved for this vol- 
ume. Only the leading incidents can be given. 

The guerrilla organizations of Ouantrell, Todd, Blunt, Yeager, Ander- 
son, Poole and others scouted through the county, occasional!}' having colli- 
sions with the militia. There were also companies of partisan rangers com- 
manded by officers regularl}- commissioned by the Federal authorities, who 
were scattered about the country in this county, Cooper, Howard and Laf- 
ayette. Some of these latter bands were guerrillas in practice, but the Fed- 
erals considered all of them guerrillas. Some records of these encounters 
with the Federal militia are here noted. 

THE FIGHT WITH GUERRILLAS AND THE KILLING OF GROVE AND GILLIAM. 

On the 30th day of July, 1863, a fight occurred in the western part 
of the county between Captain Cannon, with a company of the Fourth Reg- 
iment, Missouri State Militia — a detachment of which under Major Kelly 
was then stationed in Marshall — and a band of guerrillas, supposed by the 
Federals to be Quantrell's band, but generally believed to have been Cap- 
tain Blunt's company. Captain Cannon lost two men, killed in the fight, and 
was repulsed and the guerrillas moved on rapidly to the west. The guer- 
rillas halted at noon on a farm on the south road, and after they had started 
in the afternoon they suddenly, in the prairie, came upon Major Smith (pay- 
master) with an escort of the First Regiment Missouri Cavalry from Lex- 
ington. The escort were feeding their horses when the guerrillas came upon 
them, and fled incontinently on foot to the brush not far ofif on the first 
fire from the guerrillas, leaving Smith and his clerk. As soon as the guer- 
rillas fired, the clerk (name not known) jumped into the ambulance and 
threw the small iron safe into the high grass and weeds bordering the road. 
The safe contained twenty-five thousand dollars in greenbacks. The guer- 
rillas rode all around and over the place, but somehow failed to find the little 
safe hidden away in the high grass. Major Smith sat in the house near by, 
undi-sturbed. The guerrillas took the clerk's watch and pocketbook and then 
rode off west. Major Smith then sent a courier to Major Kelly in Mar- 
shall, who sent out a company and brought him in, greenbacks, clerk and 
all, safe. Soon after this affair, two young men. Grove, a nephew of Col. 
W. A. Wilson, and Gilliam, a son of A. W. Gilliam, Sr., of the north- 
eastern part of the county, were captured on the Miami road by a scouting 
party of Federal soldiers from Marshall. Major Kelly, then in command of 
the post, says they were taken straggling in the rear of a band of Quant- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



193 



rell's guerrillas, whom they had recently joined. The relatives of these un- 
fortunate men contend that they had not joined any guerrilla band, and did 
not intend to, Ijut were making their way to the Confederate army. On the 
night of the 29th of July, about midnight, a party of soldiers in Marshall, 
without the knowledge of their officers, took Grove and Gilliam from the 
guard, with or without the connivance of the guard, dragging- them into the 
woods north of town and there hanged them. The bodies of these two ill- 
fated men were found the next morning, (juite dead, and were buried bv the 
citizens. 

FIGHT AT ARROW ROCK. 

About the 19th of July, 1864, Lieut. D. 1'. Woodruif, with twenty-five 
men of the First Cavalry, Missouri State Alilitia, while stationed at Arrow 
Rock, was attacked by a force of guerrillas about one hundred strong, com- 
manded by Captain Yager, of Quantrell's men. The Federals took position 
in a brick building, which they had occupied as quarters. The guerrillas, 
after making a bold and dashing attempt to dislodge them without success, 
set fire to some buildings in the block of which the stronghold of the Fed- 
erals was a part. A retreat was therefore the only alternative of the Fed- 
erals, and this they accomplished, under the cover of darkness, without the 
loss of a man, but they were forced to leave behind them their horses. The 
attack was made at nightfall. The guerrillas had some of their men wound- 
ed, including Captain Yager. Yager was taken to a bushwhacker's camp 
near Mr. Gilliam's, in Cambridge township, where he was cared for by a 
Miss Flannery living near. The young lady visited the wounded guerrilla 
daily and ministered to his wants as best she could. Afterwards the owner 
of the cornfield, Mr. Gilliam himself, was arrested by the Federals for hav- 
ing cared for Yager, and it was about to go hard with him, when Miss 
Flannery, learning the situation, herself rode into Marshall, admitted to the 
Federal commandant that she, and only she, was the one that had nursed 
the outlaw, and thus obtained the release of and doubtless saved the life of 
her neighbor, Mr. Gilliam. She was kept a prisoner by the Federals for 
some weeks, but finally released. The militia had only one man slightly 
wounded. 

FIGHT ON THE BLACKWATER. 

On the evening of the 25th of September, 1864, Major Mullins, with 
one hundred and twenty-five men of the First Cavalry Missouri State Mi- 
litia, attacked Col. W. S. Jackson's partisan rangers and Woodson's guer- 

13 



194 PAST AND PRESENT 

rillas on the Blackwater, nunil)enng- probably seventy-five men. The Fed- 
erals gained an easy victory, for the Confederates were taken Ijy surprise and 
tliey were very imperfectly armed. The latter tied and "scattered." all get- 
ting- together in a few days. A few were slightly wounded on each side; 
non.e were killed. 

FIGHT AT N. J. SMITH's. 

In Noveml^er, 1864, sixteen bushwhackers called at the residence of 
N. J. Smith, near Fairville. and took possession of his blacksmith shop for 
the purpose of shoeing their horses. While all of them were in the shop, 
and busy at work, a detail of Federal cavalry came in the lot on one side, 
and a company of infantry was to come in on the other side of the shop, all 
belonging to Gen. A. J. Smith's army returning from the pursuit of Price. 
It was raining and the infantry were too slow for the cavalry, or the cav- 
alry were too fast for the infantry, and by a rush, shooting as they went, the 
bushwhackers escaped without losing a man or having a man wounded. The 
F^ederals in their rage at the escape of the guerrillas, wanted to burn Smith's 
residence, and would have done so had it not been for the man who piloted 
them over to where the guerrillas were, who told them that he knew Mr. 
Smith to be a Union man. 

guerrillas at B. THOMA.S'. 

In the early spring of 1865, four guerrillas, Harris, Potter and the Wil- 
hite brothers, hitched their horses in the timber, near the Ik^usc of Balti- 
more Thomas, on the Marshall and Lexington state road and near the Sa- 
line and I^afayette county lines, and proceeded to Mr. Thomas' for some- 
thing to eat or for some other purpose. While in the house, they were 
charged on by a Federal company. In attempting to escape over the garden 
picket fence, three of them were wounded, but all succeeded in making their 
escape. One of these, Harris, was killed by the falling of a house in which 
he was concealed. Shortly after, Potter was captured at the same house and 
taken to Marshall, and shot, while almost dead from his wounds. The 
other two, though one was badly wounded, succeeded in getting safe away. 

"Nin" Wilhite swore that before he ever surrendered he would kill the 
two negroes who rei)<)rted on himself and comrades, and came so near ha\'- 
ing them captured. He went to the house of Baltimore Thomas, after the 
war was over, and killed an old and harmless negro, known as "Uncle Ben," 
and w'ounded another, named Harry. But the negroes who actually report- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI I95 

ed on them went away with the Federal troops. After shooting the negroes. 
Wilhite went directly to Lexington and snrrendered. 

KILLING OF JUDGE SMART BY THE FEDERALS, AND OF RICEHOUSE AND WALKER 

BY THE CONFEDERATES. 

"During the summer of 1862. the killing of Judge Robert G. Smart 
occurred near Miami, which is memorable not only because of the high position 
of the gentleman himself, but as being the first of those terrible murders of 
individual citizens which afterwards became so fearfully frequent and so 
sadly familiar. Judge Smart was a citizen of Jackson county when the war 
broke out, and being southern born, he naturally sympathized with the south- 
ern people; but he was always very conservative in his conversation and 
had committed no overt act. In 1861 he resigned his office (judge of circuit 
court), rather than take the oath, which he considered he had already taken; 
and lived a quiet, peaceable life in Jackson county until the winter of 1861-2, 
when affairs became so disturbed in that county, from the frequent raiding of 
Kansas jayhawkers, that he removed to Saline county and settled near Miami, 
with his family. Here he remained quiet and inoffensive, associating with 
the citizens of the town and vicinity, and also with the Federal soldiers, and 
was respected by them all. In 1861, before Judge Smart removed to Saline, 
Messrs. Walker and Risehouse, two citizens of Miami, joined the Con- 
federates and remained in the army about four months, when they returned 
home and announced a change of heart and sentiment. In order to prove 
their loyalty, they went over to Boonville and reported to a company of 
Federal soldiers that Judge Smart was harboring bushwhackers. This was 
wholly false; but the Federals did not know it, and the company came that 
same night, arriving about sunrise July 20, 1862. As Judge Smart saw them 
coming in his front gate, he ran out of the back way. The Federals im- 
mediately Started in pursuit, when, seeing he could not escape, he threw up 
his hands three times, calling out, T surrender.' He was answered by a volley 
from the pursuers; three balls entered his body, killing him almost instantly. 
He was buried by the citizens, who sorrowed much for his untimely end. No 
one else was disturbed by the soldiers, who were strangers in the state. The)- 
stopped for breakfast about two miles from town, at a farmer's house, where 
they told of the report by Walker and Ricehouse. They were soon con- 
vinced that the report was untrue and expressed great regret that the mistake 
had been made, and that they had come at all. 

"About the same time that Jndge Smart came to Miami, John Dickev, of 



196 PAST AND PRESENT 

Jackson county, also came and located within a few miles of the Judge. He 
spent most of his time fox-hunting, sometimes with the citizens, sometimes 
with the militia, and sometimes with both. He and Judge Smart were warm 
friends, though while here they held but little intercourse with each other. In 
]\rarch, 1863, Dickey suddenly disappeared; but in a short time was again on 
hand, and with him Blunt's company of guerrillas, of which company Dickey 
was lieutenant. They entered Miami in the forenoon, went straight for 
W^alker and Ricehouse. arrested them and carried them away as prisoners. 
About twelve miles east of Miami, they ate dinner, captured and captors, both 
apparently in the highest good humor. The farmer at whose house they dined 
sa}'s he had no suspicion that any of them were prisoners, and thought that 
he was feeding Federal soldiers, as Walker and Ricehouse were along. On 
the way they arrested a farmer to guide them through the timber. Going 
about two miles northwest, to Edmondson creek, they halted in the timber, 
tied ropes around the necks of W^alker and Ricehouse and to limbs of trees 
above them, as they sat upon their horses, and then drove the horses from 
under them. They then made the dangling bodies targets for revolver practice, 
shooting them full of holes. The first intimation the unfortunate men had 
of the fate before them was the tying of the ropes around their necks, and all 
their prayers and supplications were utterly unheeded. After shooting them 
until they were certainly dead, the guerrillas told their guide he could go, as 
they had nothing special against him, and he went ! The guerrillas then took 
down the bodies of Walker and Ricehouse and buried them. Since the war 
their skeletons were found, conveyed to Miami, and buried by the citizens. 
Dickev was killed a few months afterward, near the Saline and Lafayette 
county lines, he killing and badly wounding four men before he fell dead." 

KILLING OF CAPT. ED BROWN. 

"Early in the spring of 1862, Capt. Ed Brown, who raised the first 
Saline county company that participated in the battle of Wilson's creek, was 
killed by a portion of the Saline militia from Marshall. Captain Brown's com- 
pany had surrendered in the previous Deceml)er at the Blackwater capture. He 
had never joined the regular Confederate army, but had joined Robinson's 
command, which were all captured at Blackwater. He returned home and 
had been concealing himself, to avoid taking the prescribed oath, which, how- 
ever, he had at last done, and then stayed quietly at home thinking himself 
safe. He lived one mile and a quarter from Fairville. and was a brother of 
Robert L. Brown of Fairville. The killing was effected by two militia men 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI I97 

to whom it had been reported that Brown had been harboring and aiding 
guerrillas. They rode up to Brown's residence and asked him to show them 
a road which ran through some fields. He went with them, and when he had 
reached the bottom of a large hollow a short distance north of his house, they 
shot him as he was in the act of opening a gate for tliem. Then thev returned 
by a circuitous route to their company at Marshall." 

MURDER OF JAMES BOYER. 

"In the spring of 1862. James Boyer, then chairman of the board of 
trustees of Arrow Rock, met his death at the Main street wharf, in that 
town, at the hands of one William Chase, a militiaman, who discharged the 
contents of one chamber of his pistol into the forehead of the unfortunate 
Boyer. The report of the pistol was heard by persons in the village, but the 
only known witnesses of the tragedy were the parties thereto. A negro boy 
ran up town and reported that a man was killed at the landing. The boy was 
soon followed by Chase, who deliberately told what he had done and sur- 
rendered voluntarily to Captain Bingham, of the state militia. The homicide 
was taken to Boonville and incarcerated, but never came to trial, as he was 
forcibly liberated by a company of German militia, stationed at Boonville." 

KILLING OF INGRAM. 

"In 1862 Captain Winter, in command of a scouting party of Missouri 
State Militia, from Marshall, took and shot a Mr. Ingram, in the Petite Saux 
bottom, he having claimed that he shot Captain Hawk, at the Meadow Spring 
fight, a short time before." 

KILLING OF BOGAMIRE. 

"In the summer of 1852 a Union man named Bogamire was killed by the 
Confederate guerrillas in the town of Miami. He had been around the place 
for several months. He was not a soldier, but did not seem to have any 
particular business. The guerrillas spotted him. They believed him to be a 
Federal spy. It was claimed that he was seen with a company of Federals 
en route from Clinton to Lexington. Three days afterward the guerrillas 
came upon him in the town of Miami. They chased him and killed him on 
the banks of the river to the left of High street. The citizens buried the 
body in the old cemetery." 



198 PAST AND PRESENT 

KILLING OF PARK WOODS. 

"In 1863. at the house where J. H. C. Fulton now resides, the mihtia 
killed a man named Park Woods. Mr. Woods was attending- to the business 
of Hugh McDowell, who then owned the farm. He was a southern man in 
principle, but had taken no part in the war. The militia demanded admittance 
into the house, which Woods refused, and thev shot him." 

EXECUTION OF DR. J. W. BENSON. 

"In August, 1863, a court martial was held in Marshall, on Doctor 
Benson, who had been captured by some of the soldiers. It was charged that 
he had been with Ouantrell at the burning of Lawrence. This was proved. 
He did not deny this, but stated that he was there as a surgeon only. How- 
ever, the evidence was sufficient to convict him, and he was sentenced to be 
shot. He was taken to the graveyard north of town, and seated on his coffin 
and facing the file of soldiers he received his death. He died bravely and 
cheerfully. At his own request, he was shot below the face, and died without 
a struggle. 

"Major Kelly, of the Fourth Missouri State Militia, in command at 
Marshall at the time, says Doctor Benson died bravely. He had been captured 
while on his way to Marshall to surrender himself, having been induced to 
take this step by certain Union men, who had agreed to see to it that he was 
treated as a prisoner of war. The Federals almost universally regretted his 
death. He was a young man of many excellent traits of character. The 
citizens. Union and Confederate, regarded his execution as a horrible affair. 
Three details had to be made before men could be found who would become 
his executioners. But the company he had been keeping justified his execution 
according to the laws of war, in the view of the Federal authorities. At that 
time Ouantrell and his men spared no Federal who fell into their hands, and 
the law of retaliation was everywhere in force. O, the horrible enormities of 
that Civil war!" 

KILLING OF REV. KAVANAUGH. 

"In 1863 the Rev. Mr. Kavanaugh. formerly from Alabama, and .step- 
father of Rev. Joe Lewis, presiding elder of St. Louis, was killed on the 
farm where Elder T. W. Hancock now resides, by some Federal soldiers 
who thought him an active southern man." 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI I99 

KILLING OF JAMES E. ELSON. 

"James E. Elson, of Miami township, was killed by the guerrillas in the 
fall of 1863. He was a Union soldier, had been captured by the guerrillas, 
and was under guard in the Petite Saux bottom, near Marshall's mill. Having 
asked for a drink of water, two of the guards took him to the river, near l)y. 
and while he was kneeling down and drinking, one of the guards shot him and 
rolled him into the river. This statement is as it was given by Capt. A. 
Burnsides, who said he gave it as made to citizens by one of the guerrillas 
afterward." 

EXECUTION OF ASA HUFF. 

''In 1863 Asa Huff, of Captain Garrett's company, Shelby's regiment, 
was left behind his command while it was in this county on the famous Shelby 
raid. He remained at and about home in Caml)ridge township until July, 
1864, living a great portion of that time in the brush, in a sort of cave dug 
in the ground, in company with a man named Norvell, now a prominent 
school teacher at Slater. One day Huff was taken sick, and a doctor was 
called, but that worthy refused to prescribe for the invalid until he had in- 
formed the Federals of Huff's whereabouts. Ilie militia went out anrl 
paroled him, and as soon as he had recovered from his sickness they took him 
to Marshall and shot him. His mother went with him to the town and 
begged the commander. Captain Houks, to spare her son. and when he re- 
fused, asked to be allowed to see him shot ! This was also refused. ]\Irs. 
Huff is one of the pioneer women of this county." 

KILLING OF CHARLES FLANNEGAN. 

"On Sunday evening. August 21. 1864. Mr. Flannegan, living a few 
miles east of Marshall, a quiet old man, who had taken the oath of loyalty, 
was arrested, brought to Marshall, and shot by the Federal soldiers, under 
the following circumstances: A squad of soldiers from Marshall dressed 
themselves in citizen's clothes, and went to Mr. Flannegan's on Saturday 
night, August 20, 1864, and told him they were bushwhackers, and asked 
for food, horses, etc., and a place to hide. He told them he was poor and had 
nothing to give them but a pair of woolen socks, which they took. He told 
them where they could hide. They then said to him : 'You have taken an 
oath to report us to Marshall; are you going to do it?' He replied that 
he would not. They then left him and returned to town. They said they 



200 PAST AND PRESENT 

waited until the middle of the next day for him to report them, and as he did 
not come, the same squad, or a part of the same, went out and arrested him, 
and brought him to Marshall Sunday evening, August 21, 1864. It is not 
known whether he was given any regular trial, but on Wednesday, August 
24th, he was taken by a squad of soldiers to the ravine north of town, where 
Jefferson street now crosses the ravine, and then shot to death. His body 
was taken charge of by his relatives, and buried." 

The late Col. Samuel Boyd* wrote the following marginal note in a 
former history of Saline county, on the killing of Flannegan and Huff : 

"I saw this shooting. Flannegan and Huff were shot at the same time, 
in July or August, and before the 9th day of August, 1864. They were shot 
on what is now called Arrow street near Salt Pond street, about seventy-five 
feet west of Salt Pond street, about where Justice's yard comes to Arrow 
street. I saw the men shot and I left Marshall on 8th or 9th of August and the 
court house was burned August 10, 1864. 

"(Signed) Sam'l Boyd. 

"I left Marshall on or about 8th of August with H. D. Doak and I. O. 
Striker and wife, for Sedalia, with E. Hukill, driver." 

SEVEN FEDERALS SHOT BY PRICE's MEN. 

"In 1864, Colonel Perrie and two other Confederates, employed ahead 
of Price's army on recruiting service, were shot and killed while asleep in 
the timber north of Carrollton, Carroll county, Missouri, by a squad of 
Federals soldiers and Union citizens. Soon afterward, during Price's last 
raid. Carrollton was suddenly surrounded by rebel soldiers and four Federal 
soldiers and three citizens who had been engaged in the killing of Perrie 
were captured, brought over the river, and tried by court-martial at Grand 

* Col. Samuel Boyd was a prominent lawyer here at that time. He was a native of 
Flcmingsburg, Kentucky, born in 1834. -^ regular college graduate, he obtained license to 
practice law in the state of Illinois in 1859. Immediately afterwards, coming to this state, 
locating at Marshall, in this, county, he began the practice here. In the Civil war, he 
joined Price's army for a short time, but soon afterwards returned home to his practice, 
which had grown to be extensive and lucrative. He eventually established a worthy and 
successful professional reputation. 

Colonel Boyd was married twice, his wives licing sisters, daughters of the late Dr. E. 
Clarkson, who lived near Marshall. At his death, which occurred in the spring of 1898, he 
left surviving him his wife, three grown sons and two grown daughters, one of which 
is the wife of F. P. Sebree, now a prominent lawyer in Kansas City. Colonel Boyd died 
after a lingering illness at his residence in Marshall, in the spring of 1898. and lies buried 
in Ridge Park cemetery. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 20I 

Pass church, found guilty, drawn up in hne in the ravine east of the Meadows' 
residence and shot to death. 

"Two of the citizens captured were named Trotter and Stanley ; the name 
of the other cannot now be remembered. One of the soldiers tried had on 
Colonel Perrie's boots. Two ladies, Mrs. Mary Meadows and Mrs. A. M. 
Creel, heard the shooting and went out to the place of execution. They found 
them all dead. Dr. G. W. Hereford and A. M. Creel, of the neighborhood, 
had them decently buried. 

"The Confederates making the capture were mainly from Carroll 
county and belonged to Gen. John B. Clark's brigade. It is said that the 
shooting of the Federals was approved by the Confederate officers in com- 
mand of Price's army, although this is denied by many." 

KILLING OF HOWERTON. 

"William Howerton, a Union man, who had lived about ten years in 
the Petite Saux bottom and was accused of being an informer against South- 
ern men, was killed in 1864, during Price's raid, by Pete Frazier, Bill Duck, 
H. D. Evans, Sid Martin and Masterton, according to his own statement, for 
he lived eight or ten days after he was shot. It was claimed, too, that he 
was shot in retaliation for the death of Harris, whom Howerton had reported 
to the militia." 

KILLING OF ALLEN m'rEYNOLDS. 

"On the 24th of December, 1864, Mr. Allen ?^IcReynolds was killed be- 
tween his house and Grand Pass church. He was a Whig in politics — that is, 
as the term Whig was then understood. He did not approve of either 
abolitionism or secession. On the day mentioned, Capt. R. M. Box, of 
Company F, Seventh Regiment of Missouri State Militia, as it was stated, 
sent two men to Mr. McReynold's house to get dinner, which they did. 
Soon after they went away, a squad of men belonging to the same regiment 
came to the house, and announcing themselves as bushwhackers, demanded of 
McReynolds information concerning the Federals. Mr. Creed, who was 
present, warned McReynolds that they were Federal militia; but he would 
not believe it, and gave them, it is supposed, all the information he could, 
and probably made statements that, in the eyes of the militiamen, justified them 
in shooting him. Upon their demand he went out with them to point the 
directions to certain places. He was last seen alive, pointing, as if giving 
the direction to Marshall. He was then carried a little further down the road 



202 PAST AND PRESENT 

and there shot to death. Death must have come to him instantaneously, as 
he was shot three times in the head and five or six times in other parts of 
the body. McReynolds was a Southern man in his sympathies, and what he 
said to the mihtiamen is not known — but, beheving them to be friends, it is 
probable he 'gave himself away'. He was a peaceable and Cjuiet man, uni- 
versally respected by his neighbors, and his death created a great excitement 
all through the western portion of the county. He was buried in the grain 
field of Baltimore Thomas. 

"Mr. McReynolds was born and raised in Tennessee, and came to Mis- 
souri about the year 1828, and settled at the old homestead, the place where 
David McReynolds now lives, though the old house is gone. He was about 
fifty-seven years old when killed. 

"In 1862, Isaac Lovelace was shot and killed with a shot-gun, by some 
person unknown, at a party at Mr. Gilliam's place in the Upper bottom." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

SALINE COUNTY SOLDIERS IN THE CIVIL WAR. 

The following record of those who took part in the Civil war is copied 
from a former history of this county, as being the only available record. 
Of course, it lacks a great deal of being complete or accurate, but it is 
probably the best record that could be made up fifteen years after the surrender 
of the Confederate army. The author of this history has personal knowledge 
of its incompleteness and want of accuracy, but at this distant day is unable to 
make any satisfactory corrections, the original rolls and records not being 
within his reach, if indeed any such original rolls now exist at all. 

CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS' RECORD. 

SALINE MOUNTED RIFLES, MISSOURI STATE GUARD. 

T. W. B. Crews, captain ; J. C. Barclay, first lieutenant ; F. S. Robertson, 
second lieutenant ; O. T. Sims, third lieutenant; J. W. Benson, surgeon; M. A. 
Brown, M. D., surgeon; T. T. Major, first sergeant; L. W. Haynie, second 
sergeant; W. H. Jackson, third sergeant; Minor Major, fourth sergeant; 
Thomas Turner, fifth sergeant ; William Kiser, first corporal ; W. B. Fackler, 
second corporal ; John Millsaps, third corporal ; William Dick, fourth 
corporal. 

Privates, T. S. Akerman, C. L. Beatty, J. C. Blair, Peter Bush, Jacob 
Barre, Peter Beverly, M. Beason, M. B. Craig, j\I. S. Clemmens, W. B. Cain, 
J. Cunningham, Isaac Cruzen, George Crabtree, M. T. Compton, Samuel 
Chron, T. B. Evans, H. C. Evans, J. W. Evans, John Fanner, Robert 
Flenner, Alexander Gibbs, R. W. Taynie, H. H. Hopkins, G. A. Hill, J. C. 
Handley, Alexander Hood, R. T. Irvine, J. B. Jones, R. W. Kirtley, Cyrus 
Kirtley, T. H. Lewis, W. B. S. Lewis, W. H. Little, Charles Lutz, John D. Mc- 
Kown, D. W. Martin, H. H. McDowell, R. T. McCallister, James Moberly, 
J. T. Moore, A. T. Minor, G. \Y. Nichols, George O. Neil, J. Owens, T. W. 
Ross, J. H. Rockwell, D. Strother, C. W. Surbaugh, J. M. Stansifer, J. H. 
Thomas, Thomas Turner, C. L. Snelling, Joseph Waters, Thomas Wheeler, 
J. W. Warner, Isaac Welsh, William Wallan, Reuben Wood, A. R. Chamber- 
lain, J. W. McNutt, H. Parmalee, Samuel Holland, T. F. Huston. 



204 PAST AND PRESENT 

1liis company, under Captain Crews, was out in the Missouri State 
Guard six months when their term of service expired. It was present at 
and took part in the battles of Boonville, Carthage. \Mlson's Creek, Dry- 
wood and Lexington. Lost no men in killed, wounded or prisoners. The 
company was mustered out, November, 1861, near Warsaw, Missouri, and 
most of the men re-enlisted in the Confederate army. 

SALINE JACKSON GUARD.S, M. G. S., MAY, 1861. 

Lucius J. Gaines, captain (killed December 4, 1863) ; James H. Eakin, 
first lieutenant; J. P. Craddock, second lieutenant; T. D. Wait, third lieuten- 
ant; J. Kirby. first sergeant; C. S. Mitchell, second sergeant; C. O. Bell, 
third sergeant; W. W. Filey, fourth sergeant; J. \\". Allen, fifth sergeant; 
\\'. O. Burgess, first corporal; J. S. Miller, second corporal; S. M. Cambem, 
third corporal ; J. Goff, fourth corporal; J. T. Smith, fifth corporal. 

Privates, J. H. Abney, R. C. Ainsworth, Joseph Allen, H. Almy, J. Am- 
lin, H. T. Barnes, J. Brisbo, W. B. Brown, W. M. Chamberlin, J. E. Clayton, 
G. W. Colhoff, M. S. Clemens, W. C. Condon, J. H. Cooper, D. A. Covington, 
G. W. Cross, J. H. Cunningham, R. H. Davidson. J. V. L. Davis. W. W. 
Davis, H. Davis, W. C. Dawes, A. B. Dulaney. J. M. Evans, J. \Y. Evans, W. 

B. Fackler, W. H. Ferrell, T. W. Forkner, E. F. Gaar, \\'. Gregory, J. D. 
Hall, G. S. Harvey, E. D. Haynie, E. M. Haynie, J. A. Hickerson, C. 
Hogshett, S. H. Hopper, C. A. Houts, W. M. Hubbefl, J. M. Jackson, A. 
Jones, J. B. Jones. P. J. Jones. R. T. Jones, J. M. Kelly, M. Kenedy, 
J. W. Kief, M. D. Lacey, G. \\'. Manning, W. D. Marmaduke, W. A. Martin, 
\V. H. McCormick, S. F. McMelon, J. B. McNitt, J. W. McNutt, G. J. 
Miller, J. K. Miller, T. W. Miller, A. T. Minor, F. Mistier, E. B. Mitchell, 
J. H. Neeley. T. N. Odell, J. M. O'Donald. J. O'Donald, J. N. O'Neill, R. W. 
Orear, J. W. Parsons. L. C. Patrick. J. H. Paul. W. J. Plott. D. Pulliam, 
\V. Putsch, P. Quinn. D. J. Reid. J. H. Rutherford, S. Scott. A. Smith, E. W. 
Smith, R. Smith, W. S. Smith, J. W. Stacey, J. H. Strader. A. T. Swisher. 

C. H. Thomas. J. Thomas. G. W. Tinder, E. \\'iley. A. \\'ilson, A. G. Wilson, 
T. R. Wilson. B. \\'right. 

After the first battle of Boonville, portions of two Saline county com- 
panies, the Saline Jack.son Guards, under Capt. Lucius J. Gaines, and the 
other under Capt. William B. Brown, retreated south with Governor Jack- 
son. At Camp Brisco, in St. Clair county, Missouri, they were reorganized 
into one company of the First Cavalry Missouri State Guards, of which Capt. 
W. B. Brown was elected colonel and C. M. Sutherlin was elected captain of 



^ 



SALINE COUNTY, A';iSSOURI 20=^ 

the reorganized company, G. ^^^ Lankford, first, and Isaac Neil, second 
lieutenant. This company was afterwards engaged in the battles of Car- 
thage. Wilson's Creek, Ft. Scott and Lexington. After the capture of Lex- 
ington, they retreated south with General Price to Pineville, Arkansas. On 
the loth of December, 1861. the time of the company having expired, they 
having- only volunteered for only six months, most of them returned home. 

COMPANY G, SECOND MISSOURI CAVALRY, C. S. A. 

Robert ]\IcCullough, colonel ; Robert McCullough. lieutenant-colonel. 
In February, 1862, about thirty to thirty-five men from Saline county left 
their homes with Col. Stump Price and Col. Congreve Jackson, for Price's 
army, then at Spring-field, Missouri. Before they reached Springfield, however. 
General Price had retreated south. They followed to VanBuren, Arkansas, 
or near there, and were there mustered into Company G, Second Missouri 
Cavalrv^, Confederate States Army, for the war. Of this company, Capt. 
George B. Harper, of Boonville, was captain. The names of the Saline 
county men were: C. M. Sutherlin, first lieutenant; L. J. Gaines,, afterwards 
brigade adjutant, killed at the fight at Moscow, Tennessee, December 4. 
1863 ; William Putsch, J. B. Breathitt, Austin Jones, John Eelbeck, died in 
1862. in Mississippi; Henry Romines. who died at Memphis in 1862; God- 
frey Dumbolt, Bryant Nowlin, Isaiah Garrett, G. W. Gilmore, promoted to 
third lieutenant and wounded at Ft. Pillow ; Thomas Sellers, F. R. Durrett, 
brigade surgeon ; P. F. Lamear, wounded at Memphis ; Hem*y Gilliam, 
wounded ; C. B. Hill, William Hill ; William Norvell, killed in action at 
Senatobia, Missouri; James Gauldin, Samuel Copeland, W. R. Garrett; 
Thomas L. Xapton, a brother of the author of this work, joined the regiment 
near Memphis, Tennessee, in 1862, remained with the command until the close 
of the war in 1865, was wcninded twice, but not seriously; James Hopper, 
J. ^^^ Liggett, a. ^^^ Scripture. G. W. Marcus, W. R. Samuels, George 
Staples. 

This Company G participated in the following engagements : 

Elk Horn, Arkansas, March 6 and 7, 1862. 

Purdy Road, near Corinth, Mississippi. May 5 to 14. 1862. 

Baldwin, Mississippi, June 6, 1862. 

Capture of Courtland, Alabama, July 25, 1862. 

Middleburg, Tennessee, August 3, 1862. 

Meaden. Tennessee, September i, 1862. 

Britton Lane, Tennessee, September 2. 1862. 



206 PAST AND PRESENT 

luka, Mississippi. September 13. 1862. 

Tuka, Mississippi, September 19, 1862. 

Corinth, Mississippi, October 3, 4 and 5, 1862. 

Battle of Holly Springs and LaGrange, Mississippi, November i to 3, 
1862. 

Battle of Holly Springs and Abbeyville, Mississippi, November 27 to 30, 
1862. 

Abbeyville to Grenada, Mississippi, December i to 3, 1862. 

Capture of Holly Springs, Mississippi, December 20, 1862. 

Around Bolivar, Tennessee, December 23, 1862. 

Perre Terre, Mississippi, April 19, 1863. 

^^'alhalla, Mississippi, April 19, 1863. 

Cochrane, Mississippi, April 19, 1863. 

Senatobia, Mississippi, May 21, 1863. 

Byhalia, Mississippi, June 16, 1863. 

Salem, Mississippi, September 9, 1863. 

Collierville, Mississippi, September 11, 1863. 

Wyatt, Mississippi, October 3, 1863. 

Moscow, Tennessee, December 4, 1863. 

Fort Pillow, Tennessee, April 12, 1864. 

Senatobia, Mississippi, February 9, 1864. 

Wyatt, Mississippi, February 13, 1864. 

West Point to Pontotoc, Mississippi, February 21 and 22, 1864. 

Harrisburg, Mississippi, July 13 to 15, 1864. 

Abbeyville, Mississippi, August 14, 1864. 

Raid to Memphis, August 21, 1864. 

Robertson's Ferry, Mississippi, December 10, 1864. 

Davidson's Creek, Mississippi, December 18, 1864. 

Pascagoula, Mississippi, December 29, 1864. 

luka. Mississippi, March 22. 1865. 

This fight at luka, IMississippi, March 22, 1865, was the last shot fired 
by the command. Thev surrendered and got their paroles June 15, 1865, at 
Columbus. Mississippi, and returned to their homes and have since made 
as good citizens as they were soldiers. During- the war they captured 
nearly all their ammunition and supplies from the enemy. 

CAPT. ROBERT RUXTON's COMPANY, C. S. A. 

Robertson's Regiment: organized December 15, 1861 ; captured at Black- 
water, December 19, 1861. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 20/ 

Captain, Robert Ruxton; first lieutenant, J. H. Montgomery, exchanged 
at Vicksburg, September 22, 1862; second lieutenant, R. T. Hutcherson, ex- 
changed at Vicksburg, September 22, 1862; third lieutenant, J. H. Mc- 
Daniel : first sergeant, R. H. Willis; second sergeant. T. J. Goddard, ex- 
changed at Vicksburg, September 22, 1862; third sergeant, R. H. Hudson, 
exchanged at Vicksburg, September 23, 1862; fourth sergeant, H. J. Brown, 
released on oath, March 14, 1862; fifth sergeant, D. C. Byrd, exchanged 
at Vicksburg, September 22, 1862; first corporal, J. R. Brown, released on 
oath, March 14, 1862; second corporal, L. O. Patrick, released on oath, 
March 14, 1862; third corporal, G. W. Guthrey, released on oath March 
14, 1862 ; fourth corporal, J. A. Elder, released on oath March 14, 1862. 

PRIVATES. 

John A. Brown, died in prison at St. Louis, January i, 1862. 

C. E. Ballance, died in prison in St. Louis, January i, 1862. 

John Byrd, died in prison in St. Louis, January i, 1862. 

S. T. Chapman, left sick in St. Louis, fate unknown. 

T. J. Shannysy, exchanged at Vicksburg, September 22, 1862. 

S. J. Carter, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

T. S. Edwards, exchanged at Vicksburg, September 22, 1862. 

A. C. Garnett, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

T. T. Garnett, released on oath, February 25, 1862. 

William J. Garnett, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

John P. Harl, released on oath, July 11, 1862. 

L. F. Hudson, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

H. C. Hudson, released on oath, March 14. 1862. 

William M. Hutcherson, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

J. G. Harvey, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

Hubert Harvey, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

T. L. Harvey, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 

L. P. Hickerson. released on oath. March 19, 1862. 

J. S. Hughes, released on oath. February 25, 1862. 

H. W. Jackson, exchanged at Vicksburg, September, 1862. 

F. F. Jones, left sick in St. Louis and supposed to have been released 
on oath. 

W. T. Jones, left sick in St. Louis and supposed to have been released on 
oath. 

J. H. Irvine, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 



208 PAST AND PRESENT 

H. B. Irvine, released on oath, March 14. 1862. 
H. O. Lewis, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 
G. R. McDaniel. 

T. A. H. Moore, released on oath February 18, 1862. 
A. J. Martin, escaped from prison, March 14, 1862. 
W. D. P. M. Noland, released on oath March 14, 1862. 
J. J. i'age, released on oath. March 14, 1862. 
R. P. Patrick, released on oath. March 15, 1862. 
J. D. Patrick, St., released on oath March 15, 1862. 
J. D. Patrick, Jr., released on oath, March 15, 1862. 
E. W. Smith, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 
J. A. Smith, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 
L. A. Smith, escaped December 16, 1861. 
G. M. Snelling, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 
A. T. Sims, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 
Thomas Stewart, .died in prison, January 16, 1862. 
Joseph Trent, released on oath, March 14, 1862. 
Dr. E. M. Talbott, released as surgeon. 
S. A. Thompson, died in prison on January 30, 1862. 
William H. Willis, released on oath, March 15, 1862. 
P. F. Willis, released on oath, February 25, 1862. 
Joseph Leddy, company drillmaster, escaped July 26, 1862. 
C. E. Woodward, escaped July 26. 1862, recaptured and shot August 2, 
1862. 

J. A. Wiley, released on oath, February 27, 1862. 
L. H. Tucker, released on oath, March 14, 1861. 
John Ingram, escaped December 19, 1861. 

This company was organized in Miami by Captain Ruxton, December 
15, 1861, and with other recruits, nearly all from Saline county, under the 
command of Col. F. S. Robertson, were on their way to join General. Parsons' 
brigade, in Price's army, when the whole was captured by Gen. Jeff C. Davis' 
command on Blackwater, December 19, 1861, and taken to McDowell's Col- 
lege, Gratiot street, St. Louis, and from there removed to Alton penitentiary, 
and from there released on oath or exchanged in 1862. 

SALINE GUARDS, M. S. G. 

Capt. Ed. Brown's company, organized May, 1861, cavalry. Ed. J. 
Brown, captain; J. H. Irving, first lieutenant; R. T. Hutchinson, second lieu- 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MLSSOTRI 200 

tenant; John H. McDaniel. third Heutenant ; J. H. Montgomery, first orderly 
sergeant ; Hubert Haryey, second sergeant ; T. T. Goddard, third sergeant ; L. 
H. Tucker, fcnnlh sergeant ; H. T. Bro\yn, first corporal ; G. C. Miller, second 
corporal: R. L. Bro\yn, third corporal; John B. Harl, fourth corporal. 

Priyates, \Mlliam Bishop, P. W. Harris, J. H. Miller. R. H. Willis, 
T. L. Haryey, L. C. Patrick, D. C. Bird, ^^'illiam Grayson, Sidney Donahue, 
Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Trent, Wilson Trent, William Reynolds, Robert 
Thomas Bro^yn, Thomas Duggins, Patrick Guthrey, Thomas Boatright. 

COMPANY D, FIRST MISSOURI CAVALRY, COL. JOSEPH O. SHELBY C. S. A. 

Organized August, 1862, at Grand Pass. Saline county, Missouri; soon 
after transferred to Marmaduke and after\yards kno\vn as "Alarmaduke's 
Escort." The follo\ying \yere from Saline county: 

John B. Clark, first lieutenant, after\yards captain, killed Helena. 
Arkansas; George Kirtley, captain, after\yards major, killed at Hartsyille : 
Dick Stallard, second lieutenant, after\vards captain; Cyrus Kirtley, third 
sergeant; Sinclair Lewis, third sergeant, afterwards first; George Nuckles, 
third sergeant; William Lewis, first corporal; B. S. Lewis, second corporal: 
Ed. Winslow, third corporal. 

Priyates, John Haygood, William Dowden. James W' ood, Robert Carlyle, 
killed on the plains by the Indians; ^^'illiam Bulkley, wounded at Harts- 
yille and died at Little Rock; Channing Bulkley. killed at Springfield; A. C. 
Lewis, Mat Lewis; Charles Love, killed at Springfield; J. Husto, a Mexican 
killed b}' Indians with Carlyle; Ed. Lewis. George Mikels, John Rollins, Sam 
Hays, Joshua Self, Ouin W^ood, Robert Barbee. D. Lewis. Charley Lewis; 
John Lewis, killed at Tipton. 1863; Thomas L. Sidinstriker, J. Kinney 
Lewis; William Fitzpatrick, fourth corporal; Robert Kirtley, Gus Stevenson, 
Giles Turley ; M. C. Sandidge, taken prisoner at battle of Jenkin's Eerry ; 
Robert Winslow, wounded at Hartsville and died at Memphis ; Alonzo 
Palmer, George Tinder, Ben W^right ; John Beatty. captured ; George White ; 
William White, wounded at Prairie Grove; Sam Alartin, F. Hocks, L. Corder ; 
John Blackburn, killed at Pine Bluffs: S. Hollen. died in prison: P. ^I.. 
Walker, died in Arkansas ; D. R. Hall ; \\'. Fackler. killed by Indians ; Ed 
Carr ; Jim Dysart, wounded at Springfield, 1863 : John Harper, George Harper, 
Jim Hays ; John Green, died since ; George K. Dorse}', slightly wounded , 
Mann Webb, P. Simmons, D. Sanders, Sam Dysart. Hardin \\'itcher. J. S. 
Jackson. 

14 



2IO PAST AND PRESENT 

Joined in i8()4. John Snoddy, Addison, Marsh Yantis, Addison Huston, 
Anch^ew Lewis, Ed. Yantis, Colonel Pinkerton ; Dan Trigg, killed at Antoine 
fight; William Yantis, Robert J. Hendricks, A. T. Irvine, John W. Reynolds, 
J. D. Tucker, William G. Boatright; R. P. Wall, wounded near Fort Scott; 
W. W. Stephens, wounded at Mine Creek ; James H. Faulconer. captured with 
General Marmaduke, at Little Osage; Thomas Boatright. 

TITSWORTIl's COMPANY. GORDON's REGIMENT, C. S. A., SHELBV's COMMAND, 

FIRST MISSOURI CAVALRY. 

This company was organized in 1861, in Cooper county, under Captain 
Titsworth. Most of the men were from Cooper county, but the follow^ing 
were from Saline county; after Titsw^orth, Edwards became captain. 

John Flenner, lieutenant; John Little, corporal. 

Privates, Alexander Cooper, Robert Flenner, James Harris, John Harris, 
George Hopkins, Joshua Owings, John White, John King, Peter Pollack. G. 
B. Molden, "'Sorrel Top", Toney Smith; W^iliiam Riley, killed: William 
Miles, William \\'arner. George Turner, Richard Thomas, Joseph Waters, 
Jacob Rockwell. 

COMPANY E, FIRST iA-IISSOURI CAVALRY. C. S A., COL. JOE SHELBY. 

James Garrett, captain; Joseph Elliott, captain; Erasmus D. Haynie. 
second lieutenant; R. K. Thompson, second lieutenant; Garrett Lankford, 
third lieutenant; Lycurgus Garrett, third lieutenant; A\'illiam Garnett, or- 
derly sergeant ; Oscar K. Graves, orderly sergeant. 

Privates, F. B. Haynie, John Gsiudlin, A. C. Garnett, Jehu Jones, Sam- 
uel A. Shaw, Thomas Tngraham ; Charles Gaines, killed at Ijattle of Big Blue ; 
John Jones, J. R. Nickel ; Harvey Thomas, killed at battle of Marshall ; F. 
M. McMahan; Asa Huff, captured after fight at Marshall, and shot l:)y mi- 
litia after being paroled and released ; Scott Fluff, \A' illiam Ferguson, David 
Ferrill, John Steele, H. Hammer, Benjamin Nixon; John (larrelt, killed at 
Clarendon; William Ashley, Freeman Cott, Meredith Crosslin, William 
Crosslin, W. E. Thomson, Alvin Thomson, S. T. Garnett, Alvin Garrett, P. 
A. Spangler, Milton Davidson, G. W. Lankford, Wilham Quisenberry; Wil- 
liam Macaloney, killed by (ieorge Baker; William Durrett, John R. Durrett, 
Richard Durrett. 

MISCELLANEOUS CONFEDERATES. 

Robert Smith, enlisted May, 1861, in Marmaduke's company as a pri- 
vate, then second sergeant, then second lieutenant. Was in battles of Boon- 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOURI 211 

ville, Wilson Creek, Lexington, Pea Ridge, and was with Price. Captured 
in a skirmish on Blackwater, in autumn of 1862, and paroled the winter 
of 1864. 

W. T. Wdiite. 

Thomas H. Booker. 

H. C. Surbaugh. 

William S. Booker, private; enlisted March, 1861, in Capt. Ed Brown's 
company; re-enlisted in the fall of 1864. In all Price's battles in 1861 and 
in 1864. Surrendered at Shreveport. 

Abraham Neff, private; enlisted in 1861, in Capt. W. B. Brown's com- 
pany, Missouri State Guard, Parson's Brigade. Battles, first Boonville, 
Carthage and Wilson's Creek. 

J. B. Townsend, private; enlisted October 15, 1864, in Captain Wood- 
son's company; re-enlisted in Captain Thompson's company. Unarmed and in 
no battle. Discharged June 20. 1865. 

B. B. Brown, enlisted in Missouri State Guard, in 1861. Re-enlisted in 
Elliott's company, Shelby's command. Surrendered 1865. Battles, Boon- 
ville, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Lexington, Westport, etc. 

Reese McNeill, private; enlisted under Shelby in 1862. Rejoined Shel- 
by, and disbanded 1865. 

John T. Lewis, private; enlisted in Captain Crew's company in 1861. 
Battles, Lexington and Carthage. Returned home sick in 1861, and soon 
after died with army fever. 

Charles A. Lewis, sergeant ; enlisted in Shelby's command August, 1862, 
and transferred to Marmaduke's body-guard in September, 1862. Battles, 
Newtonia, Springfield, Cape Girardeau, Pine BlufT, Saline River, Poison 
Spring, Lexington and Westport. Surrendered at Shreveport June 25, 1865. 

Notley Thomas, private; promoted to captain, enlisted in Missouri State 
Guard, 1861. Battles, Lexington, Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. Re-en- 
listed in Confederate States Army under Price. On furlough in 1863, was 
taken prisoner. Went to Colorado in 1864, for health, after released. 

Thomas H. Lewis, bugler; enlisted in 1861, in Captain Crew's com- 
pany. Died of army fever in camp, in 186 1, in Johnson county. 

John W. Duggins, private. 

Robert Land, private; enlisted in Missouri State Guard, in 186 1, in 
Capt. W. B. Brown's company. Re-enlisted in Company H, Colonel Slay- 
back's regiment, Shelby's division, November. 1864. Battles, Boonville, 
Lexington, Little Blue, Westport. etc. Surrendered at Shreveport, 1865. 

R. J. McMahan. 



212 PAST AND PRESENT 

H. T. Barnes, enlisted in Paron's brigade, Missouri State Guard, May, 
1 86 1, re-enlisted in Company K, Shank's regiment, Shelby's command. 
Boonville to Xewtonia, 1864. Surrendered at Shreveport, 1865. 

Dick Hutchinson, second sergeant, enlisted in Company H, First Bri- 
gade, Missouri infantry, October, 1862. Battles, Gaines Landing, Marsh- 
field and others. Discharged, June, 1864. 

Dave McCiaw, private; enlisted October, 1862, in Company H, First 
Brigade, Missouri Infantry. Battles, Gaines Landing, Marshfield, etc. 
Discharged, June, 1864. 

S. P. Hunt, first sergeant ; enlisted in October, 1862, Company H, 
Ninth Missouri Infantry, First Brigade. Was a prisoner ten months. 

H. T. Walker, captain; Company H, Ninth Missouri Infantry, First 
Brigade, 1862. Battles, Gaines Landing, Marshfield, etc. Wounded at Pleas- 
ant Hill and in prison ten months. Discharged, June, 1864. 

Price McGrew, third sergeant; enlisted October, 1862, in Company H^ 
Ninth Regiment, Missouri Infantry, First Brigade; battles, Gaines Landing, 
Marshfield, etc. ; discharged June 9, 1864. 

John H. Grayson, corporal ; enlisted in Stallard's Marmaduke's escort, 
1864. Was in all of Price's last raid, and died at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, just 
before the surrender. 

Thomas J. Edwards. 

Martin A. Gauldin, first lieutenant. 

W. P. Tate, orderly sergeant; in 1861, Missouri State Guard; in 1864, 
in Anderson's partisan rangers. 

James Hays, private; enlisted in Elliott's company, Gordon's regiment, 
Shelby's division. In all of the battles of Price's last raid and surrendered 
at Shreveport, in 1865. 

John B. West, private ; enlisted in General Shelby's division in 1864. 
In Price's last raid and surrendered in 1865. 

William P. Jones, private; enlisted in General Price's command in 1865. 
Surrendered in 1865. Had no arms. 

Robert Frazer, private; enlisted in Missouri State Guard, in 1861, and 
then in Elliott's battalion, Slayback's regiment. Shelby's command. Sur- 
rendered in 1865. Battles, Wilson's Creek, Dry Wood, Lexington, Spring- 
field, Saline River, etc. 

William Putsch, sergeant; enlisted in Missouri State Guard, May 15, 
1 86 1. In Sutherlin's company, Second Missouri Regiment, Confederate 
States Army. Surrendered May 15, 1865. 

William C. Davis, private; enlisted in Wood's battalion. Confederate 
States Army, 1863, and surrendered 1865. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 213 

J. V. L. Davis, John Davis, enlisted in Saline Jackson guards in 1861, 
Missouri State Guard. 

Tyree B. R. Carthae, served under General Shelby, Missouri State 
Guard. 

B. W. Marcum, private; enlisted in Quantrell's Partisan Rangers. Was 
in all Quantrell's fights in Missouri and was his pilot in 1862-3. 

John Minor, private; enlisted in 1864, in Company H, Slayback's regi- 
ment, Shelby's division. In all the battles of Price's last raid. Surrendered 
in 1865. 

W. K. White, private ; enlisted in Gordon's regiment, Shelby's division, 
and was in all the battles of Price's last raid. 

John D. White, private; enlisted in 1862. in Shelby's command. Bat- 
tles, Prairie Grove, Hartsville, Cane Hill, Helena, Marshall, etc. Wounded 
through both hips at Marshall, and continued prisoner to close of war. 

Morris Edwards, enlisted in Captain White's company. Colonel Emmett 
McDonald's regiment, Shelby's command, in 1862. In 1863, joined United 
States Army, at Fort Smith, Arkansas. 

Joseph M. McReynolds, private; enlisted in August, 1862, in Company B, 
Gordon's regiment, Shelby's command. Battles, Newtonia, Springfield, Hart- 
ville, Cape Girardeau, Marshall, etc. Taken prisoner near Marshall, 1863. In 
prison four months. 

Hugh Chrisman. 

Joshua Self, private; enlisted in 1861. Surrendered in 1865. In Mar- 
maduke's escort, in all battles in Missouri, Arkansas, and on Price's last raid. 

John Thomas, private; enlisted in 1861, in McBride's brigade, Missouri 
State Guard. Sick and discharged on furlough. 

A. J. Sydenstriker, private; enlisted 1864, in Price's last raid. Surren- 
dered in 1865. 

Ewell Berlin, private; enlisted in 1861, in Missouri State Guard, in 1862, 
in old Stonewall brigade. Went home in 1864, ^^id thence to Ohio. Battles, 
Winchester, Newton, New Market, Manassas, Harper's Ferry, etc. 

Robert L. DeMoss, private; enlisted, in 1861, in Shelby's command, cap- 
tured in 1862, and died in prison soon after. 

Thomas DeMoss, private; enlisted in 1861, under Colonel Gordon, in 
Shelby's command, in 1862, re-enlisted in Gen. Joe E. Johnson's Tennessee 
army, under Forrest. In the battles of the state guard, under Price, and in 
nearly all of Forrest's battles east of the river. Surrendered and returned 
home in 1865, and died of consumption in 1867. 

James S. Richardson, private; enlisted in 1861, under General Frost, in 



214 PAST AND PRESENT 

') 

Missouri State Guard. Battles, Boonville. Dry Wood, Lexington, Pea Ridge, 
Millikin's Bend, etc. Surrendered in 1865. 

William F. Dowden, private in Marmaduke's escort. 

Addison Huston, private in Marmaduke's escort. 

Joseph Shaul, private; enlisted in Pool's Partisan Rangers in 1864, but 
returned home as they went south. 

\\'illiam Lemen. private; enlisted in Captain Shindler's company, Shelby's 
command, in 1861. In 1864, was drafted by Shelby, and was in the long 
fight from Lexington to Newtonia, Price's raid. 

David Lemen, private; enlisted in Shindler's company, Lewis' regiment, 
Shelby's command, in 1861. Drafted in 1864. Taken prisoner near Fort 
Scott. Released on oath, 1865. 

John W. Parsons, ordnance master in Bledsoe's battery ; enlisted Missouri 
State Guard, 1861. Transferred to Joe E. Johnson's army, 1862. Captured at 
Vicksburg, 1863. Released on parole. In all the battles in Missouri in 1861, 
and in all under General Johnson to Vicksburg. 

George W. Lewis, private; enlisted in 1864, Marmaduke's escort. Cap- 
tain Stallard. Surrendered at Shreveport, June, 1865. In all the long fight- 
ing of Price's last raid. Died at home a few months after the surrender. 

William Lewis, private; enlisted under Captain Stallard, Marmaduke's 
escort, in 1862. 

D. W. Lewis, private; enlisted June, 1861, in Gordon's regiment, under 
Shelby, and detailed, 1862, in Stallard's company, Marmaduke's escort. Bat- 
tles, Pea Ridge, Lexington, etc., and the battles on Price's last raid. 

Dr. A. P. Brown, private; enlisted in December, 1861, in Robertson's 
regiment. Captured four days after on Blackwater by Jeff C. Davis' command. 
Took the oath, and came home after three months' imprisonment. 

William Kiser, corporal; enlisted in Captain Crews' company, 1861. 
Re-enlisted December, 1861. Captured at Blackwater, December 19, 1861. 
Released on taking oath, 1862. Was in Missouri State Guard battles. 

William A. Snoddy, private; enlisted in Ed Brown's company, 1861, and 
re-enlisted in Captain Stallard's company, Marmaduke's escort, 1864. Sur- 
rendered in 1865, at Shreveport. Battles, Boonville, Lexington, and all the 
fighting of Price's last raid. 

John J. Snoddy, private; enlisted in 1862, in Stallard's company, Mar- 
maduke's escort; re-enlisted in 1864; surrendered in 1865, and died at home 
in 1876. 

E. H. Lewis, private; enlisted in 1862, in Captain Cake's battalion sharp- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 215 

shooters; re-enlisted under (ieneral Shelby, and surrendered in 1865. Battles, 
Carthage. Pleasant Hill, Little Saline, Prairie Grove, etc. 

John H. Humphreys, private; enlisted under General Price, in 1862; dis- 
charged same year, for sickness. 

Capt. John Clark, captain, enlisted in 1862, under Shelby, afterwards 
captain of Marmaduke's escort. Killed at Helena, July. 1863. Battles, 
Spring-field, Newtonia, Prairie Grove, Darcy, etc. 

T. P. Prior, private; enlisted, October i, 1864, under Shelby, and was 
in the battles of Price's last raid. 

Robert Carlyle, private; enlisted in 1862. under Marmaduke. Was 
wounded at the battle of Spring-field, and died in Arkansas, 1864. 

Channing AI. Bulkley ; private: enlisted, August 19, 1862, under General 
Marmaduke; killed at Springfield. January 8, 1863, shot through the heart. 

William A. Bulkley. private; enlisted under Marmaduke, September, 1861. 
Was at battles of Lexington, Pea Ridge. Hartsville. and Springfield ; wounded 
in hip and spine, January 11, 1863 ; died at Little Rock, the next September. 

Thomas W. Davis, private; enlisted, June, 1861, in Reavis' regiment, 
Slack's division. Missouri State Guard. 

C. M. Pinkerton, private; enlisted in Shelby's command in 1862, and 
in Marmaduke's escort; discharged on Washita river, 1863. Battles, Car- 
thage, Lexington, Prairie Grove, Hartsville, Springfield, ALarshall, Cane 
Ridge, etc. 

John Lewis, private; enlisted in Shelby's command in 1862. Transferred 
to Marmaduke's. Was killed October, 1863, at Tipton, Missouri. 

William F. Godman. private; enlisted September. 1864. Surrendered 
1865. Li all the battles of Price's retreat. 

John J. Little, private; enlisted August. 1862, First Missouri Cavalry, 
Company H. Wounded at Clarendon, Arkansas ; taken prisoner, but escaped. 
Surrendered 1865. 

James B. Brown, private; enlisted, 1862, in Captain Sutherlin's com- 
pany. In second battle of Pea Ridge, and wounded in left thigh. Surrendered 
in 1865. 

W\ B. Brown, private; enlisted in 1861 ; first, in Saline Jackson (iuards. 
second, in McCullough's regiment, and then under General Shelby. \\ as 
wounded, by being thrown from his horse. Surrendered, 1865. Battles, 
three at Newtonia, two at Lexington, two at Boonville, etc. 

John L. Cowan, private; enlisted in 1864, in Price's last raid. Sur- 
rendered in 1865. 

John M. Jackson, corporal; enlisted under General Parsons, Miss<un-i 



2l6 PAST AND PRESENT 

State Guard; under Price, Confederate States Army. Surrendered in 1865. 
Battles. Lexington. \\"ilson's Creek. Spring^field, Helena. Lone Jack. etc. 

A. J. Thornton, private: enlisted in 1864. in Price's last raid. Sur- 
rendered, 1865. Li the battles of the raid. 

Charles E. Wood, sergeant-major; enlisted in Clark's brigade, in Price's 
last raid, and at the desperate battles of that raid. Surrendered, 1865. 

C. O. V. Wood, private; enlisted, first, under McCullough. 1861, second, 
in Price's last raid, 1864. Surrendered, 1865. 

Isaiah Garrett, private; enlisted, first, under Col. W. B. Brown, 1861 ; 
tlien under Colonel McCullough. Surrendered in 1865. Battles. Boonville, 
Lexington. Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge. Moscow, Holly Springs, etc. 

John R. Durrett, private; enlisted under Shelby, in 1861. Surrendered 
in 1865. Battles, Boonville, Helena, Cape Girardeau, Hartsville, Westport, 
etc. \\'as wounded slightly at Westport. Surrendered in 1865. 

Joseph M. Cott, private; enlisted first in Missouri State Guard, in 1861, 
then under Congreve Jackson, then under Parsons, Green, and last in Cock- 
rell's brigade. Surrendered in 1865. Battles, Pea Ridge, Grand Gulf, Vicks- 
burg, Franklin. Nashville. luka, etc. 

S. P. Allen, private; enlisted under Shelby in 1864. Li all the battles 
of Price's last raid. Surrendered in 1865. 

B. J. Orear, private; enlisted in 1863, in Jackson's brigade. Then 
under General Green. Was in the battles of Price's raid. Surrendered, 1865. 

Giles R. McDaniel. private; enlisted in 1861, and 1863. 

Thomas L. Sydenstriker. private; enlisted first in Robertson's regiment. 
Captured at Blackwater, December, 19, 1861. Then in Marmaduke's escort. 
In the battles of Price's last raid. Mustered himself out in April, 1865. 

W. A. Irvine, private; enlisted May, 1861, in Capt. Ed. Brown's com- 
pany. Again in Captain Ruxton's company, December, 1861. Captured at 
Blackwater, December, 19, 1861 ; released on oath in 1862. Joined Price's 
last raid in 1864. In all the battles of the raid. Surrendered, 1865. 

R. A. Henton. private; enlisted December, 1861, in Robertson's command. 
Captured at Blackwater, December, 1861. Released on oath, 1862. 

Michael Price, private; enlisted in Company K, Shank's regiment, Shelby's 
division, October, 1864. Killed at Westport, October, 1864. 

D. W. Price, private; enlisted in Robertson's command, Decemljer, 1861. 
Captured at Blackwater with the command. Released on oath, March, 1862. 
Then in Company K, Shank's regiment, Shelby's division, 1864. Surrendered 
at Shreveport, 1865. In all the battles of Shelby's division. Price's raid. 

J. A. Rice, private; enlisted in Ed. Brown's company. May. 1861. Dis- 



SALINE COUXTY, MISSOURI 21/ 

banded, June. 1861. Re-enlisted in Company E. Gordon's regiment, Shelby's 
division. 1864. and in all the battles of the division on the retreat. Sur- 
rendered. 1865. 

R. \\'. Haynie. private; third corporal; enlisted in Crews' company, May, 
1861. Re-enlisted in Robertson's command and captured at Blackwater. 
Exchanged at Vicksburg, September 8, 1862. Transferred to Company G, 
Ninth Regiment Missouri Infantry, as orderly sergeant, in Parson's division. 
Surrendered at Shreveport. 1865. Battles, Little Rock, Saline River, etc. 

Fleming Haynie, private; enlisted, first Lindsay's company, Missouri State 
Guards, August, 1861 ; then in Robertson's command; captured at Black- 
water; released on oath 1862; joined Company W, Gordon's regiment. First 
Missouri Cavalrv. 1863; in all the battles of Shelby's command; surrendered, 
1865. 

J. H. Reynolds, private; enlisted in Ruxton's company, Robertson's 
command, December, 1861 ; captured at Blackwater same month; released on 
oath, March. 1862. 

Marion Peterman, private; enlisted in Xixon's company, Gordon's regi- 
ment, Shelby's division, 1864; in all the battles of the last raid; surrendered at 
Shreveport, 1865. 

William H. Handley, private; enlisted in Company A, Tenth Missouri 
Cavalry, ]\Iarmaduke's division, November, 1862; battles, Prairie Gove, etc., 
and all the battles of last raid ; surrendered at Shreveport, May, 1865. 

Jacob Rockwell, private; second sergeant; enlisted June, 1861, Captain 
Crew's company, Missouri State Guard, then in Robertson's regiment of re- 
cruits; captured at Blackwater December, 1861 ; released on oath March, 1862, 
re-enlisted under Shelby, August, 1862, wounded and captured on the retreat 
after the battle of Marshall ; remained in prison at Camp Morton until paroled, 
March, 1865. 

John Robertson, assistant wagon master; enlisted December, 1861, in 
Robertson's regiment of recruits; captured at Blackwater; released on oath 
April, 1862. 

L. W. Haynie. first lieutenant; enlisted first in Robertson's recruits; 
captured at Blackwater December 19, 1861 ; exchanged at Vicksburg, Septem- 
ber, 1862; in Company G, Ninth Missouri Lifantry ; battles of Boonville. 
Carthage, Lexington, Marshfield, etc., surrendered. June. 1865. 

John C. Scott. 

L S. Parsons, first lieutenant; Company H, Slayback's regiment. 



2IO PAST AND PRESENT 

J. D. Snelling-, private; enlisted in Company D, William's regiment. 
Shelby's division, 1864. In all the battles of the last raid. Snrrendered June. 
1865. 

E. D. Haynie, private ; second lieutenant ; enlisted in Saline Jackson 
Guards May, 1861, in Robertson's recruits. Captured December 19, 1861. 
Re-enlisted in Company E, First Missouri Cavalry, Colonel Gordon. Wounded 
in stomach at Westport. 1864. Surrendered June, 1865. 

C. G. Bruce, first lieutenant; in Missouri State Guard, Company A, Second 
Regiment, disbanded; enlisted (orderly) Company E, First Regiment Missouri 
Cavalry; Gordon's regiment, Shelby's command. In twenty-seven battles and 
over one hundred skirmishes. Surrendered June, 1865. 

Oscar Haynie, private; taken prisoner with Robertson's recruits. Decem- 
ber, 1 86 1, and died in prison at Alton, April, 1862. 

John W. Benson, M. D., surgeon ; first in Saline Jackson Guards, then 
in Robertson's regiment of recruits. Captured at Black water, December 19. 
1 86 1, and held a prisoner until released on oath. 

W. O. Burgess, private; enlisted in Saline Jackson Guards, April, 1861, 
then in Robertson's command. Captured at Blackwater. Exchanged at 
Vicksburg, then in Ninth Regiment, Missouri Infantry. Battles, Boonville, 
Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Lexington, Little Rock, etc. Surrendered at 
Shreveport, 1865. 

O. M. Zea, enlisted in Robertson's regiment of recruits, captured at 
Blackwater, December, 1861. Released on oath, 1862. 

J. H. Waldon, private; enlisted in Robertson's recruits. Captured at 
Blackwater, December, 1862. Released on oath, 1862. 

R. H. Elliott, private; enlisted in Crews' company, Missouri State Guard. 
August, 1 86 1. Discharged, December, 1861. 

Jacob Burns, private ; enlisted in Nixon's company, Gordon's regiment. 
First Missouri Cavalry, Shelby's division, 1864. Battles, Westport and New- 
tonia. Surrendered June, 1865. 

W. Bure, private; enlisted in Shelby's division, 1864. In the battles of 
the retreat. Surrendered at Shreveport, 1865. 

William Bishop, private; enlisted April, 1861, in Brown's company, 
Missouri State Guard. Battles, Boonville, Carthage, W'ilson's Creek, Lex- 
ington and Pea Ridge. Wounded at Wilson's Creek. Re-enlisted, July, 1862, 
in Morgan's Arkansas regiment. Discharged, October, 1862. 

George G. Duggans, M. D., surgeon; in June, 1861, in Parson's brigade. 
Taken prisoner and exchanged, 1862. In W^ell's regiment. King's brigade, 
^Iap:ruder's division. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 2ig 

Nathan Perry, teamster; enlisted under Parson's, in State Guard, July, 
1 86 1. Captured in Robertson's regiment, at Blackwater. 

]\ B. Stockston, private ; enlisted in Second Regiment Infantry, Missouri 
State Guard, September, 1861. Captured with Robertson's recruits, Decem- 
ber, 1861. Exchanged. Enlisted in Company G, Ninth Regiment, Missouri 
Infantry, 1862. Surrendered, 1865. 

N. O. Smith, private; enlisted in Marmaduke's company, Missouri State 
Guard, June, 1861. Captured with Robertson's recruits December 19, 1861. 
Released on oath, and discharged in 1863. 

John T. Carlyle, private; enlisted in Robertson's regular recruits, and 
captured at Blackwater December 19, 1861. Released on oath. 

Claud Carlyle, private; enlisted in Robertson's recruits and captured on 
Blackwater, and died in prison in St. Louis. 

Joseph Pittman, private; enlisted first in Capt. Ed Brown's company in 
1861. With Robertson captured at Blackwater. 

John H. McDaniel. 

Jesse Marr, private, enlisted under Bledsoe in 1861, in Raines' division. 
Disbanded in 1862. Battles, Lexington and Pea Ridge. 

Benjamin T. Poe, captain in State Guard ; enlisted second sergeant Au- 
gust, 1862, Company D, Eleventh Regiment and Second Brigade, Parson's 
division. Battles, Prairie Grove, Marshfield, Jenkin's Ferry, Pleasant Hill 
and Little Rock. Surrendered in 1865. 

G. Thomas Martin, private; enlisted June, 1861, Gordon's company, 
\\"eightman's brigade, Missouri State Guard, discharged December, 1861, in 
Confederate States Army, February, 1862, in Taylor's company, Sixth Regi- 
ment, Missouri Infantry, Slack's brigade. Price's division ; transferred to 
various commanders. Battles, Carthage, Wilson Creek, Lexington, Pea Ridge, 
Corinth, first and second luka, around Vicksburg, etc. Surrendered, 1865. 

Lemuel D. Stevenson, private; enlisted June, 1861, Gordon's company, 
Weightman's brigade, Missouri State Guard. Discharged December, 1861, 
Confederate States Army, February, 1862, in Taylor's company, Sixth Regi- 
ment Missouri Infantry, Slack's brigade, Price's division. Transferred to 
other commanders. Battles, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Lexington, Pea Ridge, 
first and second Corinth, luka, around Vicksburg, etc. Surrendered 1865. 

Rich B. Davis, private; enlisted fall, 1864, Company C, Ninth Regular 
Cavalry, Shelby's division. Battles, Lexington, Westport, and all the bat- 
tles of the retreat. Surrendered, 1865. 

Andrew C. Dysart, private; enlisted, 1862, in Smith's company, Boyd's 
regiment, Stein's division. Battles, Blue Mills and Lexington. Discharged, 
November, 1862. 



220 PAST AND PRESENT 

Godfreid W'ernielskirchen. private: enlisted. 1863, in Col. C. Gordon's 
regiment, Shelby's brigade. In all the battles of Price's retreat. Taken 
prisoner at the Blackwater capture, 1861. and held until November, 1862. 
Surrendered, 1865. 

John W. Patterson, private ; enlisted in Shindler's company, Gordon's 
regiment, Shelby's brigade, September, 1862. Battles, Lexington, Okalona, 
Mark's Mills, etc. Surrendered, 1865. 

Josephus Hicklin, private; enlisted. 1864, under Price. In battles of 
Lexington, Independence, Newtonia. 

George K. Dorsey, private; enlisted. 1862, Marmaduke's escort. 

William H. Nash, private; enlisted in 1861, in Robertson's recruits, and 
captured December 19, 1861. Re-enlisted November, 1862. Recaptured in 
Saline, 1863, and confined six months. Rejoined Marmaduke's division and in 
the battles of Price's retreat. Surrendered 1865. 

John W. Dhart, private; enlisted, 1861, in Company K, First Missouri 
Cavalry, Shelby's brigade. Captured in Arkansas, December, 1863, and 
afterwards in the battles of Price's retreat, 1864. Surrendered, 1865. 

John L. Hall, private; enlisted June, 1861, Missouri State Guard. Dis- 
charged December, 186 1. Re-enlisted February, 1862, Sixth Infantry, 
Slack's brigade, Price's division, Confederate States Army. Battles, Carthage, 
Springfield, Lexington, Pea Ridge, and Corinth. Died August 4, 1862, of 
pneumonia. 

James B. \Miite, private; enlisted July, 1862, in Goff's company, Coffey's 
regiment.. Battles, Turkey Creek, Lone Jack, Camden, Helena, Bayou Meter, 
Cape Girardeau, Hartsville, etc., and Price's retreat. Surrendered, 1865. 

Samuel D. Martin, third sergeant; enlisted, 1862. Marmaduke's escort. 

Percy Boulware, private; September, 1864, in Anderson's Guerrillas. In 
fights at Fayette, Rocheport, and Centralia. November, 1864, enlisted in Com- 
pany C, Gordon's regiment, Shelby's command. In all the battles of Price's 
retreat. 

Simeon G. Davis, private; September, 1864, in Anderson's Guerrillas. 
In fights at Fayette, Rocheport, and Centralia. November, 1864, enlisted 
in Company C, Gordon's regiment, Shelby's division. In all the battles of 
Price's retreat south. 

Dr. S. D. Martin, private; 1861 and 1862. 

John Shannon, lieutenant; enlisted 1864, under Colonel Wood, Confeder- 
ate States Army. Surrendered, 1865. 

John B. Davis, lieutenant ; Captain Diver's company. Colonel Wood's regi- 
ment. Battles, Blue Mills, Marais de Cygnes. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 221 

Joseph F. \\'ood, private; enlisted spring of 1861, Captain Gaines' com- 
pany. Battles, Boonville and Lexington. Captured at Blackwater with Rob- 
ertson. 

N. H. Lewis, lieutenant; enlisted 1881. with Robertson's recruits, and 
captured December 19, 1861, released 1862. Re-enlisted with Captain 
Anderson. 

Philip Lenninger, private. 

F. R. jNIartain, lieutenant: enlisted June, 1861, in Gordon's company. 
Weightsman's brigade, Missouri State Guard. Battles, Carthage, Oakhill or 
Springfield, Drv \\'ood, Lexington and Crane Creek. Captured while sick 
at home. Released on oath, ^^^ent to Kentucky. Returned to Missouri, and 
died May, 1867. 

E. D. Shannon, private; enlisted in 1864, under Captain Wood. Cut 
off near Greenfield and surrendered. 

E. M. Stain, corporal; enlisted in 1864, under Capt. Thomas Woodson. 
Battles, Little and Big Blue. Surrendered, 1865. 

Robert J. Hendricks, private; enlisted, 1864, in Marmaduke's escort. 

Thomas J. Gauldin, private; enlisted 1861, in Capt. W. B. Brown's com- 
pany. Discharged in September, 1861. Re-enlisted in Robertson's recruits,, 
was not captured at Blackwater. Escaped and joined Col. Dave Shank's regi- 
ment, Shelby's brigade. Battles, Boonville, Lexington, Wilson's Creek, Cane 
Hill, Prairie Grove, Helena, Hartsville, Marshall, and in all the battles of 
Price's retreat, 1864. Surrendered, 1865. 

A. T. L-vine, private; enlisted 1864, in Maraduke's escort. 

John W. Reynolds, private; enlisted in 1861, in Capt. Ed Brown's com- 
pany, Parson's division, Missouri State Guard. Battles, Boonville, Dry Wood,. 
Lexington, Re-enlisted in 1864, in Marmaduke's escort. 

G. D. Tucker, third lieutenant; enlisted in Capt. Ed Brown's company. 
Battles, Boonville, Wilson's Creek, and Lexington. Re-enlisted, private in 
1864, in Marmaduke's escort. 

James C. Kitchen, private; enlisted in 1861, in Capt. Ed Brown's com- 
pany. Re-enlisted in 1864, in Company G, Fourth Missouri Cavalry. Bat- 
tles, Boonville, Lexington, Tabo, Little and Big Blue, ^^'estport, and Newto- 
nia. Surrendered in 1865. 

W. B. Dick, corporal; enlisted in June, 1861, in Captain Crew's company. 
Re-enlisted in Robertson's recruits, December, 1861, but escaped when the 
command was captured at Blackwater. Battles, Boonville, Carthage. Dry 
Wood, Wilson's Creek and Lexington. 



222 PAST AND PRESENT 

Mark Whitaker, private; enlisted in Robertson's recruits, December, 1861, 
and captured with them at Blackwater, December 19, 1861. Released on 
oath, March 14, 1862. 

John W. Guthrey, second corporal; enlisted Alay, 1861. first in Capt. 
Ed Brown's company, then in Captain Ruxton's Company C, Colonel Robert- 
son's regiment. Captured at Blackwater. December 19, t86i. Exchanged 
1862. Captured again at Lebanon, Tennessee, and held until war closed. 

L. H. Tucker, corporal; enlisted June, 1861, in Capt. Ed Brown's com- 
pany. Re-enlisted December, 1861, in Robertson's recruits. Captured at 
Blackwater. Released on oath, 1862. Battles, Boonville. Dry \\'ood and 
Lexington. 

George Casebold, company commissary; enlisted in the fall of 1864, 
in Nixon's company, Gordon's regiment. Battles, Independence, Newtonia. 
Surrendered 1865. 

William H. Bowen, color-sergeant ; enlisted in Robertson's recruits, De- 
cember, 1 86 1, and captured with them December 19, 1861. Released on oath, 
August, 1862. Died September 22, 1862. 

J. V. Davis, private; enlisted October, 1864, Captain's Nixon's com- 
pany, Gordon's regiment, Shelby's division. Afterward transferred to Ed- 
mondson's company. Ninth Missouri Lnfantry. Li all the battles of Price's 
retreat. Surrendered in 1865. 

C. H. Davis, private; enlisted October, 1864, in Nixon's company, Gor- 
don's regiment, Shelby's division. Afterward transferred to Edmondson's 
company. Ninth Missouri Infantry, same division. In all the battles of the 
retreat. Surrendered in 1865. 

John B. Davis, private; enlisted 1861, in Robertson's recruits. Cap- 
tured on Blackwater, December 19, 1861. Exchanged, September, 1862. 
Rejoined the Confederate army. 

Thomas Evans, private; enlisted 1862, in Ouantrell's Partisan Rangers. 
Was in all of Quantrell's battles and fights in Missouri, and in his last fight 
in Kentucky, where he was taken prisoner, and retained on charge of killing 
Lieutenant Cunningham, United States Army, until 1866. when he was 
pardoned and died soon after. AAdhle in prison he was kept chained flat on 
his back. 

A. J. Casebolt, private; enlisted in the fall of 1864. in Nixon's company. 
Gordon's regiment, Shelby's division. He was in all the battles of Price's re- 
treat, in one of which his horse was shot from under him. Surrendered in 
1865. 

George M. Rider, private ; enlisted, first, in Confederate army, fall of 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 



223 



1861. Was captured near W'arreiisburg, and there enlisted in the United 
States Army and stayed till the war was over. Was ver}- young". Ran nwa\- 
to the army. 

John W. Evans, assistant surgeon; enlisted in 1861. Was in Galbraith's 
don's regiment, Shelby's command. Confederate States Army. Battles. Lex- 
ington. Boonville, Carthage. Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge. Corinth, and all of 
Shelby's battles. ^Vas captured in the fall of 1862. while on furlough. Was 
released as surgeon, after six months, and returned to his command. 

H. D. (Clay) Evans, lieutenant; enlisted in 1861. At home on furlough 
December, 1861, was captured with Robertson's recruits at Blackwater. Ex- 
changed at Vicksburg in 1862. Rejoined Shelby, Company A, Gordon's regi- 
ment, as lieutenant, and was in all the battles in which Shelby was engaged. 
Surrendered at Shreveport. 1865. and died in the fall of 1880. 

Hezekiah Smith, private; enlisted in 1864 in Galbraith's company, Gor- 
don's regiment. Shelby's command. Confederate States Army. Battles, Lex- 
ington. \\'estport and Newtonia. Was taken prisoner at the last mentioned 
battle in 1864, and sent to Rock Island, and was discharged at the end of 
the war. 

James M. Evans, private; enlisted in 1861. W^as in Galbraith's com- 
pany, and then Gordon's regiment, Shelby's division. Battles, Boonville. 
Lexington. Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Corinth, and in all Shelby's 
battles, until he was accidentally killed at Memphis, Tennessee, by the dis- 
charge of his own pistol. 

A\'illiam M. Hutchess, private ; enlisted in Saline Jackson Guards. /\pril, 
1861. Re-enlisted in Robertson's recruits, and was captured December 19, 
1861, at Blackwater. Re-enlisted under General Marmaduke, October, 1863. 
Battles, Boonville and Lexington, and all of Marmaduke's battles after Octo- 
ber, 1863. Surrendered May, 1865. 

James M. Odell. private; enlisted in 1864, in Captain Divers' company, 
Wood's regiment, Shelby's division, and was in all the fights and battles of 
the raid, from Waverly to Newtonia. 

John K. Lewis, private; enlisted in 1864. in Captain Harris' company, 
W^ood's battalion. Li all the fights and battles of the great raid, from In- 
dependence to Newtonia. 

John B. Peterson, private; enlisted in 1861, in Emmerson's company, 
and captured with it at' Blackwater. W'^as exchanged in 1862, and returned 
home. In 1862, re-enlisted in Captain Jackson's company of cavalry, under 
General Parsons. Was in the battles of Prairie Grove. Lone Jack. Little 
Rock, Helena, Mansfield. Camden, Jenkin's Ferry. 



224 PAST AND PRESENT 

Austin Haynie, private; enlisted in 1861, in Robertson's command, and 
captured December 19. 1861. Took the oath of loyahy at Alton, and returned 
home. In 1862, re-enlisted in Captain Elliott's company, Gordon's regiment, 
Shelby's brigade. Battles, Pennville, Prairie Grove, Hartsville, Little Rock, 
Camden. Coon Creek. Cove Creek. 

Andrew J. Odell. pri\ate; enlisted October. 1864, in Divers' company. 
Wood's regiment, Shelby's di\ision. Was in all the fights in Price's retreat 
from Glasgow to Newtonia. 

Richard E., private; enlisted 1861, in Robertson's regiment of re- 
cruits, and captured December 19. 1861. Took oath of loyalty April. 1862, 
and came home. 

W. S. Kinkead, private; enlisted in Captain Emmerson's company, Rob- 
ertson's recruits, but was not captured with the regiment at the Blackwater 
capture. In 1864 re-enlisted in Captain Payne's company. Wood's regi- 
ment. In all the battles and lights of the Price raid, from Independence to 
Xewtonia. 

W. I. Garnett, private. 

Robert W. Garnett, private ; enlisted in Company E, Gordon's regi- 
ment, Shelby's division, October. 1864. In the long running fight of Price's 
retreat. Surrendered, 1865. 

William K. Smith, private; enlisted in Missouri State Guard in 1861. 
Re-enlisted in 1863, in Company H, Tenth Missouri Cavalry, under General 
Marmaduke. Battles, Pea Ridge, Jenkin's Ferry, Cane Hill and Pine Blufif. 
Surrendered, 1865. 

John Lynch, captain ; enlisted in Robertson's regiment of recruits. Taken 
prisoner December, 1861. Was in the battle of Lexington. 

George W. Gilliam, private; third lieutenant. Enlisted in 1861, in Com- 
pany G, Marmaduke's, afterwards McCulloch's regiment, General Forrest. 

O. A. Thompson, private; enlisted in Colonel Brown's regiment. Was 
captured with Robertson's recruits. December 19, 1861. and released from 
prison January 30, 1862. 

Asa P. Thompson, private; enlisted June, 1861, in Sutherlin's company, 
Brown's regiment. Wounded in the shoulder at Big Blue. 1864. and died 
at Cane Hill two w-eeks after, November 6, 1864. 

James Eubank, second sergeant. 

Joseph P. Elliott, private; 1861. first lieutenant. 1862. and captain. 1863. 

Richard Robertson, orderly sergeant; enlisted in 1861. Paroled, January, 
1865. 

James Thornton, ]^rivate; enlisted in Captain Divers' company, Colonel 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOl'RI 



--D 



Wood's regiment, in October, 1864. Was in the battles of Lexington, Big 
Bine, Independence, Newtonia and near Fort Scott. 

James K. Staples, private; enlisted in Captain Paul's comp/anv and Col- 
onel Wood's regiment, Shelby's division, in 1864. Cnarmed and in no bat- 
tles. 

James S. Staples, private; enlisted in 1861, first in Captain Brown's 
company, JMissouri State Guard, again in 1864, in Colonel Wood's regiment. 
Woodson's company, Shelby's division. In battles of Boonville, Drywood 
and Lexington. In last raid was unarmed. 

Isaiah Park, pri^'ate ; enlisted in Colonel Wood's regiment in 1864. Cap- 
tured and imprisoned at Rock Island. Released to come home. 

P. M. Thompson, captain; enlisted in Missouri State Guard on Colonel 
Dill's staff. Was at the battles of Drywood and Lexington. Captured at 
home in this county. 

George Willis, private; enlisted in Company G, Williams' regiment, 
Shelby's division, 1864. In the battles of Boonville, Little and Big Blue, In- 
dependence and Westport. Surrendered in 1865. 

James Neff, private; enlisted in 1861, in Captain Brown's company. 
Colonel McCullough's regiment. Parson's brigade. Battles, Boonville. Car- 
thage and Springfield. 

John R. Moore, private ; enlisted in Emmerson's company. Robertson's 
regiment of recruits. Captured December 19, 1861. 

\\^illiam S. Durrett, private ; enlisted in Company E, Gordon's regiment, 
under Shelby, in 1862. 

John M. Tennill, private; enlisted. 1861, in Missouri State Guard. In 
1862, re-enlisted in Company E, First Missouri Cavalry. Battles. Boonville. 
Lexington, Drywood. Cape Girardeau, \\^ilson's Creek, Hartsville, and others. 
Badly wounded at Cape Girardeau. Taken prisoner many times, but escaped. 
Surrendered in 1865. 

L. James Wilkes, private; started south with Robertson's recruits and 
ca|)tured December 19. 1861. on Blackwater ; taken to St. Louis and Alton 
and released on parole. Enlisted November. 1863. in Company E. First 
Missouri Cavalry. Battles of Hickory Station. Ba\'ou. Marks' Mills, Prairie 
De Ann. Little Mission. Big Blue, etc. ^^^lunded and captured at Big' Blue. 

Minor Major, private; 1861 to 1865. 

V. W. Dawson, private; enlisted. 1862, in Cuspin's company, Gordon's 
regiment. Captured at Helena and held seven months, and exchanged at 
Richmond, and joined Second Missouri Cavalry in Sutherlin's company in 

15 



226 PAST AND PRESENT 

1865. Battles, Wilson's Creek, Hartsville. Marshfield, Poison Spring. Marks' 
Mills, Marshall, Pine Bluff, Little Rock and Helena. Surrendered, 1865. 

Wiley Fackler, Marniaduke's and Shelby's staff; enlisted in July. 1861. 
Taken prisoner with Robertson's recruits. December 19, 1861, and released 
on parole at Alton. Illinois. Returned to the army, and on Marmaduke's 
staff. Again captured, but soon exchanged. Marmaduke's provost-marshal. 
Wounded at Hartsville. Battles of Boonville, Hartsville. Spring-field, and 
nearly all of the battles west of the river. Surrendered in 1865. Afterward 
killed by the Indians on the plains. 

E. M. Brasher, major; volunteered in Missouri State Guard in Raines' 
division, then in Shelby's brigade. Confederate States Army. Battles of Car- 
thage, Wilson's Creek, Lexington, Hartsville, Cape Girardeau, Helena. Mar- 
shall, Prairie Grove and Little Rock. Captured at Marshall, and held eleven 
months. 

A. C. Major, private; volunteered, and was captured in Robertson's re- 
cruits December 19. 1861, on Blackwater, and taken to St. Louis, and then 
to Alton, Illinois. Died in prison Januai'y, 1862, of congestion. 

Andrew W. Lynch, private; volunteered in Missouri State Guard. In 
battles of Wilson's Creek and Lexington. Captured December 19, 1861, with 
Robertson's recruits on Blackwater. Taken to St. Louis and to Alton. Re- 
leased on parole. Killed in 1863 by militia. 

John Paxton. private; enlisted in Elliott's company, First Missouri Cav- 
alry, 1864. In all the battles of Price's retreat south, 1864. Surrendered 
June, 1865. 

A. C. Garnett, private; volunteered in Missouri State Guard in 1861, in 
Capt. Ed Brown's company, and was in the battles of Boonville, Drywood, 
Lexington, etc. Captured wnth Robertson's recruits December 19, 1861. 
Taken to St. Louis, then to Alton, Illinois, and released on parole. In 1862, 
enlisted in Company E, First Missouri Cavalry. In battles of Newtonia, 
Prairie Grove, Helena, Little Rock, Prairie De Ann. Marks' Mills, and all 
the fights of Price's last raid. 

William L. Paxton, private; captured December 19, 1861, with Robert- 
son's recruits on Blackwater, taken to St. Louis and to Alton, Illinois. Re- 
leased on taking oath in the spring of 1862. In 1862, enlisted in Elliott's 
company. First Missouri Cavalry. Was in all the battles fought by Shelby 
after 1862. Surrendered June, 1865. 

Dr. T. A. Martin, private ; enlisted in Collin's famous battery, First Mis- 
souri Cavalry, in 1862, and was in all the battles in which Shelby was en- 
gaged, and surrendered June, 1865. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 22/ 

Thomas J. Gauldin, private ; volunteered in Capt. William Brown's com- 
pany, Missouri State Guard, in 1861, and on the 19th of December, 1861, 
was captured with Robertson's recruits on Blackwater, taken to St. Louis, 
and to Alton, Illinois. Released on parole in the spring- of 1862, and in the 
fall of 1862 enlisted in Company K, Eighth Missouri Cavalry, Shank's regi- 
ment, and in all the battles engaged in by Shelby after the fall of 1862. Sur- 
rendered June, 1865. 

James M. Gauldin, private; enlisted in 1864, in Shelby's division, and 
was in all the battles of Price's retreat south; surrendered June, 1865. 

John A. Gilliam, private; captured December 19, 1861, with Robertson's 
recruits on Blackwater, taken to St. Louis, and died in prison, of measles. 

S. C. Mead, private; enlisted in Confederate army, 1864. Battles, West- 
port, Big Blue, Mine Creek; surrendered at Shreveport, 1865. 

Joseph W. Liggett, private; enlisted in Second Missouri Cavalry-, Feb- 
ruary, 1862. Battles, Boonville, Pea Ridge, Corinth, luka, Lexington. Sur- 
rendered, 1865. 

A. W. Yager, orderly-sergeant; enlisted under General Shelby, in 1864; 
battles, Lexington and Westport. Surrendered May, 1865. 

Thomas J. Major, orderly-sergeant; volunteered in Crew's company, 
May, 1861 ; discharged, September, 1861. Battles, Carthage and Wilson's 
Creek, where he was captured, but escaped. 

E. S. Carpenter, private ; captured on Blackwater with Robertson's re- 
cruits; taken to St. Louis, then to Alton, Illinois. Released on taking the 
oath, and came home. 

Noel Chamberlain, private; enlisted in 1864, in Marmaduke's escort 
company. Battles, Lexington, Little Blue, Westport, Little Osage, Newtonia, 
etc. Surrendered, 1865. 

William Montgomery, private; enlisted in 1862, in Shelby's old 
regiment. First Missouri Cavalry. Battles of Big and Little Blue, etc. De- 
serted Price and returned home, and joined Company A, Captain Crane. 

J. N. Johnson, private; enlisted under Shelby in 1862. In several skir- 
mishes. Taken prisoner in Arkansas. 

B. S. Johnson, private; enlisted under Shelby in 1862. Was in several 
skirmishes. Taken prisoner and died near Springfield. 

C. C. Wingfield, private; enlisted in 1864, in Colonel Wood's regi- 
ment. Battles of Lexington, Big and Little Blue, Westport, Little Osage and 
Newtonia. Captured at Newtonia, and taken to Rock Island. Released at 
the surrender. 

J. S. Burke, private; captured on Blackwater, December 19, 1861, with 



228 PAST AND PRESENT 

Robertson's recruits, taken to St. Louis, then to Alton, Illinois, and released 
on oath in 1862. Re-enlisted in 1864 in Colonel Wood's regiment under Shel- 
by. Battles, Big- and Little Blues, and in all the battles of Price's retreat. 

Thomas B. Mclntire, second lieutenant ; first under General Price, then 
under Gen. Toe E. Johnson. Battles, Lexington, Pea Ridge, Corinth, luka. 
Grand Gulf, Champion Hill, Big Black, and taken prisoner at the siege of 
Vicksburg, and held for eighteen months. 

Charles ^^^ Downes, private; enlisted in 1864, in Captain Divers' com- 
pany. Wood's battalion. Battles, Lexington, Independence, Big and Little 
Blues and Westport, where he received a flesh wound in right shoulder, not 
serious. 

Patrick Cooney, private; enlisted, 1864, Company C, Colonel Crisp's 
regiment. Battles, Lexington, Big and Little Blues, Independence, Westport 
and Newtonia. 

John W. Stephens, private; enlisted, 1864, in Captain Elliott's company, 
First Missouri Cavalry. Was at the battles of Independence, Blues, West- 
port and Newtonia, but being unarmed, took no active part. 

FEDERAL OR UNION SOLDIERS' RECORD. • 

COMPANY B, SEVENTH REGIMENT, MISSOURI STATE MILITIA. 

Most of this company were from Lafayette county, but the captain, with 
a few of the men, were from Saline, as follows: 

Captain, Richard L. Ferguson: corporal, John L. Williams. 

Privates, Herman Borgstadt, David Bell, Moses Fist, Julius Starche, 
Marion J. Scott, Joseph T. Carmach, William L. Blakely, John S. Heavlin, 
John M. Logsdon, Fritz Pauling, Thomas F. Briles, Peter Mires, August 
Ohslager. This company was in all the battles with Shelby, from the sum- 
mer of 1863, inclusive, until General Price's army was finally ejected from 
the state in 1864. 

COMPANY H. SEVENTY-FIRST REGIMENT, ENROLLED MISSOURI MILITIA. 

George Bingham, captain; commissioned December 12, 1863, discharged 
March 12, 1865; T. D. Potter, first lieutenant; F. M. Sappington, second 
lieutenant; commissioned December 12, 1863, discharged March 12, 1865; 
John Wall, first sergeant; W. F. Porter, second sergeant; J. M. Alexander, 
third sergeant; M. B. Hancock, fourth sergeant; John Neal, fifth sergeant; 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



229 



D. A. Jackson, first corporal ; R. Lenard, second corporal ; F. H. Moore, third 
corporal; H. C. Powell, fourth corporal; H. W. Filley, fifth corporal; M. 
Chreckler, sixth corporal ; E. A. Stoffer, seventh corporal ; S. H. Green, eighth 
corporal. 

Privates, W. H. Ancell, J. M. Alexander, T. J. Allen, E. Ancell, R. H. 
Allen. John Allen, Hugh G. Allen, W. P. Bingham, F. M. Brown. Phil Buck, 
A. H. Butt, G. C. Barnes, G. Brown. James Baker, William Batie, E. K. 
Chase, G. W. Cott. S. P. Collins, H. C. Casey, J. Y. Coiner, E. Dickerson, C. 
H. Daniels, S. M. Dillie, C. F. Dennis, George Epperson, T. P. Epperson. Jesse 
Epperson, J. Y. Finley, G. A. Feyer. J. P. Finley, W. H. Finley, A. J. Green, 
R. M. Grant, J. P. T. Hood. S. Hopkins. T. J. Haley. Louis Haley," William 
Hedger. B. H. Hawpe, B. Johnson, G. W. Johnson. Joseph Johnson, John 
Jackson, John Johnson, M. Checoba, Y. Jackson, E. Key ton, J. C. Kirtley, 
W. B. Hayes, T. R. Lawless. H. S. Myers. John F. Merril. W." Murphy, W. 
R. McAlister, D. W. Marmaduke. F. Myers. G. McFarland. P. C. Porter, 
R. A. Hickolds. W. A. Parke. George Pistol, B. R. Piper. John Rardan. H. 
M. Ringold, W. H. Stacy. W. P. Soper. W. H. Stouffer, W. C. Thurman, 
J. G. Todd, W. B. Taylor, J. M. Willhite. 

COMPANY F, SEVENTY-FIRST REGIMENT, ENROLLED MISSOURI MILITIA. 

A. Burnsides, captain, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
W. P. Hunter, first lieutenant, resigned April 4. 1863. 
G. S. Burnsides. second lieutenant, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

F. F. Audley, first sergeant, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

W. A. Burnsides, second sergeant, relieved from duty April 7. 1863. 

McLaughlin, third sergeant, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

H. H. Renick, fourth sergeant, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
O. B. Gwinn. commissary sergeant, relieved from duty April 7. 1863. 
Sam Huffman, first corporal, relieved from duty April 7. 1863. 
J. H. Robinson, second corporal, relieved from duty April 7. 1863. 

G. W. Teter, third corporal, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
F. E. May, fourth corporal, relieved from duty April 7. 1863. 
T. Tilman, fifth corporal, relieved from dutv April 7. 1863. 

E. Audley, relieved from duty April 7. 1863. 

John Armstrong, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
W. J. Bittle, relieved from duty December 23, 1862. 

F. Carter, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
R. E. Carter, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 



230 PAST AND PRESENT 

D. L. Cameron, relieved from duty Noveml^er 5, 1862. 
Ab Chron, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

H. Clark, relieved from duty December 23, 1862. 
William Clark, not ordered into service. 
F. Chapman, discharged for disability. 

A. L. Davis, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
Thomas Dudley, relieved from duty April i, 1863. 
N. Dille, relieved from duty April 7. 1863. 

George Erwin, relieved from duty December 23, 1862. 
James Elson, relieved from duty December 23, 1862. 
Etigene Earls, relieved from duty December 23, 1862. 
Joseph Edwards, paid commission tax. 

B. Feehere, died Januaiy 19, 1863. 

J. J. Ferril, discharged December 19, 1862. Elected County Judge. 

E. Goodman. 

John Harris, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

M. Harris, died November 11, 1862. 

H. C. Harris relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

Stephen Harris, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

H. Hughes, discharged December 23, 1862. 

William Hyland, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

T. E. Hisler, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

John Hatton, deserted December 24, 1863. 

Joseph Hoffman, not ordered into active service. 

B. W. Johnson, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

D. Jackson, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

Robert Jackson, discharged for disability January 15, 1863. 

Abner Jackson, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

James Kelly, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

M. F. Kirby, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

W. T. Lemon, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

D. P. Lemon, exempt for disabilit}^ 

T. J. Lemon, exempt for disability. 

D. Little, not ordered into service. 

Stephen Mayfield, died February 17, 1863. 

Andrew Jackson and John Mayfield, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 

J. W. McMahan, died, December 21, 1862. 

B. McMahan, discharged December 23, 1862. 

James McRoberts, discharged December 23, 1862. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 23 1 



Lentz Mullins, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
D. Martin, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
Isaac Massey, deserted December 24, 1863. 
Thomas Moore, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
M. Mistier, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
J. W. Musick, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
J. Milsaps, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
H. Mayfield, not ordered into service. 
Robert McKittock, not ordered into service. 
William Nye, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
Joseph Pittman, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
F. Pittman. discharged December 23. 1862. 
A. J. Pruitt. discharged December 2t,, 1862. 
William Parsons, transferred November 20, 1862. 
John Ricehouse, discharged December 23, 1862. 
W. S. Renick, discharged December 23, 1862. 
J. C. Rogers, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
William Roe, not ordered into service. 
Christian Speck, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
John Stephens, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
A. J. Seaman, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
A. Sullivan, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
Ben Sullivan, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
J. C. Seltner, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
W. R. Skidmore, discharged December 24, 1862. 
Ira Tilman, discharged September 20, 1862. 
Joe Tilman, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
W. H. Thompson, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
Charles Urley, no note. 

Ash Warren, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
D. Weeden, discharged November 20, 1862. 
John White, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 
Morgan Walsh, discharged December 23, 1862. 
H. R. Weeden, discharged, September 9, 1862. 
R. F. Young, discharged November 6, 1862. 
H. Young, discharged November 6, 1862. 
M. Zimmerman, relieved from duty April 7, 1863. 



232 PAST AND PRESENT 

COMPANY G, SEVENTY-FIRST ENROLLED MISSOURI MILITIA. 

William L. Corum. captain, relieved from duty December 21, 1862. 
J. R. Fulkersoii. first lieutenant, relieved from duty April 3, 1863. 
William IT. Browning-, second lieutenant, relieved from dutv April 3, 1863. 
John A. Fulkerson. first sergeant, relieved from dutv April 3, 1863. 
S. C. Aulger. second sergeant, relieved from duty November 30. 1862. 
John Carmett, third sergeant, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
William C. Thompson, fourth sergeant, relieved from duty November 
30, 1862. 

I. N. Wood, fifth sergeant, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
G. W. Wood, first corporal, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
\V. P. Lindsay, second corporal, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
I. N. Patterson, third corporal, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
S. B. Harrison, fourth corporal, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
S. B. Holland, fifth corporal, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
E. H. Fulkerson, sixth corporal, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
Pete Akeman, private, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
B. Aulger, private, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
M. Aulger, private, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
J. S. Aulger, private, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
J. Buck, private, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

E. Browning, private, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
J. D. Billingsby, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

A. M. Bouldin, relieved from duty, November 30, 1862. 
Charles Bishop, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
L. Carey, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

W. R. Carr, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
W. H. Channey, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

F. Campbell, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
W. D. Carmack, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
S. C. Carey, relieved from duty February 20, 1862. 

M. F. Cook, no note. 

B. G. Doyle, relieved from duty November 20, 1862. 
J. W. Davis, relieved from duty, December 23, 1862. 
P. Dufifey, relieved from duty December 23, 1862. 
August Deerking, relieved from duty December 23. 1862. 
L \\\ Elsea, relieved from duty, April 5, 1863. 

T. C. Elliott, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 233 

James Friel. relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
N. Graham, relieved from dul:}' April 5, 1863. 
P. Hagan, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
J. W. Hayse, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
W. R. Hayse, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
W. J. Hig-hly, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
W. H. Harrison, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
Joseph Hicks, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
Joseph Hevelin, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
G. W. Harris, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
T. D. Harris, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
A. P. Harris, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

F. Y. Harris, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
\\'. D. Harris, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

A. J. Harris, relieved from duty October 14, 1862. 

E. Harmon, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

W. W. Harmon, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

W. M. Haggard, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. . 

J. P. Hook, relieved from duty October 14, 1862. 

E. Herndon. relieved from duty October 14, 1862. 

E. Havelin, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

William Huffman, relieved from duty November 19, 1862. 

W. A. Hulse, relieved from duty November 20, 1862. 

Allen Jackson, relieved from duty October 14, 1862. 

G. W. Johnson, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
Samuel Jackman, relieved from duty October 14, 1862. 
Daniel Kerr, relieved from duty October 14, 1862. 

I. Langley, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

E. B. Laughlin, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

R. F. Laughlin, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

John Lynch, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

John D. McKown, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

J. T. Mooney, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

W. Milson, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

U. Mayse, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

W. G. Mayse, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

A. McAllister, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

M. Nolan, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

J. R. Ou^ens, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 



234 PAST AND PRESENT 

Charles Phillips, relieved from duty December 23, 1862. 
M. E. Somers, relieved from duty, April 5, 1863. 
P. Shindoff, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
L. R. Smith, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
J. L. Small, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

C. H. Schirich, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

D. Spotts, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
J. M. Scott, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 

B. B. Thomas, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 

H. H. Taylor, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
William Trease, relieved from duty November 30, 1862. 
J. W. Worts, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
W. T. Woodward, relieved from duty April 5, 1863. 
T. A. Weller, relieved from duty October 14, 1862. 

COMPANY F^ SEVENTH REGIMENT, MISSOURI STATE MILITIA, UNITED STATES 

ARMY. 

John F. Phillips, colonel ; Thomas T. Crittenden, lieutenant-colonel ; Ben- 
jamin H. Wilson, captain; R. J. Leaming, first lieutenant; John S. Crane, 
second lieutenant. 

Privates, W. J. Fulkerson, John B. Fulkerson, E. H. Fulkerson, T. B. 
Fulkerson, Abner Gwinn. W. A. Gwinn. G. H. Hyland, Dan Wilhite, Abner 
Wilhite, R. M, Maupin, L. T. Maupin. Thomas W. Taylor, Isaac Taylor, Mike 
Ryan, Pat McKenna, Adam H. Butt, Marion Bellville, Tom Scheuverant, N. 
F.' McMahan, G. W. Hood, L. A. Hagan. W. S. Akers, John Brisbois, T. J. 
Jackman, William H. Masters, Thomas F. Miller, W. L. Crane. James Fer- 
rill, J. D. Claycombe, W. R. Aulger, Berry Aulger. Anderson Aulger, Wil- 
liam Aulger, Thomas Ray, Martin Mistier, John White, William Price, W. 
H. T. Price, Ed Laughlin, Frank Tickemeyer, Lsaac M. Wood, John L. Aul- 
ger, John Linte, Tom Moonon, Tim Durgen, John Stacey, William Theo- 
balds, Joseph Pittman, Anthony Gerhard, Christian Miller, James Riley. 

FEDERAL MISCELLANEOUS. 

William L. Beatie, private ; enlisted in the Seventy-first Enrolled Mis- 
souri Millitia February, 1862. 

C. H. Parker, private, corporal, sergeant ; enlisted iVugust 9, 1862, under 
Captain Love, discharged June, 1865. Battles, Lone Jack, Prairie Grove, 
Van Buren, Brown ville, Kentucky, etc. Taken prisoner by guerrillas, 1863. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 235 

E. H. Fulkerson, sergeant; enlisted in Captain Wilson's company, Sev- 
enth Regiment, Missouri State Militia, August, 1863. Discharged May, 1865. 
Battles, Independence, Big Blue, Mine Creek. 

F. A. Eyers, private ; enlisted in Captain Kaiser's Missouri State Militia 
in 1862. Discharged 1865. 

William S. Renick, private; enlisted in Burnside's company, 1862, Sev- 
enty-first Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia. Broke up, 1863. 

J. C. Keithly, private; enlisted in Bingham's Company H, August i, 
1862. Discharged December, 1862. 

William H. Finley, private; enlisted September, 1862, in First Missouri 
Cavalry. Discharged in November, 1862. 

J. H. Montgomeiy, first lieutenant ; in Company H, First Missouri In- 
fantry, October, 1862. Wounded in action. Discharged June, 1864. Bat- 
tles, Gaines Landing, Mansfield, etc. 

John P. Finley, private; enlisted September, 1862, Company A, Sev- 
enty-first Enrolled Missouri Militia. 

J. Y. Finley, private; enlisted August, 1862, Company A, Seventy-first 
Enrolled Missouri Militia. Discharged December, 1863. 

Thomas B. Finley, private; enlisted August, 1862, in First Missouri Cav- 
alry. Battles, Pea Ridge. 

R. S. Allen, private; enlisted August, 1862, First Missouri Cavalry, 
United States Army. Discharged in 1865. 

Henry Crits, private; enlisted in 1863, Company A, Seventy-first En- 
rolled Missouri Militia. Captured. Discharged December, 1863. 

O. D. Finley, private; enlisted August, 1862, in Enrolled Missouri Mil- 
itia. Cavah-y. Discharged in 1863. 

Fred Pittman, private; enlisted in 1863, in Captain Corum's company, 
Enrolled Missouri Militia. Died at home in Saline, 1873. 

Joseph Pittman, private; enlisted in i860, in Captain Wilson's com- 
pany, Seventh Regiment, Missouri State Militia. In all the battles Avith 
Price's raid. Discharged in 1865. 

W. B. Hays, private ; enlisted in Captain Bingham's company and taken 
prisoner by General Clark at Glasgow. 

William Dawson, private; enlisted in Enrolled Missouri Militia, 1862. 
Discharged. 1864. 

William Nye, private or sergeant ; enlisted in Seventy-first Enrolled 
Missouri Militia, 1862. Transferred to Fifth Provost Regiment, 1863. With 
Captain Bingham in Home Guards, 1864. Escaped from Glasgow when 
bombarded by Shelby in 1864. 



236 PAST AND PRESENT 

W. B. Cooper, first orderly lerg-eant : enlisted. 1861. Company H. Cap- 
tain Ijing'ham, Seventy-first Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia. 'I'aken 
prisoner at Glasgow, 1864. 

George W. Johnson, private; enlisted 1862, in Company G, Captain Co- 
rum. Seventy-first Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia. In several skirmishes. 

Thomas D. Parks, private; enlisted September, 1864, in Company C, 
Forty-fifth Regiment Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Died of typhoid fever 
in St. Louis, March. 1865. 

A. Burnsides. captain: enlisted, 1861. 

G. S. Burnsides, first lieutenant and captain ; Company E. Seventy-first 
Enrolled Missouri Militia, and of Company 5, Missouri ProVost Regiment; 
enlisted August, 1862. Discharged. 1863. 

H. B. Tickemeyer, private; enlisted August, 1862, in Company F, Sev- 
enth Regiment Missouri State Militia. Battles of Prairie Grove, Little Rock, 
Saline River, etc. 

J. W. Wood, corporal ; Company G, Seventy-first Regiment. Enrolled 
Missouri Militia. 

U. H. Reavis, private; enlisted July, 1864, in Forty-fifth Missouri Vol- 
unteer Infantry. Discharged March. 1865. 

F. Tickemeyer. private; enlisted. 1862. Company F, Seventh Missouri 
State Militia. Captured at Glasgow, sent to St. Louis, took the oath and 
came home. 

x\braham Rumans. private: enlisted 1862 in Fifth Missouri State Mil- 
itia, then in Company I, Twelfth Missouri State Militia. Battles of Nash- 
ville and Frankfort. 

John N. Browning, private; enlisted 1862. Companv F. Seventh Mis- 
souri Cavalry Volunteers. Discharged 1865. Battles of Lone Jack. Prairie 
Grove, Spring-field, Pea Ridge, Pine Bluff, etc. 

William L. Grain, first sergeant; enlisted 1862. in Company F, Seventh 
Missouri State Militia. Battles of Fayetteville. Boonville. Jefferson City, 
Big Blue and Mine Run. 

Felix Cook, private; enlisted 1863, Company E. Seventy-first Enrolled 
Missouri Militia. Battles of Independence, Big Blue, ]\Iine Creek, Pawnee 
1863. Discharged 1865. 

Samuel H. Green, private; enlisted 1862, Company E. Seventy-first En- 
rolled Missouri Militia. Discharged 1862. 

Elihu Green, private; enlisted 1862, Company E. Se\ent}-first Enr(jlled 
Missouri Militia. Discharged 1862. Ruptured. 



SALINE COL'NTV, MISSOURI 2T^J 

Moses Harris, private; enlisted 1862, Company E, Seventy-first Enrolled 
jMissouri Militia. Died in Marshall. November, 1862. 

John S. Burnsides. corporal; enlisted 1861, Company L, Ninth Missouri 
Cavalrv Volunteers. Battles, Prairie Grove, Gross Hollow, Alarks Alills, 
Saline River, etc. Discharged 1865. 

Benjamin Sullivan, private; enlisted in Company H, Ninth Missouri 
State Militia. Battles, Fayette, Ft. Scott, Lexington. Independence, Little 
and Big Blues, Newport, Newtonia, etc. Discharged 1865. 

John Harris, private; enlisted 1862, Company E, Seventy-first Enrolled 
Missouri Militia. 

T. T. Cooper, private; enlisted 1864, Missouri State ^lilitia ; died in 
^Memphis, of measles. 

John Kaul, corporal; enlisted 1861, Second Missouri Volunteers. 

Pleasant Dickerson. private; enlisted 1862, Company D, Seventh Mis- 
souri State Militia. Discharged in 1865. Battle of Wilson Creek. 

Leonard Dickerson, sergeant ; same. 

Laban Dickerson, private; same. 

Patrick Dufifey, private; enlisted 1861, Company H, Seventy-first En- 
rolled Missouri Militia. Discharged in 1864. Battles, Glasgow. 

Thaddeus Miller, orderly sergeant; enlisted. 1862, in Companies G and 
H, Seventy-first Enrolled Missouri Militia. Battles, Glasgow. Discharged 
in 1864. 

^^^ L. Corum, captain; enlisted 1862, Company G, Seventv-first En- 
rolled Missouri Militia company ; retired October, 1863. 

John E. King, private; enlisted 1864, Company F, Seventh Missouri 
State Militia. 

T. C. Elliott, sergeant; enlisted 1862, Company G, Seventy-first En- 
rolled Missouri Militia. Battles, Glasgow. Discharged in 1865. 

AVilliam A. S. Hyland, fourth sergeant ; enlisted Company E, Seventy- 
first Enrolled Missouri Militia; disbanded, 1863. 

Godfrey Eberle, private; enlisted August 9, 1862, Seventh Regiment. 
Discharged June, 1865. Captured at Marks' Mills. 

Robert E. Carter, private; enlisted August 9, 1861, Seventh Missouri 
State Militia. Lost his arm at battle of Big Blue. 

Chris Kiel, private ; enlisted in Company 0, Seventh Missouri State 
Militia in 1862. Discharged June, 1865. 

Charles Pittman, private; enlisted in Bingham's company, 1861. 

A. Royar, Sr., private ; enlisted in Company I, Fifth Missouri Home 
Guards. Again in 1863, in Seventh Missouri State Militia. 



2T,i> PAST AND PRESENT 

R. S. Sandidge, second sergeant; enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regi- 
ment Missouri State Militia. Was captured at Prairie Grove, 1862, and es- 
caped soon after. Promoted to captaincy, but never mustered in. 

Marquis Ferguson, private; enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment, 
Missouri State Militia, and was killed near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1863. 

Andrew Yokely, private; enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment, 
Missouri State Militia, killed at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1863. 

James Siceleff, private; enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment, Mis- 
souri State Militia. Died in 1864. 

Hickman, private; enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment, Mis- 
souri State Militia. Discharged in 1865. 

Jonathan Allison, private; enlisted in Company E, Seventh Regiment, 
Missouri State Militia. Discharged in July, 1865. 



CHAPTER XX. 



EVENTS FOLLOWING THE CIVIL WAR. 



In 1865, at the close of the Civil war, Missouri and Saline county had 
already been reconstructed. The government of this county was turned over 
to the radical element while the war progressed. Following this, Charles D. 
Drake, who had enjoyed the reputation and standing in the St. Louis bar 
as a second-rate lawyer, sprung up as a first-class leader of the radical ele- 
ment in this state. He knew, in order to retain control of the state, it would 
be necessary to disfranchise a large number of the more intelligent part of 
the population and set about to construct a test oath for that express purpose. 

However, here in Saline county, reconstruction had begun immediately 
after Governor Jackson left the state, and a new set of county officials had 
been appointed and placed in posses^^ion of the county offices. 

Under the Gamble provisional government, the general election was held 
in 1862. All candidates for offices and nearly all those who voted professed 
to be loyal to the Federal government. The Legislature elected was decided- 
ly loyal, and proceeded at once, in January, 1863, to elect senators in place 
of Truston Polk and Waldo P. Johnson, who had been senators when the 
war came on. County officials were also elected this year, under the Gamble 
provisional g'overnment. and here, as elsewhere in the state, parties began to 
assume the names of Conservatives and Radicals. At that time, J. R. Berry- 
man was clerk of the county court by appointment of Lieutenant-Governor 
Hall. Civil law and the processes of the court were maintained to some ex- 
tent during the next two years, notwithstanding the existence of martial law 
and the presence of the military in the county. 

In 1863 there was a canvass between the Consen'atives and the Radicals 
for supreme judges, who were elected that year. Saline county voted for 
the Conservatives, Bates, Bay and Diwden, who were elected. 

At the adjourned term of the Legislature, X^ovember, 1863, an act was 
passed submitting a call for a constitutional convention submitted to the 
people at the next election, X^ovember, 1864. In these elections of 1862, 1863 
and 1864, the vote of the county as well as of the state was very small, nearly 
all of the Southern people, those who were not already in the aiTny, declining 
to vote, between four and five hundred votes being all that were cast. 



240 PAST AND PRESENT 

At the election in 1864, wiiicli was national, state and connty, county 
officials were el-ected, and the proposition for a convention also voted on. 
The records contain no table of this election. The convention carried by a 
small majority. \\ W . Thompson was elected county judi^e; P. E. Alaupin, 
county clerk, and J. K. Berryman, circuit clerk. 

F. ]\I. Fulkerson was elected deleg^ate to the convention assembled (jn 
the 6th of January, 1865, Fulkerson being elected by the Radical party, and 
of course he entertained their views. The original design of the callers of 
this convention — known in history as the Drake convention — was only to 
pass certain amendments to the existing constitution, but soon after it first as- 
sembled, the covention resolved to make a new constitution altogether. 

One of the first acts of the convention was to abolish slavery in Missouri. 
The next was to fix the qualification of voters through the instrumentality 
of a test oath of loyalty. 

On the 8th day of April, 1865, the constitution with its prescriptive 
clauses in regard to the right of suffrage w-as adopted by the convention, and 
on the 6th of June, following, was submitted to the people for their adoption 
or rejection. The \'ote of Saline was as follows, only four hundred and 
fiftv-one votes being cast: For the constitution, three hundred seventeen; 
against it, one hundred thirty-four. 

On the first day of July, 1865, Governor Thomas E. Fletcher issued his 
proclamation declaring the constitution adopted and in force in the state on 
and after the 4th day of July, 1865. 

By ordinance of the convention, all the state and county offices were 
vacated and were to be filled under the new constitution at the next general 
election, November, 1866. 

The General Assembly, which met in November, 1865, passed stringent 
registry laws in order to force the test oath of the constitution. A super- 
visor of registration for each district was elected by the people, and a board 
of registration of three for each county was appointed by the supervisor. The 
rigid requirements of the test oath were strictly enforced by the board of 
registration in Saline and many scenes of violence and bloodshed followed 
until finally it became necessary for the board to demand and receive a guard 
of armed men to protect them in dieir duties through Saline county. 

Even as early as the canvass of 1866, several leading Re])ublicans, 
among them Carl Schurz and R. Gratz Brown, began to cfinsider the i)ro- 
priety of general amnesty and enfranchisement. 

Gen. Francis P. Blair, who had been an anti-slavery man prior to the be- 
ginning of the war, and a distinguished Federal general in the army during 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 24 1 

the war, now returned to his old poHtical allegiance, the Democratic party, 
denonncing- the test oath of the constitution and demanding" a more magnani- 
mous policy towards those who were disfranchised thereby. In this cam- 
paign, the Democrats threw olT the name of Conservative, resuming their 
old-time party title. General Blair made a canvass throughout the state. Po- 
litical and party excitement running high. During the canvass, he spoke at 
Marshall. The Radicals interrupted his speech and a disturbance ensued in 
which one Republican was dangerously ^\•ounded, but afterwards recovered, 
though at the time it was considered that his wound would certainly prove 
mortal. 

The vote in Saline county, under the new registry law, increased slight- 
ly at this election, amounting to a total of seven hundred ninety-eight votes. 
The vote of the county for various offices in 1866, was as follows: 

For Congress — R. T. Van Horn, R., 441 ; J. H. Birch, D., 357. 

For State Senate — C. P. Towmsley, R., 440; James Young, D.. 358. 

For Circuit Attorney — H. B. Johnson, R.. 309; John E. Ryland, D., 350. 

For Representative — M. L. Laughlin, R.. 436; L. C. Neal, D., 359. 

For County Court Judges — M. C. Gwinn, R., 445 ; Tyree Davis, R., 441 ; 
Thomas Farrell. R., 435; George Rhoades, D., 350; Jennings Maupin. D., 
354; N. J. Smith. D., 354. 

For Probate Judge — D. Landon, R., 453 ; C. M. Hawley, D., 357. 

For Circuit Clerk— B. H. Wilson, R., 456; B. H. Hawpe, D., 346. 

For Sheriff — John Wall, R., 438; F. M. Sappington, D., 367. 

For Coroner — W. M. Nordyke, R., 441 ; David Ford, D., 353. 

For County Superintendent of Schools — John R. Vance, R., 435 ; George 
J. Walker, '-. 

For Supervisor of Registration — W. H. Browning, R., 440; T- W'. Petty, 

D., 356. 

For County Treasurer — D. Landon, R.. 453; C. M. Hawley, D.. 343. 
For County Assessor — Thomas Dinsmore, R., 441 ; ^^^ M. Davidson, 

D., 355. 

For County Surveyor— T. C. Elliott. R., 418; J. W. Whips, 72; T. C. 
Duggins. D.. 122. 

For Justices of the Peace — Marshall township, John Trigg, M. Flynn : 
Arrow Rock township, George Fenwick, P. Welbone ; Jefferson township, 
T. ^I. Dow. Koch and Tyler tied ; Miami township, R. P. Eddington, S. 
Sullivan: Grand Pass township, J. Kowens. William Blain : Salt Pond town- 
ship, Jacob Bright, J. M. C. Smith ; Blackwater township. J. H. McAllister. 
Jonathan Herring. 

16 



242 PAST AND PRESENT 

For Constables — Marshall township, W. Hazlewood ; .\rro\v Rock 
township, A. Coiner; Jefferson township, M. Babbler; Miami township 
Joseph Aiulley; Crand Pass township. H. B. LewMs ; Salt Pond township, 
B, H. Weller ; Blackwater township, J. P. Hicks. 

Following" the election of 1867, political excitement disappeared in a 
great measnre. The soldiers from both armies had nearly all returned 
home and were busily engaged in trying to restore the destructive effects 
of the war. It was generally quiet in this county. In January, 1868, the 
Legislature passed a new registry law, more severe than the old one, authoriz- 
ing- the governor to appoint a supervisor of registration in each senatorial 
district each year of the general election. In January previous, the supreme 
court of the United States had decided that the test oath in Missouri was 
unconstitutional, and then the act of the Legislature passing the new regis- 
try law for the more rigid enforcement of the test oath created great excite- 
ment in the state and in Saline county, thereby hastening the day when the 
whole would be repealed. An amendment of the constitution enfranchising 
the negroes was submitted to the people at the November election, 1868, and 
voted down. 

During the year 1869 the break in the Republican party grew wider 
upon the question of universal amnesty and enfranchisement. Carl Schurz 
stumped the state in favor of universal enfranchisement, and at this time 
it became evident that if the test oath was not voluntarily abolished by the 
Republicans, the Republican party would be rent in twain. It became evi- 
dent to all that the iron-clad oath for voters, jurymen, ministers, lawyers and 
teachers must be repealed. 

In 1870 the Democrats, believing that the discord in the Republican 
party would soon result in the repeal of the test oath, declined any part in 
the canvass as an organized body, refusing to make nominations. After this, 
the division in the Republican party grew rapidly, and when the Republican 
convention met in August, 1870, it was plain to all that a split was imminent. 
On the third day of the session the committee on resolutions made two re- 
ports. The majority platform, which was reported by Carl Schurz, chair- 
man of the committee, was liberal and declared that the time had come in 
Missouri for general amnesty and the repeal of all test oaths. The minority 
platform on the contrary declared that the time for the repeal of the test 
oath had not arrived and that the question must be determined by a popular 
vote. The minority platform was adopted, three hundred and forty-nine 
for and three hundred and forty-two against. As soon as the vote was 
declared, two hundred and fifty delegates, headed by Carl Schurz, withdrew 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 243 

from the convention, amid great excitement. The bolters proceeded to 
organize a separate convention, adopted the Hberal platform, and nominat- 
ing a full state ticket headed by B. Gratz Brown for governor. The Repub- 
lican convention also nominated a full state ticket. The canvass was one 
of the most excited ever witnessed in Saline county. At first there seemed 
to be no hope or relief for any disfranchised voters until the Liberal party 

was established in power. The registrars, VanDyke, Bingham and 

proceeded to register the county, applying the test oath just as vigorously as 
in former years, but towards the latter end of the canvass the Liberal move- 
ment gained strength and became more aggressive. R. B. Thorpe, of Sa- 
line, member of the Liberal Republican state committee, applied to the super- 
visor of registration of this district for the removal of the old board of reg- 
istrars in Saline county and the appointment of a new board, more in sym- 
pathy with the Liberal movement. Being a Liberal Republican himself, the 
supervisor, Col. Richard Ritter, complied with his request, removing the 
old board and appointing in its place Dr. Robert McNutt, S. C. Aulger, and 
George Smith, registrars, with orders to take a new registration in Saline 
county. In this new registration the third section was wholly ignored, and 
the only oath required was that the affiant had not been in arms against 
the United States and would thereafter support the Constitution of the 
United States. Under the call of R. B. Thorpe, member of the Liberal 
state committee, a Liberal Republican county convention was assembled in 
Marshall consisting of delegates from every township in the county, and 
nominated candidates for county officers. In this election of 1870, the Lib- 
eral Republican candidates in the county and state were elected. The vote 
for congress in this county was as follows : A. Commingo, Democratic can- 
didate for Congress, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four; Smith, 
Republican candidate, eight hundred and seventy-five. 

For the constitutional amendments, of which there were several, the 
most important being that repealing the third section and the test oath, the 
vote in Saline stood, for the amendment, two thousand throe hundred and 
forty ; against it, twenty-two. 

In 1872, the Liberal Republican party, having accomplished its mission 
of enfranchisement, had ceased to exist as a distinct organization. The 
Democratic party in Saline and throughout the state organized for the cam- 
paign and held a county convention in Marshall. A full Democratic ticket 
was nominated, except for county treasurer, which was given to the Liberal 
Republicans.. The Republican party, also, put out a full ticket. 

For President and Vice-President the vote was as follows that vear : 



244 PAST AND PRESENT 

For Greeley and Rrown, two thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight ; for 
Grant and Wilson, one thousand two hundred and eighty-three. The Sa- 
line .county vote for state officers was: Democratic, two thousand eight 
hundred and forty-one; Repuhlican, one thousand, two hundred and ninety- 
three. Silas \\'oodson was elected governor over John B. Henderson. 

In 1874, the Republican party undertook to play the "passive policy," 
or facetiouslv termed "the possum policy," which had proved so successful 
for the Democrats in 1870, when they nominated no candidate for either 
state or county office. A party called the Tadpole party, at whose head was 
Col. William Gentry, of Pettis county, was supported by the Republicans. 
Charles H. Hardin, the Democratic candidate for governor, was elected 
over Colonel Gentry, Tadpole candidate, by a majority of over thirty-seven 
thousand votes, the entire Democratic ticket being elected by about 
the same majority. In Saline county, the vote for the state ticket stood two 
thousand six hundred and ninety-six Democratic, one thousand one hundred 
and twelve Republican and Tadpole. 

The county canvass this year was an exceedingly lively and exciting one, 
particularly as regarding the county clerk. Two aspirants for Democratic 
nomination for county clerk canvassed the county. Col. W. S. Jackson, always 
a Democrat, and the other, James R. Berryman, only recently turned Demo- 
crat since the close of the war. The Democratic county convention met at 
Marshall, and after a stirring contest, nominated Berryman by a small ma- 
jority. Jackson denounced the nomination as brought about by fraud in 
Cambridge and Blackwater townships. At his suggestion, and the call of 
the chairman, the convention re-assembled at Marshall about a month after- 
wards. A committee composed equally of Jackson and Berryman delegates 
was appointed to investigate the charge of fraud, which, after inquiring 
into the whole matter, unanimously reported that the whole proceeding had 
been fair and square and Berryman was honorably entitled to the nomination. 
Colonel Jackson refused to acquiesce and appealed to the people on the charge 
that he had been defeated by fraud, but he did not become a candidate ; his 
friends and supporters brought out Capt. C. M. Sutherlin, who was soon 
afterwards put on a Tadpole ticket for county clerk. Colonel Jackson stump- 
ing the county in support of him. The canvass on the county clerkship was 
spirited and angry. The Democrats were divided on the candidates for this 
office, the Republicans all voting the Tadpole ticket. About a thousand Dem- 
ocrats scratched the nominee for county clerk, voting for Sutherlin, who was 
declared elected by a small majority of thirty votes, but the balance of the 
Tadpole county ticket was overwhelmingly defeated. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 245 

In January, 1874, at an adjourned session,* the twenty-seventh General 
Assembly had submitted the question of calling' a constitutional convention 
to the popular vote at the next general election, and it had been carried by 
a small majority of two hundred and eighty-two votes. 

The election for delegates to the convention was fixed for the 26th of 
January, 1875, and the convention was required to meet in Jefferson City, 
May 5. 1875. The canvass in Saline county was warm and interesting. 
Tw^o delegates were to be elected from each senatorial district, this district 
consisting of Saline, Lafayette and Pettis counties. A Democratic conven- 
tion was called to meet at Brownsville to nominate candidates for the con- 
vention. Delegates to the nominating- convention at Brownsville were regu- 
larly elected by Lafayette and Pettis counties, who met at Brownsville on 
the appointed day, but by some mistake or mismanagement it was claimed 
no delegates were elected from Saline. The Brownsville convention met, 
and after waiting one day for the Saline county delegation, proceeded to 
make nominations without them. A. Y. Hull, of Pettis county, and H. C. 
Wallace, of Lafayette, were nominated. It was then published over Saline 
that the Brownsville convention had treated Saline county with indignity, 
if not contempt, and had given her no chance to appear in the convention, and 
calling upon the citizens of Saline to vindicate their county pride and honor 
by nominating- one of her own citizens against A. Y. Hull, of Pettis. Ac- 
cepting the charge against the Brownsville convention as true, the people of 
Saline were quite indignant. Then a primary election was ordered, and the 
Hon. William H. Letcher was almost unanimously nominated, every pre- 
cinct in the county voting for him except Marshall, which voted foi^* Col. 
Samuel Boyd. At this election, January 26, 1875, Letcher and Wallace were 
elected delegates from this district to the convention. 



* It must be borne in mind that under the constitution of 1865, a Legislature was 
provided for every two years, but the people composing the Legislature, who were elected 
for several years after the Civil war, were so determined to consume or squander the 
public revenue that they would hold an adjourned term after every regular session and 
thus furnishing practically a Legislature every year instead of every" two years as con- 
templated by the constitution. There being no limitation in the constitution of 1865 of the 
length of the sessions either regular or adjourned, the Legislature continued in session 
during the whole of almost every winter. The constitution of 1875 undertook to prevent 
these annual sessions of the Legislature, restricting the Legislature to one term every two 
years and limiting the sessions to a term of seventy days, and also fixing the pay of its 
members. But the disposition to use up the public revenues has since been as great as 
ever, and resulted in the practice of employing a great number of clerks for each member, 
sometimes four or five for each member, and with pay equal to a member himself, and in 
this way has made the expenses of the Legislature just as great as it used to be if not 
really more so than ever. And there may be in this play a way of enhancing the pay of 
members themselves. 



246 PAST AND PRESENT 

In the great presidential election of 1876, Tilden and Hendricks re- 
ceived in Saline county, three thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight votes, 
while Hayes and Wheeler, the Republican candidates, received one thousand 
seven hundred and twenty-eight votes, the Democratic candidates for state 
and county offices receiving about the same vote. 

The county officers this year elected were: N. B. Ross, for surveyor; 
J. H. Irvine, for assessor; A. McAllister, for coroner; L. W. Scott, for public 
administrator; E. V. Garnett, for circuit clerk; J. M. Brown, foi" probate 
judge, without opposition. 

For county clerk to fill the unexpired term of Captain Sutherlin, who 
had resigned, the canvass was again exciting. Col. W. S. Jackson, who had 
been deputy for Captain Sutherlin, now came out for office himself, and at 
a primary election received the Democratic nomination against very deter- 
mined opposition. After the nomination, this opposition, composed of some 
Democrats who would not condone Colonel Jackson's bolt and support of part 
of the Tadpole ticket two years before, combined as it was with the Repub- 
lican party. In the short canvass that ensued people were excited and ex- 
ercised to a considerable degree. Some personal collisions occurred. In 
a public circular, the opposition charged Colonel Jackson with robbing and 
plundering during the war, giving times and dates supported by affidavits. 
But the opposition was all in vain. He triumphed over his combined 
enemies, and was elected to fill the vacancy and two years afterwards was 
re-elected for the full term, which he was filling at the time of his death. In 
1876 the opposition put forward Capt. Robert Ruxton, of Miami, against 
him. The votes stood three thousand five hundred and forty for Jackson, 
one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight for Ruxton. 

In 1878 the Republicans, being in a hopeless minority, made no nomi- 
nations in Saline county, but there was a heated controversy over the Demo- 
cratic nominations, especially over the nomination for county clerk. Col. W. 
S. Jackson was again a candidate for county clerk, being opposed by Peyton 
Brown, of Miami township. The result was the nomination and election 
of the following officials: William S. Jackson, county clerk; George Lank- 
ford, circuit clerk; Samuel Davis, representative; M. C. Sandidge, recorder; 
John R. Cason, sheriff; William M. Walker, collector; J. P. Martin, treas- 
urer; D. D. Duggins, county attorney; Robert Smith and B. G. Orear, county 
justices, and John W. Sparks, presiding county justice, by a Democratic vote 
of about four thousand. 

In the canvass of 1880, which w^as also a presidential and state elec- 
tion, three county tickets were in the field. The Democrats, somewhat dissat- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 247 

isfied with the workings of the primary election, determined to return to the 
county convention plan of nomination. They did so, the convention nomi- 
natmg the following for county officers : For representative. Robert Frazer, 
first district; V. C. Yantis, second district; county judges, first district, 
James Davis; second district. Nicholas Smith; probate judge, James Cooney; 
treasurer, J. P. Martin; collector, \A'illiam M. Walker; public administrator, 
L. \\'. Scott ; sheriff. John R. Cason ; county attorney, D. D. Duggins. 

The Greenbackers and Republicans also held a convention and nominated 
a full county ticket, except for one office upon which they united. Just 
before the election, the death of the county clerk. Col. William S. Jackson, 
necessitated a new Democratic convention to nominate his successor, which 
resulted in the nomination of Robert J. McMahan. At the November elec- 
tion, 1880, the entire Democratic ticket was elected by somewhat decreased 
majorities as compared with the election of 1878. 

EVENTS OF 1877. 

On Wednesday evening, the 7th of March. 1877, there came into ]\Iar- 
shall the vanguard of the first railroad that was built across Saline county. 
Mr. Blackstone, president of the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company of 
Illinois, with Mr. Mitchell and the engineer, had been surveying the route, 
and feeling the temper of the people along the line of the road between 
Mexico and Kansas City regarding subscriptions towards the construction of 
the road. An informal meeting of citizens was held in the office of Col 
Sam Boyd. In reply to some incredulous remarks arising from the various 
schemes of railroad building, which had been proposed to the people of Saline 
county at various times preceding this, Mr. Mitchell said that if the sub- 
scriptions asked were made by the people along the road that he would give 
his individual bond providing for a forfeit of fifty thousand dollars in the 
event that the company should fail to build the road within two years. The 
railroad officials departed the next day. 

Early in the season, the improvement of Sweet Springs as a summer 
resort was completed and hotels were soon opened to invalids and pleasure 
seekers about the first of July. 

EVENTS OF 1878. 

At St. Louis, ]\Iarch 6, 1878, an arrangement was completed with the 
Chicago & Alton Railroad Company for the building of a railroad through 
Saline county to be leased to and operated by that company. 



248 PAST AND PRESENT 

A meeting- of the veterans of the Mexican war was held at Marshall. 
The veterans present were \\'. W. Aniett, John L. Smith, C. H. Parker, 
Thomas S. Sybley, Daniel Alloway. Campbell Gilmer, W. M. Taylor, James 
A. Lewis. Andrew Campbell, John B. Brown, Thomas J. Edwards and N. H. 
Lewis. 

Tueschn- night, March 25th, "dog- row\" a long row of frame buildings 
on the west side of the public square, some of which had been built since 
the beginning- of the town, were nearly all destroyed by fire. The first 
building- on the north end of the row was the first house ever erected in 
Marshall having been built by Henry Simmons in 1839. One not far ofT, 
built of logs, was erected by Jerry Odel in 1837. 

In the early part of October, the Chicago & Alton railroad was com- 
pleted to Marshall, being the first railroad to reach the place. A great ban- 
quet w'as given to the railroad officers and employees by the citizens, the 
track layers even being feasted and treated to forty gallons of beer by Colonel 
McGinnis, proprietor of the Senate saloon. Speeches were made and fire- 
w'orks went up in the evening, amid the noise of locomotive whistles, the 
ringing of bells and the cheers of the populace. On the 7th of November the 
new road met with its first destructive accident, a brakeman being run over at 
the Marshall depot and killed. 

EVENTS OF 1880. 

In the presidential election of 1880 some people were credulous enough 
to believe in the election of General Hancock, who had been nominated by 
the Democratic party, and his defeat was not only a matter of great regret 
but surprise to a great many people, but he caried Saline countv bv more 
than three thousand majority. 

The winter of 1880 was unusually severe. The weather was extremely 
cold, and in February there was a heavy fall of snow, which drifted so badly 
as to fill up the lanes and make travel completely impossible. Railroad 
trains were also blockaded, resulting in much delay and inconvenience. 

On Sunday evening, April 30, 1881, the court house building in Mar- 
shall, the one that had been built just after the war, was destroyed by fire, 
supposed to be the work of an incendiary, but for sometime before the build- 
ing had been deemed unsafe, and the officials with all the records moved out. 
The building was completely destroyed by the fire. 

A meeting of the people of the county by delegates was held in June 
and it was agreed to ask the county court to submit a proposition to build a 
new court house at the expense of fifty-one thousand eight hundred dollars. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 249 

The Missouri river was higher this spring than at any time since 1814. 
The l)ottoms were all overflown and a great damage done although there 
were but two persons drowned, one, a young man near Lanesville, and another 
in the bottoms below Miami. The river covered the track of the Chicago & 
Alton railroad in the bottom this side of Glasgow, stopping the trains for 
several days. 



I 






CHAPTER XXI. 

HISTORICAL EVENTS, FROM 1880 TO I9OO. 

Saline county was without a court house in 1880, the necessity of which 
was apparent to most people, yet a proposition to vote bonds to furnish the 
money necessary to build one had been submitted to the people and defeated. 

In February, 1881, a second proposition to vote fifty thousand dollars 
of bonds for the building of a court house was again defeated by a slight 
majority, two-thirds of the total vote being necessary to authorize the issue 
of the bonds. This was the second attempt to get the proper authority to 
build a court house, and the large gain over the former vote in favor of the 
proposition was encouraging to its friends. The matter was considered so 
imperative and important that the grand jury in March of the same year rec- 
ommended the ordering of another election. 

On the 3d of April the court house that had been declared unsafe some 
time before and been vacated by the county officials, took fire and burned 
down. The building was considered in such an unsafe condition that the 
firemen were afraid to enter it. In fact very few people wanted to see the fire 
extinguished and no great effort was made to put it out. 

The county officials in 1881 were D. D. Duggins, county attorney; John 
R. Cason, sheriff; S. C. Mead, assessor; W. M. Walker, collector; J. P. Mar- 
tin, treasurer; L. W. Scott, public administrator, and M. C. Sandidge, recorder. 

During the summer of 1881 a i)roposition was made to call a county 
convention of delegates from each township to consider the matter of pro- 
viding the means of building a new court house, and such a convention con- 
vened in August, or September. This convention took up the matter of the 
amount that ought to be applied to the building of a new court house. This 
convention of delegates eventually agreed upon the sum of fifty-one thousand 
eight hundred dollars as being the proper sum to be expended in building a 
new count}^ court house. This proposition was submitted to the people on 
the I St of October, 1881, and was carried by a large majority. 

January 9, 1882, the plans of various architects for said court house 
were submitted to the county court. The plans and estimates of J. C. Coch- 
ran, of Chicago, were accepted and adopted by the county court. The bonds 
authorized were issued and sold May, i, 1882, to the Wood & Huston Bank 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 25 1 

at one and one-sixteenth per cent, premium, and on the 2d day of March the 
contract for the construction of the building was awarded to John Volk & 
Company, of Rock Island, Illinois, their bid being fifty-one thousand seven 
hundred sixty-two dollars. The court house is one hundred and ten feet in 
width east and west, ninety-eight feet north and south. From the basement 
to the top of the flag staff on the cupola is one hundred and seventy-one feet, 
the height of the cupola from the roof being one hundred feet. 

The county officials elected in 1882 were Vincent Marmaduke and James 
Baskin, representatives; John W. Sparks, presiding judge of the county court; 
James R. Davis and Robert Smith, associate judges; George W. Lankford, 
circuit clerk; Robert McMahan, county clerk; J. P. Wagner, probate judge; 
James Cooney, prosecuting attorney; R. W. Hickman, sheriff; John C. Lam- 
kin, collector; M. C. Sandidge, recorder; John P. Martin, treasurer; Wilham 
H. Huston, assessor, and George W. Latimer, surveyor. Most of these offi- 
cials were re-elected in 1884. 

On Thursday, November 3, 1881, a very destructive fire occurred in 
Marshall, in which the flouring mill and carding works of Menager & Kaynor 
were destroyed. The mill was a large and well appointed structure with all 
the appliances for making the very best flour, having a wool-carding depart- 
ment attached. 

On Tuesday, April 18, 1882, a fearful cyclone struck the town of Browns- 
ville in the afternoon. Entering the town from the southwest, it pursued a 
triumphal march through the valley below and along the whole business por- 
tion of the new town, lying along the railroad, leaving the whole of that part 
of the place a wreck, a mass of brick and mortar, except for a few stores, 
which w^ere badly scarred and dismantled. The town was torn all to pieces, 
the streets being filled with debris until they were impassable. The following- 
people were killed : James Miller, Richard Ferguson, Al Scruggs, Claude 
Meyer, Thomas White. Edwin F. Arthurs, from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; 
George C. Payne and Mat Williams. The injured were : W. H. Steers. C. M. 
Kelly, Perry Wilson. Henry Alilf and wife, Jesse E. H. Jackson, and R. C. 
Hickman, candidate for sheriff. Damage to property was very great and 
the wind played unusual freaks and great havoc with the stores. 

In June, 1883, the Missouri river overflowed its banks, causing great 
destruction to people and property living in the bottom lands. On June 25th 
the flood reached its highest, being twenty-three feet and seven inches above 
low water. 

On April 14, 1884, a fire broke out in what is now known as the Lowen- 
stein block in Marshall, burning down six business houses and two saloons. 



252 PAST AND PRESENT 

The county officers elected in 1886 were as follows: Presiding judge of 
the county court, Lee H. Tucker; county clerk, Hiram Ferril ; collector, John 
C. Lamkin ; recorder, M. C. Sandidge ; treasurer, Lee Hughes; circuit clerk, 
Mat W. Hall; sheriff, J. P. Elliott; probate judge, J. P. Wagner; assessor, 
James H. Irvine; representatives, F. P. Sebree, of Marshall, and Charles B. 
Buckner, of Sweet Springs; county judges, Abram Neff and John W. Win- 
ning; Alf Rector, prosecuting attorney. 

On August 30, 1886, the ex-Confederates of the state held a reunion at 
Marshall. The reunion committee was Dr. J. B. Wood, J. T. Weller, R. H. 
Willis, Dr. M. A. Brown, G. M. Francisco, L. H. Tucker, Charles Irvine and 
Hiram Ferril. President Mclntyre, of the Ex-Confederate Association, was 
here and presided over the meeting. The meeting was largely attended by 
ex-Confederates from various portions of the state. 

The Chicago & Alton depot burned October 4, 1886. 

Talk about the Missouri Pacific railroad started in December, 1886. 
Henry McLaughlin, chief engineer. Col. T. W. B. Crews, right-of-way law- 
yer, and Bagnell Brothers, contractors, were preparing for work. The Mis- 
souri Pacific was surveyed and the line located in the winter of 1886 and 1887. 
The work began in the spring of 1887 and was finished during the season end- 
ing in the fall, 1887. It was found necessary to offer a special inducement 
to induce the company to extend the road to the town of Marshall. 

In 1885, Monday, March 24th, the first fire wagon made its appearance 
in Marshall. Being driven about by J. W. Robertson, it created no little curi- 
osity and excitement as it dashed through the streets. 

The Ridge Park Cemetery Association was organized and incorporated 
August 17, 1885. Benjamin R. Rodger, landscape gardener and engineer, of 
Louisville, Kentucky, surveyed and platted it. 

In the presidential election of 1884, the Saline county vote for Cleveland 
was four thousand forty ; Blaine two thousand five hundred seventy-nine. 

C. G. Page was the commissioner appointed by the county court to super- 
intend the construction of the new court house, and the building was con- 
structed under his special direction and supervision. 

In September, 1883, Mr. Page was ordered to have a heating plant put 
in the house and directed to procure and put in furniture and fixtures, and on 
December 20, 1883, the court house, being completed, was received by the 
county and the balance of the contract price paid, together with the additional 
sum of two thousand three hundred thirty-eight dollars and fifty-four cents 
for extra work, making the total cost of the building fifty-four thousand one 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



253 



hundred dollars and fifty-four cents. Thereupon the county officials were 
directed to move into the new building and occupy it. 

On March 7. 1887. an agreement was made with the ]\Iiss()uri Pacific 
Railway Company to build its branch line along Salt Fork and run a spur into 
Marshall and erect a depot in that city. However, before the company would 
undertake the building of this spur, they required the people to agree to fur- 
nish the right of way through the county and to give a bond in the sum of 
fifty thousand dollars as a guarantee to secure the right of way, the railroad 
company contracting to have the road operating trains within one year after 
the bond was signed. Part of this bond for fifty thousand dollars w'as signed 
by sixty-five men in the town of Marshall. The people along the proposed 
route of railway, particularly west of Marshall, were slow in granting the 
right of way, and in some cases claimed excessive damages, and at one time it 
looked as if the bondsmen were liable to lose the amount of the bond, but the 
matter was finally settled and the amount actually due the railroad for the 
cost of the right of way was paid. 

On October 11, 1887, the people of Marshall adopted the local option 
law^, or, properly speaking, the prohibition law. The county voting on the 
same proposition at a separate election, failed to adopt the law. However, 
prohibition didn't last very long in Marshall. The court of appeals on De- 
cember 20, 1888, held that the election in Marshall was void and invalid. 

On the 13th of April news was received to the effect that the Cumber- 
land Presbyterians would erect a college at Marshall. On April 10, 1889, the 
corner stone of the college was laid with great ceremony by the Masonic fra- 
ternity. Ten thousand people witnessed the ceremony. 

In October, 1889, Jay Gould, one of his sons and a daughter passed over 
the Missouri Pacific, inspecting the railroad property, paying a visit to Mar- 
shall. A committee was appointed to receive him at the Missouri Pacific depot 
with carriages, and the party was driven through the city. They took sup- 
per in their private car, walking around the city after night, meeting many 
of the citizens. Mr. Gould said he was well pleased with Marshall's pros- 
pects as a growing town. 

On October 22. 1889. the Tipping block was burned. Owing to the dis- 
tance of the building from a fire plug, the firemen w^ere unable to put out 
the fire. 

In 1889 the Farmers' Alliance movement started in Saline count}-. 

On Arbor Day, 1890, the trees on the campus of the Missouri Valley 
College were set out, and that spring, 1890, there w^as a considerable building 
boom in Marshall, fifty new houses being erected. The following county 



254 PAST AND PRESENT 

officials were elected in 1890: A. Neff and J. D. Eubank, representatives; L. 
H. Tucker, presiding judge; J. T. Stouffer and John W. Daniels, county- 
judges; T. H. Harvey, prosecuting attorney; C. C. Greenlease, assessor; R. 
J. McMahan, county clerk; V. C. Yantis, probate judge; Thomas W. Lacy, 
collector; Matt W. Hall, circuit clerk; M. C. Sandidge, recorder; W. E. 
Parrish, treasurer, and Matt Ayers, sheriff. 

On Saturday night, October 27, 1890, there was a destructive fire at 
Slater. The fire was supposed to be of an incendiary origin, as many small 
fires broke out in different parts of the town while the people w^ere trying to 
save the business buildings from burning, the loss being estimated at fifty 
thousand dollars. 

"Bill Arp" — Charles H. Smith — delivered a lecture in Marshall on June 
24, 1 89 1, for the benefit of the Jefferson Davis monument fund. 

On the 1 8th of September, 1891, the citizens of Miami held a grand re- 
union of ex-Miamians. The meeting w^as held in Lemmon's grove, about a 
mile south of the town. It was a large basket picnic in which the people of 
Saline county generally enjoyed the hospitalities for which Miami is prover- 
bial. After dinner, the great crowd was entertained with public speaking-, 
base ball and a concert. 

On November 11, 1891, the building occupied by the Slater Rustler and 
Slater Hoteland several stores were burned. 

The first phonograph introduced into Marshall was exhibited at the 
Smith & Hardin drug store, in January, 1892. 

On the 8th of January, 1892, the Cordell & Dunnica Bank failed. 

A large number of Saline county people went to Oklahoma for the land 
rush and opening of 1892. 

The free silver coinage question largely occupied the attention of the 
people in 1892, growing stronger all the time, finally reaching its height in 
1896, bi-metalism being the strongest issue before the people. On the 15th 
of September, 1892, the Democrats of Saline county had a grand rally and 
barbecue for William J. Stone, the Dem-ocratic candidate for governor. It 
was an old-fashioned barbecue. It was held in Sappington's grove on East- 
wood, there being an immense crowd present. Ten thousand people formed 
a line and marched from the public square to the picnic ground to partake of 
a great Saline county feast of beef, pork and mutton. Colonel Stone spoke 
for about three hours, receiving great applause and cheering from the en- 
thusiastic hearers. 

In January, 1893, the question of lighting the town of Marshall by 
electricity was submitted to the people, receiving their indorsement, and on 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 255 

the 14th of February, 1893, the franchise was granted to Thomas E. Marshall. 
Harry M. Rubey and William E. Cully to build and operate an electric light 
plant for a period of twenty years. The plant was established and is yet be- 
mg operated under the same franchise, although it has been sold and trans- 
ferred to a New York syndicate. 

The financial panic of 1893 caused considerable depression in business in 
Saline county. Farmers and large stock feeders perhaps encountered more 
difficulty than others, although the banks, merchants and business men gen- 
erally were hampered in their business ventures. So urgent was the call to 
business from all parts of the country for relief from the money stringency 
that President Cleveland called an extra session of Congress, meeting on 
August 7, 1893. 

In July, 1894, there was a great general sympathetic railroad strike of 
employees, very much troubling the railroads passing through this county. 
The strike was really ag'ainst the Pullman Palace Car Company. For three 
weeks no freight trains passed through the county. On July 4th the tie-up 
was the most complete ever known in the history of railroad strikes. Not even 
a mail train ran on that day. On that remarkable Fourth, the people of Mar- 
shall had a regular gala day, treating the visitors to a very rare spectacle, a 
sham battle, the Third Regiment of the State Militia being guests of the town 
of Marshall and entertained the people with their mimic warfare, etc. 

Telephone connections were established between Marshall and Kansas 
City in March, 1895. 

The Hon. Jerry Simpson ("Sockless Jerry"), of Kansas, addressed a 
large audience on August 19, 1895. at the opera house in Marshall. 

\\'illiam J. Bryan, of Nebraska, lectured at the Marshall Opera House 
on Tuesday, May 26, 1896. His subject was "The Four Immortals — 
Jefferson, Jackson, Clay and Lincoln." 

During the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1896, Saline county 
watched the proceedings with great interest. Richard P. Bland, the Missouri 
candidate, was her first choice, but when the news came of Bryan's great 
speech, and his nomination, the Democrats flocked to his standard, supporting 
him with great unanimity throughout that memorable campaign. 

The Saline County Plat Book, now in general use by real estate men 
and others, was gotten up and published in 1896. 

During the campaign of 1896 Judge James Cooney, of Marshall, re- 
ceived the Democratic nomination for Congress from this district, and was 
elected by a large majority, and he was nominated and elected to the two 
next succeeding Congresses, serving the district for six years in that capacity. 



256 PAST AND PRESENT 

The Citizens' Stock Bank of Slater failed on December \y, 1894. 1liis 
failure was a g-reat surprise, the people generally considering- it one of the 
most i)rosperous hanks in the county. Shortly afterwards, the Slater Sav- 
ings Bank also failed, — in fact, making- an assignment on the same day as 
the Citizens' Stock Bank. 

In February, 1898, the battleship "Maine" was blown up in Savannah 
harbor. Great excitement followed, the Federal government making a de- 
mand on Spain for indemnity. Spain offered a counter demand of indemnity 
for fillibustering from the United States. 

In September, 1898, the work of street improvement began in Marshall, 
macadamizing, curbing, guttering, etc. The fence around the public square 
was also removed, and the walk around the square and to and from the 
court house was paved. The street was paved with asphalt entirely around 
the square, and the walks immediately around the court house yard and the 
approaches to the court house were paved with granitoid. East Arrow street, 
Odell avenue, Jefferson avenue and North street were macadamized, curbed 
and guttered. 

In that year, 1898, internal revenue stamps were again required on 
checks, deeds and other instruments of writing in order to increase the reve- 
nue for the Spanish-American war, then in progress, but on December 10, 
1898, peace between the United States and Spain had been agreed upon at 
Paris, France, and on the loth of December the treaty was ratified. 

On the 15th of May, 1899, there was another disastrous fire at Slater. 
The railroad round house was burned, together with eight engines, which 
it contained at the time, all entirely destroyed. 

In September, 1899, the first street fair was held in Marshall. This 
street fair was a great success and was attended by an immense crowd of 
people. The great flower parade took place during the fair, with which 
everybody was delighted. The entire public square was lighted with elec- 
tricity and the fair was pronounced by everybody a complete success. This 
fair was repeated again in 1900, but after that time the street fair lost its 
popularity. At the last exhibition it was estimated that on Thursday fifteen 
thousand people were on the streets attending the fair. 

In 1901 Saline county and the entire state of Missouri were visited by 
a very disastrous drought that, for a time, blasted the ho|:)es of the farmers 
throughout the country. There was so much suffering on account of the 
absence of rain that the governor of the state finally set apart a special day for 
prayer. The railroads were compelled to put on water trains to haul water 
from the river to their water tanks to supply their engines. The drought 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 257 

lasted until the middle of the fall. The crops of corn raised in Saline county 
were hardly more than enough to carry the stock through the succeeding win- 
ter. However, there were some good crops of corn raised even in spite of 
the drought. 

This prolonged (h'ought proved to liaxe been a great fertilizer and the 
following year, 1902, the greatest corn crop ever raised in the countv was 
produced, and from that year the value of lands in Saline county began to 
rise, and have continued to rise frcjm that time until now, when the average 
value is about double what it was eight years ago. 

On Wednesday, July 10. 1901, about two miles west of Norton, near 
where the railroad crosses Salt Fork, occurred one of the most disastrous 
head-on collisions and wrecks of the Chicago & Alton railroad. An east 
bound heavy freight train met a west bound extra excursion passenger train, 
that was crowded with people, near the bridge over Salt Fork. Both trains 
were running at high speed. The freight train that was going* down the 
steep grade telescoped three of the passenger coaches. The boiler of the 
freight train exploded. Twenty-five people were killed outright, and seventy- 
five were injured and maimed for life. 

The long drought was attended by extreme heat, and on Wednesday, 
July 17. 1901, the New York Store, on the southeast corner of the public 
square at Marshall, caught fire and burnt down, the entire block of buildings 
adjoining l^eing- consumed. The stream of water furnished bv the water 
company was found entirely inadequate and for a time it looked as though the 
wdiole town would be destroyed. However, it was confined to the block. 

This burning of the New York Store and the inability of the fire de- 
partment to stop or put out the fire for the want of proper water pressure, led 
to dissatisfaction with the water works and the company owning it. 
Afterwards, the city declined to pa\- the money due the compan}- for water 
under its contract, and following this, the company was unable to pay the 
interest on their bonds, and thereupon, the bondholders began proceedings 
in the federal court at Kansas City, to foreclose their mortgage securing the 
bonds. Sometime before this, the company had instituted suit against the 
town to collect the amount due for water furnished the city, \\diile this 
litigation was pending, a proposition was made by the bondholders, or the 
receiver of the company, to sell the works to the city for the sum of forty 
thousand dollars, and the matter being submitted to the vote of the people, it 
was thereupon approved, bonds being issued to raise the money, the works 
purchased becoming the property of the city. 

In the meantime, the city had bored some wells in the western part of 

17 



258 PAST AND PRESENT 

the town, ascertaining that there was ample supply of water to be had at a 
depth of one hundred and twenty-five feet, and subsequently, in the year 1904, 
the people approved a proposition to issue twenty-five thousand dollars in 
bonds for the purpose of erecting a new plant. This new plant was erected 
and put in successful operation, and its operation by the city has been very 
successful and given general satisfaction ever since. At the same time, the 
water rate has been reduced nearly one-half with an ample supply of first rate 
water. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



OFFICIAL ROSTER OF SALINE COUNTY. 

The following is a list of the county officials of Saline county since its 
organization in 1820, taken from the county records and presumed to be cor- 
rect: 

REPRESENTATIVES. 



1826 — Asa Findley, first rep. 
1828— William Becknell. 
1830 — William Becknell. 
1832 — Charles M. Cravens. 
1834 — George Penn. 
1836 — Claiborne F. Jackson. 
1838 — Thomas B. Harvey. 
1840 — DeWitt McNutt. 
1842 — Harrison Gvvinn. 
1844 — John Brown. 
1846 — George C. Bingham. 
1848 — George C. Bingham. 
1850 — William O. Maupin. 
1854 — J. L. Hardeman. 
1856 — William H. Letcher. 
i860— M. W. Hall. 

1862 — • Corum. 

1864 — A. J. Prewitt. 
1866— M. L. Laughlin. 
1870 — William O. Maupin. 
1872— T. R. E. Harvey. 
1874— M. W. Hall. 
1876 — Samuel Davis. 



1849 — Joseph N. Laurie. 
1864 — David Landon. 
1868 — Thomas M. Dow. 
1872— G. N. Colbert. 
1876— J. M. Brown. 



1876— B. F. McDaniel. 
1880 — Robert Frazier. 
1880— V. C. Yantis. 
1882 — V. Marmaduke. 
1882 — James Baskin. 
1884 — ^James Baskin. 
1884— William M. Walker. 
1886— F. P. Sebree. 
1886— C. B. Buckner. 
1888— F. P. Sebree. 
1888— R. L. Brown. 
i89C^A. Nefif. 
1890 — J. D. Eubank. 
1892— W. N. Wilson. 
1892— C. W. Banks. 
1894— Matt W. Hall. 
1894 — S. B. Burks. 
1898— Matt W. Hall. 
1898 — Robert Smith. 
1900— Matt W. Hall. 
1900 — R. L. Hains. 
1906 — John G. Miller. 
1908 — John G. Miller. 



PROBATE JUDGES. 



1880 — James Cooney. 
1882 — Joseph P. Wagner. 
1890 — VanCourt Yantis. 
1898— W^ D. Bush. 
1906 — Joseph V, Chase. 



26o 



PAST AND PRESENT 



1842— W. W. Finley. 
1844 — D. A. Ostrander. 
1850 — John- A. Trigg. 
1852 — C. B. Scripture. 
1854 — Benjamin Chase. 
1856 — F. A. Combs. 
1858— Albert McCallister. 
1858— J. \Y. McCallister. 
i860— J. M. C. Smith. 
1862— P. E. Maupin. 
1866— J. H. McCallister. 
1866— William M. Nordyke. 
1868— John Hood. 
1869 — Samuel Yates. 
1870 — E. H. Barnes. 



CORONERS. 




1872- 


-R. G. Montague, 


1876- 


-A. McAlister. 


1878- 


-W. R. Lamson. 


t88o- 


-C. W. Chastain. 


1882- 


-William J. Jones. 


J882- 


-C. A. Clarkson. 


1884- 


-Francis A. Howard, 


1886- 


-J. B. Davis. 


1 890- 


-J. Herbert Smith. 


1894- 


-R. L. Harvey. 


1896- 


-T. P. Hereford. 


1898- 


-J. E. Ragsdale. 


1902- 


-G. S. Hardin. 


1902- 


-W. C. Orear. 


[906- 


-G. E. Scrutchfield. 



COUNTY ATTORNEYS. 



1843- 
1845- 

1855- 
1861- 
1861- 
1862- 
1869- 
187I- 
187I- 
1872- 

1844- 
1850- 

1855- 
1868- 
1872- 



-John W. Bryant. 
-William T. Kelley. 
-Samuel L. Sawyer. 
-John P. Strother. 
-John W. Bryant. 
-E. W. Jenkins. 
-J. R. Vance. 
-John P. Strother. 
-David Landon. 
-Samuel Davis. 



1876— John B. Breathitt. 
1878— D. D. Duggins. 
1882 — James Cooney. 
1886— Alfred F. Rector. 
1890 — T. H. Harvey. 
1894 — R. M. Reynolds. 
1898— Alfred F. Rector. 
1902 — W. G. Lynch. 
1906 — J. F. Barbee. 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS. 



-William A. Wilson. 
-D. R. Parsons. 
-T. W. B. Crews. 
-F. H. L. Miller. 
-L. W. Scott. 



1884 — James Wingfield. 
1888— Add C. Lewis. 
1890 — R. M. Reynolds. 
1895 — George M. Francisco. 
1904 — Jake H. Fisher. 



ASSESSORS. 



182 1 — J. H. Goodin. 
1823 — James Warren. 



1824 — John McMahan. 
1828 — lacob Ish. 



SALINE 


COUNTY, M 


1830 — Randolph Hoope. 


1860- 


183 1 — Abraham Smith. 


1860 


1832 — John Piper. 


1862- 


T 833— Robert Field. 


1866- 


1834 — Simpson Vaughan. 


1868- 


1835 — William L. Durrett. 


1870- 


1837 — William D. Hampton. 


1872- 


1840 — Thomas Clemens. 


1876- 


1849— W. H. M. Lewis. 


1880- 


1849 — James Kiser. 


1882- 


1850 — Silas C. Combs. 


1886- 


185 1 — William M. Davidson. 


1S88- 


1852 — John W. Orear. 


1892- 


1854— B. F. Coffey. 


1896- 


1855 — Georg-e Fenwick. 


1900- 


1855 — James H. Combs. 


1908- 




SHERIFFS. 



261 



1 82 1 — Joseph H. Goodin. 
1824— William K. Smith. 
1827 — Abram Smith. 
1830 — John L. Scott. 
1832 — E. Mc. Alexander. 
1839 — David S. Wilson. 
1840 — Robert Field. 
1S46 — Samuel B. Miller. 
1850 — Robert Dysart. 
1852 — John Lynch. 
1856 — Jacob H. Smith. 
i860 — David R. Durrett. 
186 1— D. W. Marmaduke. 
1861— John M. C. Smith. 
1861— J. H. McAllister. 



-W. M. Davidson. 
-Samuel J. Herron. 
AVilliam M. Davidson. 
-Thomas Dinsmoor. 
-Jonathan Herring. 
-John Koepper. 
-James Thornton. 
-J. H. L-vine. 
-S. C. Mead. 
-N. H. Huston. 
-J. H. Irvine. 
-C. C. Greenlease. 
-S. B. Thompson. 
-C. P. Guthrey. 
-S. B. Thompson. 
-J. Anderson Johnson. 



1862— B. H. Hawpe. 
1866— John Wall. 
1870 — Richard Thorpe. 
1872 — F. M. Sappington. 
1874— R. H. Willis. 
1878 — John R. Cason. 
1886— Joseph P. Elliott. 
1890— S. M. Ay res. 
1893 — F. L. Ayres. 
1893 — Charles F. Yancey. 
1896 — Joseph Wilson. 
1900 — R. T. Ham. 
1904 — C. B. Bacon. 
1908 — Ed. H. Haynie. 



TREASURERS. 



1825 — Drury Pulliam. 
1833 — E. D. Sappington. 
1836— William N. Oliver. 
1 84 1 — ^John Hood. 



1848 — ^Joseph N. Laurie. 
1862— W. T. Pattison. 
1864 — David Landon. 
1868 — Barnabas Sappington. 



262 



PAST AND PRESENT 



1870 — G. W. Gilmer. 
1872 — B. Sappington. 
1873 — David Landon. 
1874 — John P. Martin. 
1884 — Lee Hughes. 
1888— W. E. Parrish. 



1892 — John W. Winning. 
1896 — William Putsch. 
1900 — John W. Winning. 
1904 — J. S. Wilson. 
1908 — John Blair. 



COUNTY CLERK. 



182 1 — B. Chambers. 
1827 — John McMahan. 
1836 — ^John A. Trigg. 
1850 — William A. Wilson. 
1859 — Jesse Davis. 
1862 — J. R. Berryman. 
1864 — Pascal E. Maupin. 
1870 — John T. ^^'ettack. 



1874— C. M. Sutherlin. 
1876 — W. S. Jackson. 
1880 — John B. Perkins. 
1880— R. J. McMahan. 
1886 — Hiram Ferril. 
1890— R. J. McMahan. 
1898— R. E. L. Smith. 
1906— W. G. Durrett. 



COMMISSIONER SCHOOLS. 



1853 — William H. Letcher. 
1857 — Richard Gaines. 
1857 — Jesse Davis. 
i860 — Richard Thorpe. 
186 1 — Jesse Davis. 
1863 — J. R. Berryman. 
1866— E. W. Jenkins. 
1866— J. R. Vance. 



1835 — B. Chambers. 
1870— W. H. Ancell. 
1874— W. L. Boyer. 
1878— M. C. Sandidge. 



182 1— AI. M. Marmaduke. 
1832 — Peyton Nowlin. 
1835— G. McCafferty. 
1839 — Bernis Brown. 
1843 — Thomas C. Duggins. 



1868— V. Burbower. 
1870 — Allen Gwinn. 
1872 — O. Guthrie. 
1 88 1 — Oliver Guthrie. 
1893— W. H. Norvell. 
1897— J. S. M. Huff. 
1903 — W. C. Fisher. 
1909 — ^James L. Lynch. 



RECORDERS. 



1891— H. G. Allen. 
1892 — Add C. Lewis. 
1898— John E. Pickett. 
1902 — A. T. Swisher. 



SURVEYORS. 



1859 — George R. Kirtley. 
1863 — George Fenwick. 
1866 — Thomas C. Duggins. 
1866 — Thomas C. Elliott. 
1872 — Court Yantis. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 



263 



1873 — Corlim West. 

1874 — George W. Latimer. 

1876— N. B. Ross. 

1880 — Thomas W. Price. 



1881— G. W. Latimer. 
1888— F. H. Boyd. 
1900 — G. W. Latimer. 
1906 — F. W. Latimer. 



CIRCUIT CLERKS. 



1835 — B. Chambers. 
1853 — William A. Wilson. 
1859 — John Sheridan. 
1865 — -J. R. Berryman. 
1865 — Benjamin H. Wilson. 
1866 — Benjamin H. \A^ilson. 
1870 — John A. Trig-g. 
1872— N. B. Noble. 



George W. Lankford. 



1874^ — -E. G. Garnett. 

1876— E. V. Garnett 

1878 

1886— Matt W. Hall. 

1894 — George N. Orear, 

1898— A. B. Hoy. 

1906— Will R. Scott. 



COLLECTORS. 



I82I- 


-David Warren. 


1850- 


-Robert Dysart. 


1822- 


-James H. Goodin. 


1852- 


-John Lynch. 


1823- 


-James Wilkinson. 


1861- 


-D. W. Mannaduke. 


1824- 


—Harrison Gwinn. 


1862- 


-B. H. Hawpe. 


1824- 


-Allen Gwinn. 


1866- 


-John Wall. 


1825- 


—Jacob Ish. 


1870- 


-Richard Thorpe. 


1826- 


-Drury Pulliam. 


1872- 


-H. H. Harris. 


1827- 


-Jesse Lankford. 


1876- 


-William M. Walker. 


1828- 


-Benjamin Goodin. 


1882- 


-John C. Lamkin. 


1830- 


—John Nowlin. 


1888- 


-T. \\\ Lacy. 


I83I- 


-Joseph Grove. 


1894- 


-T. W. Gwinn. 


1832- 


-David S. AVilson. 


1898- 


-J. E. McAmis. 


1834- 


-Milton Wood. 


1902- 


-J. A. AValker. 


1842- 


-Robert Field. 


1906- 


-J. W. Barnhill. 


1848- 


-Samuel B. Miller. 








JUDGES 


COUNTY COURT. 


I82I- 


-B. Gwinn, George Tennill. 


1826- 


-Asa Finley. 


1822- 


-Thomas Shackelford. 


1827- 


-M. M. Marmaduke, Josepl 


1824- 


-John Smith. 




Huston. 


1825- 


-Joseph Huston, William 


M. 1831- 


-Bernis Brown. M. M. Marma 




Chick, B. Gwinn. 


(f J) tio^sHH qdasof '3>inp 



264 



PAST AND PRESENT 



1832 — Joseph Grove. 

1834 — Gilmore Hays. Robert Field, 

Bernis Brown. 
1838 — William ;\. Wilson. Gilmore 

Hays, John Ish. 
1840— W. A. Wilson. 
1842 — Robert Field. 
1842 — James A. Guthrie, Samuel 

Miller, John Brown. 
1844 — George W. Lewis. James 

Stoiy. 
1846 — George Rhc^ades. R. E. Mc- 

Daniel. 
1850 — Abner Trigg. J. M. Lewis. 
1854— R. C. Land, W. C. Davis, W. 

H. Finley. 
1857 — Joseph Field. 
[858— R. C. Robertson. Robert Dy- 

sart, Jos. Field. 
1861 — E. G. Garnett. 
1862 — E. W. Sims, F. M. Fulkerson, 

^^^ O. Maupin. 
1862— J. J. Ferrill. 
1863 — R. E. Thompson. 
1865— F. M. Fulker.son. 
1866 — M. C. Gwinn. 
1868— William Bray. 
1870— S. M. Thompson. 



1872 — George Rhoades. 

1874 — A. F. Brown. 

1876— J. R. Davis. 

1878— Robert Smith. B. J. Orear. 

John W. Sparks. 
1880— J. R. Davis, Robert Smith. 
1882 — Robert Smith, J. R. Davis, 

John W. Sparks. 
1884— Robert Smith, J. R. Davis. 
1886— J. W. Winning. A. Neff. Lee 

Tucker. 
1888— J. W. Winning. J. T. Stouffer. 
1890 — J. W. Daniel. J. T. Stouffer, 

Lee H. Tucker. 
1892 — J. W. Daniel, J. T. Stouffer. 
1894— E. S. McCormick, W. H. Hus- 
ton. George O. Washburn. 
1896— E. S. McCormick. T. W. 

King. 
1898— R. C. Hanna, T. W. King, J. 

T. Stouffer. 
1902 — R. C. Hanna. R. W. Hickman, 

J. T. Stouffer. 
1906 — W. C. Gaines, J. P. Foree, R. 

W. Hickman. 
1908 — M. F. Prigmore, J. P. Foree, 

R. W. Hickman. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS, SCHOOL HOUSES, TEACHERS, ETC. 

The constitution and general school law of this state, under the provisions 
of which the public schools have been created and conducted, was for some 
3^ears difficult for the masses to understand and comprehend, but they have 
gradually become informed and accustomed to the requirements thereof, and 
but little trouble or difficulty is now encountered in the practical operation and 
requirements of the laws governing schools. The general school law is quite 
effective and satisfactory, and under its provisions good schools and school 
houses have been provided and maintained throughout Saline county and the 
state generally. 

The following is an official statement of the public schools of the county, 
including the teachers and trustees for the year 1909, believing it must be of 
interest to the people of each locality and school district. These statistics have 
been furnished by the present supervisor, J. L. Lynch. 

MARSHALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

H. H. Edmiston, superintendent of schools; F. C. Irion, principal of high 
school ; Maud L. Harwood, principal of Benton school ; Alice Welborn, prin- 
cipal of Eastwood school ; Lillian Sparks, principal of N'orth school ; J. H. 
Kenner. principal of Negro school ; Clara Sanford. supervisor of music and 

HIGH SCHOOL. 

H. H. Edmiston, superintendent; F. C. Irion, principal; May B. Duggins. 
English; Bettie S. Rucker, history; Helen Krabiel. Greek and Latin; Annette 
Francisco, Latin and German ; Mattie Yancey, mathematics ; Mar}- Fisher, 
English: Emily A. Albeitz, mathematics; James Jennison, science. 

BENSON SCHOOL. 

Harriet Laurie, first grade : Minnie A. Orear. first grade ; ^lary Ray- 
hill, second grade; Helene Sliffe, third grade; Anna McCormick, fourth 
grade; Maud England, fifth grade; Lillian Barnum, sixth grade; Maud L. 
Harwood, seventh grade, 
drawing. 



266 PAST AND PRESENT 

EASTWOOD SCHOOL. 

Nettie McMillan, first grade ; Ada Swisher, second grade ; Juanita 
Bewley, third grade; ElHs Coleman, fourth grade; Bessie Ross, fifth grade; 
Katherin Ewell. sixth Grade; Alice Welborn, seventh grade. 

NORTH SCHOOL. 

Berenice Clark, first and second grades ; Nellie Palmer, third and fourth 
grades : Lillian Sparks, fifth and sixth grades. 

NEGRO SCHOOL. 

Lucile Wright, first grade ; Willia Williams, second and third grades ; 
Auline Freeman, fourth grade; William Hobbs, fifth and sixth grades; J. H. 
Kenner, seventh and eighth grades and high school. 

SALINE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL STATISTICS, I9O9. 

Number white schools 124 

Number negro schools 15 

Number white teachers 208 

Number negro teachers 22 

Number white children (male) 3'342 

Number white children (female) 3,096 

Number white children total 6,438 

Number negro children (male) 520 

Number negro children (female) 594 

Number negro children total 1,114 

Total number school children 7^552 

Value of school property $336,300.00 

Amount paid teachers $87,442.93 

Taxable valuation of property $13,880,398.00 

Number of public school libraries, no 

Number of volumes in libraries, I3>i43 

Estimated value of libraries, $ 6,759.85 

COUNTY SCHOOLS OF SALINE COUNTY. 

District 2, township 53, range 20. 
Name of school, Davis. 



J 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 267 

Board of directors: C. C. Kitchen, Slater; Amos Andsley, Slater; 
Loyd Kemper, Miami. 

Clerk, H. C. Gadberry. 

Teacher, P. G. Sullivan, of Miami, Missouri. 

Length of term, six months ; salary per month, $50. 

District i, township 48, range 22. 
Name of school. Rose Valley. 

Board of directors: Samuel Rothrock, Sweet Springs; Irvin Urton, 
Sweet Springs ; John A\'. Clinard, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, John L. Killion. 

Teacher, Chloe J. Smith, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $45. 

District 2, township 48. range 22. 
Name of school, Oak Grove. 

Board of directors: R. S. Donnell, president, Sw^eet Springs; Charles 
Sampson, Sweet Springs; J. \A'. King, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, George King. 

Teacher, Miss Sadie Wheeler, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $45. 

District 2, township 52, range 22. 
Name of school, Godman. 

Board of directors: John Morrow, Miami; J. AA'. Morrow, Miami; 
Milton Smith, Miami. 

Clerk, T. R. Hynson. 

Teacher, Millie DeMoss, of Grand Pass, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $35. 

District i, ownship 48, range 21. 
Name of school, Prairie Lawn. 

Board of directors : R. A. Tussey, Blue Lick ; J. M. Walker, Blue Lick ; 
Lee Hanley, Houstonia. 
Clerk,' F. M. Pile. 

Teacher, Miss Lucy Venable, of Blue Lick, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months. 

District 2, township 48, range 21. 
Name of school. Forest Grove. 



268 PAST AND PRESENT 

Board of directors : J. M. Thomas, Houstonia ; Tracy Haggard, Hous- 
tonia ; A. B. Hill, Houstonia. 
Clerk, J. M. Thomas. 

Teacher, Miss Dean \\'itcher, of Houstonia, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 3, township 48, range 22. 
Name of school. Liberty. 

Board of directors : Henry Reinwold, Sweet Springs ; E. D. Yoakley, 
Sweet Springs; J. \\'. Killion, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, J. W. Killion. 

Teacher, Ada Boatright, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of tenn, seven months; salary per month, $37.50. 

District 5, township 48. range 22. 
Name of school, Ray. 

Board of directors : D. W. Parsons, Sweet Springs ; Louis Eckhof, 
Sweet Springs; Robert Bullock, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, D. W. Parsons. 

Teacher, Miss Minnie Ray, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $25. 

District 6, township 48, range 22. 
Name of school, McAllister. 

Board of directors : Lewis Kuhlman, Houstonia ; C. S. Urton, Hous- 
tonia : J. L. Deloss, Houstonia. 
Clerk, H. J. Rothwick. 

Teacher, Kate Burchfield, of Blackburn, Missouri. 
Length of term, six months; salarv per month. $35. 

District i, township 48, range 23. 
Name of school. Sweet Springs Public School. 

Board of directors : B. T. Bellamy, William Binkley, J. F. Eisner, J. 
F. Jarvis and W. H. Reavis, all of Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, F. H. Tisdale, Sweet Springs. 
J. C. Winders, Superintendent, Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, nine months. 

District 3, township 48, range 23. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 269 

Board of directors: Jcihn A. ^^^eber, Sweet Springs; John E. Weber, 
Sweet Springs. 

Clerk, Louis ^^^eber. 

Teacher, Wenna D. Miller, of Sweet Springs. Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $32.50. 

District 4, township 48, range 23. 
Name of school. Brown School House. 

Board of directors : J. A. Lucas, Sweet Springs ; Jessie Clay, Sweet 
Springs ; Isaac Lucas, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, Finis Porter, Sweet Springs. 
Teacher, Fred Grear, of Georgetown, Missouri. 
Length of term, eig'ht months ; salary per month, $38. 

District 3, township 53, range 23. 
Name of school. White School. 

Board of directors: J. W. Tubbs, ]\Ialta Bend; H. G. White, Malta. 
Bend ; Ben Litchartal, \\'averly. 
Clerk, J. W. Tubbs. 

Teacher, Mary Tritt, of W averly, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months, salary per month, $40. 

District i, township 48, range 20. 

Name of school. Ridge Prairie. 

Board of directors : Dennis Desmon, Nelson, R. F. D. No. i ; J. R. 
Marr, Nelson, R. F. D. No. i ; Lon Charlo, Nelson, R. F. D. No. i. 

Clerk, H. C. Griffith. 

Teachers, Miss Julia Desmon, Nelson, Missouri, and Miss Harriett 
Smith, Napton, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months; salary' per month, $50 and $35. 

District 2, township 48, range 20. 
Name of school. Fair Play. 

Board of directors: W. F. Roberts, Nelson; D. B. Walker, Blue Lick; 
L. W. Schanz, Blue Lick. 

Clerk, Louis W. Schanz. 

Teacher, Bonnie Vardeman, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month. $50. 

District 3, township 48, range 20. 



270 PAST AND PRESENT 

Name of school, Green Valley. 

Board of directors : J. M. Stolsworth, Blue Lick ; Thomas Taylor, Blue 
Lick ; Thomas Perkins, Blue Lick. 
Clerk, John Gorrell. 

Teacher, Mrs. Nettie Liggett, of Blue Lick, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $40. 

District i, township 49, range 20. 
Name of school, Shelby. 

Board of directors : J. H. Hollywood, Napton ; J. B. Davis, Napton ; E. 
B. Shannon, Marshall. 
Clerk, J. D. Baker. 

Teacher, Miss Emma Harvey, of Nelson, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary, $60. 

District 2, township 49, range 20. 
Name of school, Oak Hill. 

Board of directors : T. R. Criles, Nelson ; Samuel Alfrey, Nelson ; Wil- 
liam Walker, Nelson. 

Clerk, R. R. Cunningham. 

Teachers, Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Wolfskill, of Warrensburg, Missouri. 

Length of term, six months; salary per month, $75. 

District 3, township 48, range 21. 
Name of school, Glenwood. 

Board of directors: R. F. Aulgur, Sweet Springs; J. P. Kurtz, Sweet 
Springs. 

Clerk, George T. Reid. 

Teacher, Alice V. Reid, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $38. 

District i, township 49, range 21. 
Name of school, Bucksnort, 

Board of directors: J. M. Herndon, Marshall, R. F. D. No. 2 ; L. C. 
Dennis, Marshall, R. F. D. No. 2 ; R. V. Givan, Marshall, R. F. D. No. 2. 
Clerk, W. F. Dennis. 

Teacher, Miss Bessie M. Fenwick, of Marshall, Missouri, R. F. D. No. 2. 
Length of term, six months ; salary per month, $40. 

District 2, township 49, range 21. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



271 



Name of school, Mt. Airy. 

Board of directors: J. M. Stookey, Marshall; C. M. Baker, Marshall; 
J. F. Buie, Marshall. 

Clerk, James M. Stookey. 

Teacher, Miss Annie Andrew, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $50. 

District 6, township 49 and 50, range 21. 
Name of school, Elgin. 

Board of directors : A. E. Larue, Marshall ; C. V. Buie, Marshall ; J. F. 
Farmer, Marshall. 

Clerk, C. V. Buie. 

Teacher, Miss Hattie Thompson, of Shackelford, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $40. 

District 7, township 49, range 21. 
Name of school, Blue Lick. 

Board of directors: F. W. York, Blue Lick; P. E. Dennis, Marshall, R. 
R. 2 ; Charles W. Luse, Marshall, R. R. 2. 
Clerk, Charles W. Luse. 

Teacher, Lora D. Fleshman, of Marshall, Missouri, R. R. 2. 
Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $35. 

District 8, township 49, range 21. 
Name of school, Thornlea. 

Board of directors : E. D. Marcum, Blue Luck ; T. M. Fitzgerald, Nap- 
ton; J. E. Fitzgerald, Blue Lick. 
Clerk, J. E. Fitzgerald. 

Teacher, Miss Margaret Cullen, of Nelson, Missouri, rural route, box 22. 
Length of term, six months; salary per month, $35. 

District 3, township 49, range 21. 
Name of school. Pleasant Valley. 

Board of directors: J. F. Miles, Sweet Springs, route 4; E. O. Stons- 
berry, Sweet Springs; F. V. Beard, Marshall, route 2. 
Clerk. T. T. Claycomb. 

Teacher, William Rothrock, Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, six months; salary per month, $42.50. 



272 PAST AND PRESENT 

District 4, township 49, range 21. 
Name of school, Stonewall. 

Board of directors: W. C. Keirn, Marshall; J. G. Legg, Marshall; A. 
J. Beihel, Marshall. 

Clerk, G. H. Fen wick. 

Teacher, Delta M. Neville, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $60. 

District 5, township 49, range 21. 
Name of school, Woodson. 

Board of directors: Will Fields, Bine Lick; Charley Campbell, Blue 
Lick. 

Clerk, Henry Bartels. 

Teacher, Miss Sophia Solomon, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, six months; salary per month. $40. 

District i, township 49, range 23. 
Name of school, Mt. Zion. 

Board of directors : George W. Hagans, Sweet Springs ; William 
Naegelin, Sweet Springs; John Gaither, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, George W. Hagan, Sweet Springs. 
Teacher, Miss Dollie Harris, of Blackburn, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $35. 

District 2, towaiship 49, range 23. 
Name of school, Kennedy. 

Board of directors: S. D. Clark, Sweet Springs; A. H. Dierker, Sweet 
Springs; William Nebgen, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, J- F- Heim, Sweet Springs. 

Teacher, Miss Pearl Williams, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $50. 

District 3, township 49, range 23. 
Name of school, Carmean. 

Board of directors: Henry Cook. Sweet Springs; J. L. Knot, Sweet 
Springs ; A. P. Harris, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, A. P. Harris, Sweet Springs. 
Teacher, Miss Alma Kueck, of Aullville. Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $40. 



* SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI • 273 

District 4, township 49, range 23. 
Name of school, Lost Branch. 

Board of directors: Martin Haesemyer, Sweet Spring; L. M. Hemme. 
Sweet Springs; James \\'. I-'orbes. Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, J. W.' Forbes. 

Teacher, D. A. Mayse, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $52. 

District 5, township 49, range 23. 

Name of school, Elmwood. 

Board of directors: M. F. Carmean, route i, Blackburn; John A. 
Mueller, route i, Blackburn; Sam Fulkerson, route i, Blackburn. 

Clerk, John A. Mueller. 

Teaclier. Miss Alice M. Tredway, of 18 ig East Seventh street, Kan- 
sas City, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 6, township 49, range 23. 
Name of school, Logsdon. 

Board of directors : R. G. Frizzell, Blackburn ; August Rehkop, Black- 
burn ; August Weber, Blackburn. 
Clerk, John Borchers. 

Teacher, Elizabeth J. Boulware, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 7, township 49, range 23. 
Name of school, Armentrout. 

Board of directors : L. L. Scott. Sweet Springs : Kirby Thomas. Sweet 
Springs; Louis Armentrout, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, Lois Armentrout. 

Teacher, Bessie Armentrout. of Sweet Springs. Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $40. 

District 8, township 49, range 23. 
Name of school. Salt Pond. 

Board of directors : Ed Hawkins, BIack1)urn ; Newton Pollene, Sweet 
Springs ; George Carter, Mt. Leonard. 
Clerk, George L. Carter. 

Teacher. A. H. Harris, of Kansas City, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month. $3.-2.50. 
18 



2/4 PAST AND PRESENT 

District 9, township 49, range 23. ♦ 

Name of school, Salt Pond. 

Board of directors : John Lee, Sweet Springs ; M. C. McGinnis, Sweet 
Springs; Robert Colbert, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, Marion Lee. 

Teacher, Flora B. Miller, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, six months; salary per month, $30. 

District 3, township 49, range 20. 

Name of school, Napton. 

Board of directors : G. P. Smith, John Cambell, J. M. Bramble. 

Clerk, W. M. Thorp. 

Teacher, Joseph Kichey, of Nelson, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $60. 

District 4. township 49, range 20. 

Name of school. Thorp. 

Board of directors : T. B. Hall, Marshall ; George Brumbell.. Marshall. 

Clerk, J. R. Kaylor. 

Teacher, Miss Eulalia Thorp, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 5, township 49, range 20. 
Name of school, Lake Spring. 

Board of directors: Levi Smith, Nelson; James Alexander, Napton. 
Clerk, A. W. Holder. 
Teacher. D. V. Reynolds, of Slater. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $55. 

District i, township 49, range 22. 
Name of school. Miller. 

Board of directors : C. L. Chappell, Sweet Springs ; Bob White, Sweet 
Springs; John Wilcox, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, J. W. Wilcox. 

Teacher, Ralph Cram, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $50. 

District 2, township 49, range 22. 
Name of school, Herndon. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI one 

Board of directors : John M. Henley, Marshall, route 2 ; W. A Hill 
Marshall, route 2; R. N. Taylor, Marshall, route 2. ' •• • ^ 

Clerk, R. N. Taylor. 

Teacher, William R. Nightwine, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $47.50. 

District 3, township 49, range 22. 
Name of school, Green Mound. 

Board of directors: W. G. Thompson, Sweet Springs; Chris Marks, 
Shackelford; Hardin Sandidge, Shackelford. 
Clerk, W. W. Hall. 

Teacher, Elizabeth Harrison, of Shackelford, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 4, township 49, range 22. 
Name of school, South Grove. 

Board of directors: J. Maupin, Shackelford; C. D. Page, Sweet 
Springs; R. C. Ash, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, R. C. Ash. 

Teacher, Clara Sutherland, of East Mitchell street, Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $45. 

District 5, township 49, range 22. 
Name of school, Antioch. 

Board of directors : C. L. Johnson, Sweet Springs ; Lee Hicks, Sweet 
Springs; Mike Duffey, Sweet Springs. 
Clerk, Reuben Smithey. 
Teacher, Nana J. Hall, of Slater, Missouri. 
Length of term: seven months; salary per month, $35. 

District i, township 50, range 22. 
Name of school, Central. 

Board of directors : J. J. Holmes, Marshall ; John Kennedy, Shackel- 
ford; Fred Clinge, Shackelford. 
Clerk, J. J. Holmes. 

Teacher, Miss Rosa Richter, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $45. 

District 6, township 49, range 20. 



2/6 PAST AND PRESENT 

Name of school, Independence. 

Board of directors: L. French, Napton; A. Davis, Napton; J. Scott^ 
Napton. 

Clerk, J. \\\ Woodsman. 

Teacher. Ag-nes Sntherland, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $40. 

District i, township 50, range 20. 
Name of school, Neff. 

Board of directors : A\'. G. Thomas, Napton ; Frank Vesser, Napton ; 
B. F. Lawless, Napton. 
Clerk, B. F. Lawless. 

Teacher, Miss Ethel Ellis, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 2, township 50, range 20. 
Name of school. Jester. 

Board of directors: Gust. A. Brown, Marshall; John E. Adams, Mar- 
shall; J. K. Lewis, Marshall. 
Clerk, John E. Adams. 

Teacher, Mary E. Adams, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 3, township 50, range 20. 
Name of school, George. 

Board of directors: Frank Durrett, Marshall; J. M. Durrett, Marshall; 
A. T. Allison, Marshall. 
Clerk, A. T. Allison. 

Teacher, Miss Lee Lawless, of Arrow Rock, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $50. 

District 4, township 50, range 20. 
Name of school, Salt Branch. 

Board of directors: W. A. Smith, Marshall; L. T. Stouffer, Napton; 
J. C. B. Martin, Napton. 

Clerk, J. C. B. Martin. 

Teacher, Julia Thorp, of Marshall, route i. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $45. 

District 2, township 2, range 20. 
Name of school. Sunny South. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 277 

Board of directors : Orlando Young, president, Slater, route 5 ; I. M. 
Dawes, Slater, route 5 ; John E. Waul, Norton. 
Clerk, I. M. Dawes. 

Teacher, Miss Burnice Rankin, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District i, township 50, range 23. 
Name of school, Halley. 

Board of directors : J. Stephens, Blackburn ; Lewis Nolte, Blackburn ; 
E. E. Logsdon, Blackburn. 
Clerk, E. E. Logsdon. 

Teacher, Miss Edna Browning, of Blackburn, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary' per month, $45. 

District 2, township 50, range 23. 
Name of school, Prairie View. 

Board of directors: A. P. Hancock, Mt. Leonard; Louis Seibert, Mt. 
Leonard ; Edward H. Blase, Mt. Leonard. 
Clerk, Edward H. Blase, Mt. Leonard. 
Teacher, C. L. Grimes, of Mt. Leonard, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $60. 

District 3, township 50, range 23. 
Name of school. Major School House. 

Board of directors : W^illiam Kirchkoff, Blackburn ; Aurv Loper, Black- 
burn ; Sam Flair, Blackburn. 
Clerk, L. W. Suggett. " 

Teacher, Miss Bessie Minor, of Abiline, Kansas. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $50. 

District 3, township 49, range 19. 

Name of school. Nelson. 

Board of directors : Noland Taylor, Nelson ; George Alexander, Nelson ; 
Will Thompson, Nelson; P. M. Sandidge, Nelson; R. B. Thorpe, Nelson; 
John W. Cox, Nelson. 

Clerk, John W. Cox. Nelson. 

Teacher. J. R. Hale, of Maryville, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $80. 

District 4, township 49, range 19. 
Name of school, Brownlee. 



2/8 PAST AND PRESENT 

Board of directors : \A'alter Brown, Nelson, Clark Swinney, Nelson ; 
Walker Townsend, Nelson. 

Clerk, J. P. Darby, Nelson. 

Teacher, Miss Janie Hogge, of Arrow Rock, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $50. 

District I, township 50, range 19. 
Name of school, Arrow Rock Public School. 

Board of directors : Harry Hudson, J. P. Biggs, Erly Green, B. C. Brad- 
shaw and M. S. McGuire, all of Arrow Rock. 
Clerk, W. H. Edwards. 

Teacher, Hillebrand, Assistant Mrs. Wagner, of Warrensburg. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $70 and $50. 

District 2, township 50, range 19. 
Name of school, Forest Grove. 

Board of directors: Stephen Craig, Nelson; Henry Eilers, Nelson; Jack 
Dysart, Nelson. 

Clerk, Jack Dysart. 

Teacher, Ruby Craig, of Nelson. 

Length of teiTn, seven months ; salary per month, $40. 

District 3, township 50, range 19. 
Name of school. Saline City. 

Board of directors : F. M. Ehlers, Slater, route 4 ; C. H. Bierbam, Slater, 
route 4 ; A. C. Roister, Slater, 4. 

Clerk, Sallie Reynolds, Slater, route 4. 
Teacher, Miss Clara Gorker, of Slater, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $47.50. 

District 4, township 50, range 19. 
Name of school. Clay Center. 

Board of directors: H. M. Meyer, Slater; J. W. Moore, Slater; A. J. 
West, Slater. 

Clerk, W. L. Odell, Slater. 

Teacher, Nancy E. Harris, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $55. 

District 2, township 51, range 22. 
Name of school. Union. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 279 

Board of directors : G. H. Kiser, Marshall, route 3 : J- F. Hicks, Mar- 
shall, route 3 ; J. B. Gauldin, Marshall, route 3. 
Clerk, J. B. Gauldin. 

Teacher, Lewis C. Hickman, of Slater, ]\Iissouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $60. 

District 3, township 51, range 22 and 23. 
Name of school, Malta Bend Public School. 

Board of directors : F. W. Baker, R. C. Potter, A. F. Brown, W. J. 
Brown, H. C. Wilson, A. D. Plattner, all of Malta Bend. 
Clerk, Fred E. Stockman. 

Teacher. Hugh Berlin, principal, of Nelson, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $280. 

District 4, township 51, range 22. 
Name of school, Baker. 

Board of directors : Joseph Clyde, Marshall, route 3 ; S. G. Allen, Mar- 
shall, route 3 ; John W. Cochran, Marshall, route 3. 
Clerk, John W. Cochran. 

Teacher, Miss Esta Walter, of Lexington, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months; salary, per month, $42.50. 

District 5, township 50, range 19. 
Name of school, Hardeman. 

Board of directors : J. B. Scott, Napton ; S. W. Wilkinson, Napton ; A. 
J. Davis, Napton. 

Clerk, A. J. Davis, Napton. 

Teacher, Dollie and Mayme Dierking, of Sweet Springs, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $45 and $50. 

District i, township 51, range 19. 
Name of school. Pleasant Hill. 

Board of directors: William Haynes, Gilliam; R. A. Field, Slater: R. 
H. Schumatz, Slater. 

Clerk, R. H. Schumatz, Slater. 

Teacher, Miss Mamie Fowler, of Slater, Missouri. 

Salary per month, $40. 

District 2, township 51, range 19. 
Name of school, Linn Grove. 



j8o past and present 

Board of directors: Leaf Imon. Gilliam; J. W. Fizer, Slater ; J. R. 
Hayner, Slater. 

Clerk, J. R. Hayner, Slater. 

Teacher, George E. Trout, of Gilliam, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $54. 

District 5, township 51, range 22-23. 
Name of school. Glover. 

Board of directors: John Houston, Malta Bend; John Robertson, Malta 
Bend ; W. N. Douglas, Malta Bend. 
Clerk, W. N. Douglass. 

Teacher, Maliel Harrison, of Mt. Leonard, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $50. 

District i, township 52, range 22. 
Name of school, Little. 

Board of directors: J. B. Meschede, ]\Iiami ; J. ]\L Williams. ]\Iiami; 
G. A\'. Little, Miami. 
Clerk, G. W. Little. 

Teacher, Nina B. Crank, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $45. 

District 4, township 50, range 23. 
Name of school, Mt. Leonard. 

Board of directors: Philip Kellett, Mt. Leonard; J. J. Robertson, Mt. 
Leonard ; George Wright, Mt. Leonard. 
Clerk, C. L. Grimes. 

Teacher, Miss Elizabeth Evrard, of Shelbina, Missouri. 
Length of term, nine months ; salary per month. $60. 

District 5, township 50, range 23. 
Name of school, Blackburn Public School. 

Board of directors : G. A. Richart, B. F. Henley, M. P. Blackburn, Fred 
Rubelman, Louis Sunderbrink and H. T. Liter, all of Blackburn. 
Clerk, C. J. Blackburn. 
Teacher, J. C. Godby, of Blackburn. 
Length of term, eight months. 

District i, township 51, range 23. 
Name of school. Grand Pass. 



i 



I 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 28 1 

Board of directors: S. M. Nelson, Grand Pass; M. J. Edwards,- Grand 
Pass ; W. E. Hutton, Grand Pass. 

Clerk, George H. McClure, Grand Pass. 

Teacher, Sewall Burruss, principal. Grand Pass ; Miss Willye Quissen- 
bury, of Slater, primary teacher, $35 per month. 

Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $45. 

District i, township 51, range 18. 
Name of school, Elm Grove. 

Board of directors: George Koch, Glasgow; Fritz Strodtman, Gilliam; 
Joe H. Sellmeyer, Gilliam. 

Clerk, Hugo Kessler, Glasgow. 

Teacher, V. V. Giger, of Gilliam. 

Length of term, six months; salary per month, $50. 

District 2, township 51, range 18. 

Name of school, Annaheim. 

Clerk, N. J. Giger. 

Teacher, Sue Woldridge, of Gilliam, Missouri. 

Length of term, six months; salary per month, $35. 

District 3, township 5. range 18. 
Name of school. Saline Valley. 

Board of directors : Gus Nolke, Gilliam, route i ; Frank Meyer, Gilliam. 
route I. 

Clerk, F. H. Kruse, Gilliam, route i. 
Teacher, Nell C. Cain, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, six months; salary per month, $40. 

District 2, township 50, range 22. 
Name of school, Fulkerson. 

Board of directors: P. A. Fulkerson, Mt. Leonard; John Judge, Mt. 
Leonard; L J. Mickels, Shackelford. 
Clerk, I. J. Mickels. 

Teacher, Miss Ettie Greene, of Blackburn, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $47.50. 

District 3, township 50, range 22. 
Name of school. Salt Springs. 



282 PAST AND PRESENT 

Board of directors: N. H. Newell, Malta Bend; H. A. Thomas, Mt. 
Leonard; A. H. Orr, Mt. Leonard. 
Clerk, A. H. Orr. 

Teacher, Miss Louise Davison, of Gilliam, Missouri. 
Length of term, nine months; salary per month, $62.50. 

District 4, township 50, range 22. 
Name of school, Sunny Side. 

Board of directors: E. M. Hutcherson, Shackelford; R. Barr, Shackel- 
ford; John S. Bishop, Shackelford. 
Clerk, John S. Bishop. 

Name of teacher. Miss Mae Ryan, of Slater, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $60. 

District 5, township 50, range 22. 
Name of school, Shackelford. 

Board of directors : B. A. Jones, Shackelford; M. R. Thompson. Shack- 
elford ; James F. Doolan, Shackelford. 
Clerk, James F. Doolan. 

Teacher, Miss Margie Haas, of Slater, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salaiy per month, $55. 

District i, township 51, range 22. 
Name of school. Steel. 

Board of directors : Fred Pittman, Malta Bend ; G. L. Crum, Malta 
Bend ; B. L. McRoberts, Malta Bend. 
Clerk, G. A. Renick. 

Teacher, Leta B. Bums, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $52.50. 

District i, township 50, range 21. 

Name of school. The School District of Marshall. 

Board of directors: G. E. C. Sharp, president; W. S. Huston, J. Van- 
dyke, treasurer; A. Leonard. John W. Rose and E. E. Barnum, all of Mar- 
shall. 

Clerk James W. Fisher. 

Superintendent, H. H. Edmiston, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, nine months; salary per month, $47.50. 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 283 

District 2, township 50, range 21. 

Names of school, Downs or Martin. 

Board of directors : A. J. Wilson, Marshall ; A. J. Haynes, Marshall. 

Clerk, W. P. Dickson. 

Teacher, Miss Ruth Dickson, of Marshall. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $45. 

District 3, township 50, range 21. 
Name of school, Elm Grove. 

Board of directors : William Godman, Marshall ; J. Z. Huff, Marshall ; 
H. H. Bomhake, Marshall. 
Clerk, N. N. Ruff. 

Teacher, Mrs. Mary Slater, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 4, township 50, range 21. 
Name of school, Prairie Home. 

Board of Directors : C. J. Fitzsimmons, Marshall ; C- P. Snoddy, Mar- 
shall; J. R. Solomon, Marshall. 
Clerk, C. P. Brown. 

Teacher, Charles DeMoss, of Grand Pass, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $50, 

District 5, township 50, range 21. 
Name of school, Chapel. 

Board of directors: Tom Carpenter, Marshall; Jacob Wise, Marshall; 
Robert L. Hyatt, Marshall. 
Clerk, C. L. Howard. 

Teacher, Thomas Davis, of Miami, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $65. 

District I, township 51, range 21. 
Name of school, Fairville. 

Board of directors: James Long, J. R. Haynie, J. E. Miller, P. O. 
Marshall, route 4. 

Clerk, J. D. Edwards. 

Teacher, Miss Pattie Norvell, of Gilliam, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months: salary per month, $65. 



284 PAST AND PRESENT 

District 4, township 51. range 19. 
Name of school, Oak Grove. 

Board of directors: ]<"rank Daniel, (iilliani; Joseph B. Huff, Gilliam; 
John Fischer. Gilliam. 

Clerk, George B. Porter. 

Teacher. Miss Cora Lee Amrine, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $40. 

District 5, township 51, range 19. 
Name of school. Pleasant Valley. 

Board of directors: R. W. Taylor, president; Gilliam; W. N. Dilley, 
Gilliam; Charles B. Duncan, Gilliam. 
Clerk, T. M. Coons, Gilliam. 

Teacher, Miss Dorothy Venable, of Gilliam, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 6, township 51, range 19. 

Name of school. Long Branch. 

Board of directors : J. R. Stafford, Slater ; T. R. Spencer, Slater. 

Clerk, J. E. Allen, Slater. 

Teacher, Miss Gladys Gilliam, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, six months ; salary per month, $35. 

District 2, township 51, range 21. 
Name of school. Herring. 

Board of directors : L. B. Edmonds, Marshall ; John Dyer, Malta Bend ; 
Harry Wilhelm, Marshall. 
Clerk, Harry Wilhelm. 

Teacher, Miss Bettie Hopkins, of Sedalia, Missouri. 
Length of term, seven months ; salary per month, $50. 

District 3, township 51, range 21. 
Name of school. Sulphur Springs. 

Board of directors: Joe V. Tennill, Marshall, route 6; Edwin Nugen, 
Marshall, route 6; J. W. Hyland, Marshall route 6. 
Clerk, J. W. Hyland. 

Teacher, Miss Maud McMahan, of Gilliam, Missouri. 
Length of term, six months; salarv per month, $40. 

District 4, township 51, range 21. 
Name of school. Cave Brook (colored.) 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 285 

Board of directors : Payion Giles, Marshall ; Parmer Jackson, Marshall ; 
Louis Henderson, Norton. 
Clerk, D. V. Booker. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $40. 

District 7, township 51, range 19. 
Name of school, River View. 

Board of directors: Jess Hensick, Slater, route 2; C. C. Drammele, 
Slater, route 4; Harry Johnson, Slater, route 4. 
Clerk, J. R. Henman. Slater, route 4. 
Teacher, Miss Anna Hoy, of Slater, route 2. 
Length of term, six months ; salary per month, $40. 

District 8, township 51, rang'e 19. 
Name of school, Gilliam Public School. 

Board of directors : W. T. Swinney, president ; J. W. McKinnev. D. N. 
Norvell, J. W. Sellmeyer, D. T. Crumbaugh, all of Gilliam. 
Clerk, R. H. Land. 

Teacher, E. A. Swinney, of Versailles, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months ; salar)^ per month, $75. 

District i, township 52, range 19. 
Name of school, Good Hope. 

Board of directors: J. L. Jones, Dan McCormick, Dan Brightwell, all 
of Gilliam. 

Clerk, Dan. E. McCormick, Gilliam. 

Teacher, Rosier N. Hains, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $65. 

District 2, township 51, range 23. 

Name of school, Edwards. 

Board of directors : M. F. DeMoss, C. W. Dickason and H. L. Wood- 
ward, all of Malta Bend. 

Clerk, W. F. Rohn. 

Teachers, A. S. Thornton, principal; Bettie E. Howard, primary-, of 
Malta Bend, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months; salaries per month. v$50 and S45. 

District 3, township 51, range 23. 
Name of school, Webb. 



286 PAST AND PRESENT 

Board of trustees : Burt Price, Malta Bend ; G. Knott, Malta Bend ; 
J. F. Long-, Grand Pass. 
Clerk, J. F. Long. 

Teacher, Miss Mattie Sparks, of Marshall, Missouri. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $60. 

District 4, township 51, range 23. 
Name of school, Eli. 

Board of directors : John H. Byars, Henry Yowell and Johnson Usra, 
all of Waverly. 

Clerk, John H. Byars. 

Teacher, Miss Mabel Rumans, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month, $45. 

District 3, township 51, range 20. 
Name of school, Oreai-ville. 

Board of directors: J. A. Johnson, Slater; Claud Stafford, Slater; L. 
H. Pemberton, Slater. 

Clerk, L. H. Pemberton. 

Teacher, Harry Johnson, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $60. 

District 6, township 51, range 20. 

Name of school, Maple Grove. 

Board of directors : N. J. Wood, J. W. Twilling. 

Clerk, T. H. Zimmerman. 

Teacher, Miss Margaret Clarkson, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $52.50. 

District I, township 52, range 20. 
Name of school, Garnett. 

Board of directors: August Smith, Slater; John Holt, Slater; Henry 
Jones, Slater. 

Clerk. J. Will Field. 

Teacher, Miss Effie Fowler, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $65. 

District 2, township 52, range 20. 
Name of school, Bell Air. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 287 

Board of directors: G. F. Olling'er, Slater; J. ]\I. Parks. ^liami ; J. 
M. Harris, Miami. 

Clerk, G. D. Harris. 

Teacher, Ralph W. Gwinn, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term : six months ; salary per month, $40. 

District 3, township 52, range 20. 
Name of school. High Hill. 

Board of directors : J. D. Kemper, P. M. Thompson, A. H. Lucas, all 
of Slater. 

Clerk, James L. Thomson. 

Teacher, Lee Jester, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $62.50. 

District 4, township 52, range 20. 
Name of school, Sharon. 

Board of directors: J. L Hardin, Slater; Pete Duber, Slater; W. O. 
Rogers, Miami. 

Clerk, W. O. Rogers. 

Teacher, Miss Margaret Molone, of Miami, Missouri. 

Leng-th of term, seven months ; salary per month, $60. 

District 3. township 52, range 19. 
Name of school, Cambridge. 

Board of directors : R. E. Lee, president ; W. W. Lee, C. O. Richard- 
son, all of Gilliam. 

Clerk, J. B. Brown, Gilliam. 

Teacher, Mrs. J. E. Daniels, of route i, Gilliam. 

Length of term, seven months; salary per month, $50. 

District 4, township 52, range 19. 
Name of school. Centennial. 

Board of directors: John Schaurer, John Wetzl W. T. Lewellen. all 
of Slater, route 3. 

Clerk, J. C. Gauldin, Slater, route 3. 

Teacher, Lela Butts, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, six months; salary per month, $40. 

District 5, township 52, range 19. 
Name of school. New Frankfort. 



2SS> PAST AND PRESENT 

Board of direclors: l^'ank Peniljerton, Boon Winston. AV. T. Arbogart^ 
all of (William, ronte 2. 

Clerk, D. T. Sydenstricker. 

1'eacher. Miss Edith Huff, of Gilliam, Missouri. 

Salary per month, $45. 

District 5, township 52. rang-e 20. 
Name of school. Walker. 

Board of Directors: J. R. Walker. R. C. Steele. E. P. Hill, all of Slater, 
route I. 

Clerk, E. P. Hill. 

Teacher, Nettie Neville, of Marshall, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months: salary per month, $50. 

District 6, township 52, range 20. 
Name of school. Good Luck. 

Board of directors : Joseph Lineberry, John Neary, Sam H. Hill, all 
of Slater. 

Clerk, Sam H. Hill. 

Teacher, Hazel Harris, of Slater, Missouri. 

Salary per month, $45. 

District i, township 53, range 20. 
Name of school. Pleasant Grove. 

Board of directors : R. L Hitaffer, E. E. Jennings, A. W. Sullivan, all 
of Miami. 

Clerk, A. W. Sullivan. 

Teacher, Flossy Lee Haney, of Miami, Missouri. 

Length of term, seven months: salary per month, $35. 

District 5, township 51, range 21. 
Name of school. Sunny Side. 

Board of directors : George Long. Herman Straach, Bob Long, all of 
Slater. 

Clerk. Bob Long. 

Teacher, Miss Bessie Copeland. of Miami. Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month. $40. 

District 6, township 51, range 21. 
Name of school. Robert Leigh. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 289 

Board of directors : C. J. Irwine, T. L. Brown, Frank Lueker. all uf 
Marshall. 

Clerk, Frank Lueker. 

Teacher. Miss Frances Venable, of Dalton, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $65. 

District i, township. 52, range 21. 
Name of school, Miami. 

Board of directors : G. T. Taylor, W. H. Wheeler, B. B. Berry, J. C. 
Haynie, H. D. Grad}-, J. F. Vaughan, all of Miami. 
Clerk, H. D. Grady. 

Teacher, C. H. Hitchborn, superintendent. Miami. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $80. 

District 2, township 52, range 21. 
Name of school. Bates. 

Board of directors: E. W. Fowder, president, Marshall; Giles Smith. 
Marshall. 

Clerk, W. E. Long. 

Teacher, Bertie Lee Miller, of Slater, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $45. 

District 3, township 52, range 21. 
Name of school, Wheeler. 

Board of directors : T. R. Rogers, T. D. S. Cundiff, Joe P. Guthrey, all 
of Miami. 

Clerk, Joe P. Guthrey. 

Teacher, Carrie Winning, of Miami, Missouri. 

Length of term, eight months ; salary per month $50. 

District 4, tow^nship 52, range 21. 
Name of school, Reynolds. 

Board of directors : J. A. Weaver, L. K. Leonard, Jerrs^ Yow^ell, all of 
Miami. 

Clerk, J. N. Chriswell. 

Teacher. Juanita Walden, of Miami, Missouri. 

Length of term, six months ; salary per month, $40. 

District 5. township 52, range 21. 

Name of school, Ross. 

19 



290 PAST AND PRESENT 

Board ul directors: Frank E. Clayton, Miami; VV. M. Clayton, Miami; 
R. S. McDaniel, Slater. 
Clerk, W. A. Cabell. 

Teacher, Miss Bertha Railey, of Shackelford, Missoiu-i. 
Length of term, eight months; salary per month, $40. 

District i, township 53, range 21. 
Name of school, Bluff. 

Board of directors: O. O. Lyon, R. M. Huyett, J. Vaughan, all of 
Miami. 

Clerk, O. O. Lyon. 

Teacher, Flome Bishop, of Miami. 

Length of term, six months; salary per month, $40. 

District 2, township 53, range 21. 
Name of school. Walnut Grove. 

Board of directors: W. A. Chilcott, J. R. Erwin, J. L. Wilson, all of 
Miami. 

Clerk, W. A. Chilcott. 

Teacher, Ernest Chriswell, of Miami, Missouri, R. F. D. No. 3. 

Length of term, six months; salary per month, $46.50. 

District 3, township 53, range 20 and 21. 
Name of school. Star. 

Board of directors : W. A. Burnside. W. S. Irvin, Sam Sullivan, all 
of Miami, route i. 

Clerk, Charles Mayfield. 

Teacher, J. W. Mayfield, of Miami, Missouri, route i. 

Length of term, six months ; salary per month, $40. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE SAPPINGTON SCHOOL FUND. 



Dr. John Sappington was Saline county's greatest philanthropist. By a 
deed executed in 1853, he donated and conveyed to certain trustees therein 
named ten thousand dollars for the education of "the necessitous poor children 
of Saline county," said trustees to be the sole judges of the objects of charity 
on which the funds should be bestowed. 

Afterwards by will, Doctor Sappington directed the sum to be increased 
out of his estate so as to amount to twenty thousand dollars, with some ad- 
ditional directions for its disposition. 

Doctor Sappington was not a very rich man, as was generally supposed at 
the time of his death. On examination of the records, they will show that it 
required more than one-half of his personal estate to make the school fund up 
to twenty thousand dollars. But his will was carried out as he directed it to 
be done, the fund being raised to twenty thousand dollars and placed in the 
control of the trustees. For some years afterwards the trustees complied with 
the terms and directions of his will by spending the interest of the fund for 
educational purposes, employing extra teachers in localities where they be- 
lieved they were needed. However, some years afterwards the Legislature of 
our state made such liberal provision for education that it seemed unnecessary 
and since then the fund has increased rapidly until at the present time it 
amounts to more than three times the original amount so donated by the dis- 
tinguished philanthropist. The last annual statement of the treasurer, J. P. 
Huston, shows that the total amount of the fund is now sixty-three thousand 
nine hundred and ninety dollars and forty-three cents. 

The detailed statement of the Treasurer for December 3, 1909, was as fol- 
lows: 

Marshall, Missouri, December 3, 1909. 

The present trustees of the Sappington School Fund are : 

C. G. Page, president. 

A. J. Allison, trustee for Arrow Rock township. 

J. P. Force, trustee for Blackwater township. 

F. C. McReynolds, trustee for Grand Pass township. 

J. W. Taylor, trustee for Elmwood and Salt Pond township. 



292 PAST AND PRESENT 

W. G. Fowler, trustee for Cambridge township. 
G. W. Lankford, trustee for Marshall township. 
W. H. \\'heeler, trustee for Miami township. 
T. C. Rainey. 
W. H. Colvert. 

The treasurer's annual report as of date August 9, 1909, showed assets as 
follows : 

Real estate loans $62,300.00 

Cash in bank 1,690.43 



Total $63,990.43 

Amount of tuition fees paid during year ending August 9, 1909, amount 

to $1,483.46. 

The treasurer's books also show that disbursements have been made on 

account of education of indigent children of Saline county from the year 1857 

to date, to the amount of $95,294.03. 

SKETCH OF DR. JOHN SAPPINGTON. 

Dr. John Sappington was a native of Maryland, born May 15, 1776, a 
man six feet high, of fine proportions, strong and commanding person with 
striking features. 

After an academic education, Doctor Sappington took a regular medical 
course at the Philadelphia Medical College, and afterwards, in the year 1804, 
he commenced the practice of medicine with his father at Nashville, Tennessee, 
and from there he emigrated to Missouri in 181 7, first settling in Howard 
county. Having previously entered land, in 1819 he moved over to Saline 
county, building a residence and opening a farm, where he remained the 
balance of his life, five miles from Arrow Rock. Here he practiced medicine 
and conducted his farm until 1832, when he became worn out with riding. 
Then he arranged a partnership with Dr. George Penn, who lived near Jones- 
boro, himself partly retiring from practice, turning his attention to the 
manufacture and sale of cjuinine pills and the management of his extensive 
farming interests. 

Subsequently a partnership was arranged by the Doctor, composed of him- 
self, Colonel Alarmaduke, his sons, William B. and E. D. Sappington, his 
son-in-law, Dr. William Price, and perhaps Mr. Eddins, of Howard county, 
another son-in-law, for the purpose of manufacturing and selling his pills, 
and by this firm a very extensive business was carried on for many years after- 






I 



I 



\ 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 293 

wards and a veiy profitable business at that. The pills became very popular 
and a very efficient remedy or cure for chills and fever and other diseases 
produced by the malaria of this new country, and as well of Arkansas and 
Iowa, where they were in general use. In after years each of the members of 
this firm had acquired a handsome fortune, at least that was the general under- 
standing in the county. 

Doctor Sappington's wife was a Miss Breathitt, a daughter of Governor 
Breathitt, of Kentucky, and a most estimable and admirable woman. She was 
a mother of a large family of children, who' as men and women afterwards 
became ornaments and some distinguished members of society in after life. 

Doctor Sappington had for sons-in-law, Governors Jackson and Mar- 
maduke ; L. S. Eddins and Dr. William Price, his sons being William B. and 
E. D. Sappington, who were very extensive and successful farmers, who built 
and lived in the best houses in Saline county. 

Governor Claiborne F. Jackson was three times his son-in-law, each of his 
wives having been daughters of Dr. Sappington. It was said at the time when 
Governor Jackson asked for his last wife, who was then a widow, the old 
Doctor gave his assent, but declared in the presence of Jackson that he couldn't 
have his wife, who was the only member of the family left who he could 
possibly ask for. Doctor Sappington's wife died a year or two before him. 
The Doctor departed this life at his old home on the 7th day of September, 
1856, at the age of eighty-one years. He lies buried in the family cemetery 
provided by himself years before on his own land. The cemetery is now at this 
writing, 1909, properly and judiciously cared for by the board of trustees of 
the Sappington School Fund, one of the most appropriate uses it could possi- 
bly be applied to. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



MISSOURI VALLEY COLLEGE. 



This institution was originally established and incorporated in June, 
1888, and described by the secretary of state in his certificate of its incorpor- 
ation as the "Articles of Association of the Educational Commission of the 
McAdow, Missouri, Ozark and Missouri Valley Synods of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church." 

The location of this college was made the subject of sharp competition, 
the location to be governed by the most liberal offers of donation. Marshall 
finally gained it by a donation of one hundred and thirty-eight thousand dol- 
lars in cash and land. 

A board of trusteees being named and designated in the articles of in- 
corporation, this body proceeded to construct the college buildings, the first 
meeting of the board of trustees being held at Marshall on the 13th of June, 
1888. ^ 

At a meeting of the board on October 15, 1888, the contract for the 
buildings was awarded, the buildings to be completed in time for its occu- 
pancy in the fall of 1889, when the school was put in operation. 

In the last annual report of the trustees of Missouri Valley College, it 
is asserted that "the twenty years of the history of the institution, and of 
the services of the board of trustees, many of whom have been in the office 
from the beginning, have been eventful and successful years. Some years 
the success had been greater than others, but at no time since the beginning 
has there been discouragement on account of conditions in the faculty or the 
student body or among the patrons of the college." 

The smallest attendance of the college was its first year, when it had 
an enrollment of one hundred and fifty-three. The largest attendance was 
in its fourteenth year, when it had three hundred and thirteen students. The 
total attendance for twenty years has been four thousand, eight hundred and 
twelve. Of these, two thousand, four hundred and ninety-nine have been 
men, and two thousand, three hundred and thirteen have been women. Of 
the number of these students, six hundred and twenty-eight have been can- 
didates for the ministry, which is one-fourth of the young men. More than 



SALINE COUNTY, MlSSOt'lU 295 

half of the young- men who have graduated in the college have been 
preachers. 

The Missouri Valley College is one of the charter members of the Col- 
lege Union, composed of the ten leading colleges and universities of the 
state, and it is said to have had no little influence in raising the standard of 
work in the various colleges of the state, as w'ell as being very potential in 
raising the standard of work and multiplying the number of high schools 
in the state. 

This college has met with fair success since its establishment, and would 
doubtless ultimately become a well established and patronized sectarian 
school but from the fact that the church under whose auspices it was es- 
tablished and built has itself become involved in dispute and division, which 
must necessarily hamper the prosperity of the college. The institution enjoys 
an income of about twenty-five thousand dollars a year. The following table 
shows the assets of the college at the present time ; that is, the endowment 
fund : 

General $138,095.80 

Baird Chair of Greek 10,000.00 

Campbell Chair of Christian Philosophy 10,000.00 

Rose Chair of English Language 10,000.00 

Birckhead Dormitory Support Fund 10,000.00 

Ozark College Fund 1,462.99 

Centennial Fund 5,826.40 

Mary P. Adams Fund 1,000.00 $186,385.19 

BUILDINGS. 

Main College Building $ 65,000.00 

Stewart Chapel ■ 40,000.00 

Birckhead Dormitory 10,000.00 

Engine House 12,000.00 127,000.00 

EQUIPMENT. 

Library Books. Furniture and Supplies $ 32,724.75 

Laboratories and Museum 8,552.62 

Pipe Organ 3,000.00 

Pianos 5,100.00 

Furniture 9.706.39 59.083.76 



296 PAST AND PRESENT 



REAL ESTATE. 



Campus $ 35,000.00 

Lots 4,000.00 39,000.00 



$411,468.95 

The following" constitutes the faculty of Missouri Valley College: 
William Henry Black, president of the college and professor of En- 



glish Bible. 



Isaac N. Evrard, professor of English language. 

Stephens, professor of biology. 

Wallace Elmer Grube, professor of Greek. 

Stella B. Hicks, librarian. 

Mary Belle Huff, professor of history. 

James Alvis Laughlin, professor of mathematics. 

Albert McGinnis, professor of Latin and German. 

Biddle, professor of vocal expression. 

John Moore Penick, professor of physics and chemistry. 
Edgar Sands Place, professor of music. 
Schyler Myers, professor of Latin and French. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



NEWSPAPERS OF SALINE COUNTY. 



There was no newspaper in Saline county until 1855, although a news- 
paper was published in Howard county across the river as early as 1816. 
the Missouri Intelligencer at Franklin. However, Saline county seems to 
have prospered fairly well without them. The advent of newspapers in 1855 
was coincident with many other troubles, notably the local agitation of the 
question and dififerences ultimately producing and bringing on the Civil war. 

The St. Louis Republican and Intelligencer, and one or two other St. 
Louis papers were the papers circulated and read here in Saline prior to that 
time. There was also a good Democratic paper at Jefferson City, the state 
capital. 

Tn the vear 1856 there was a warmly contested fight between Letcher 
and McDaniels, the candidates for the Legislature, both of whom had been 
old-line Whigs, but Letcher then representing the American party and Judge 
R. E. McDaniels the Democratic party, both being men ot good reputa- 
tions as politicians and citizens. The canvass was spirited, but honorable 
and manly. Such leading Americans as Letcher, Wilson, Crews, Bruce, 
Maupin, Lewis, Price and Hardeman readily subscribed and raised the 
money necessary to fit up a printing office and establish a newspaper, 
which they placed under the editorial and business control of Oscar 
D. Hawkins, who was from Glasgow and a protege of Colonel Crews, the 
latter in fact doing most of the editorial work. This paper was called the 
Saline County Herald and was the first paper ever published in Saline county. 
It was a small sheet and R. S. Sandidge and Capt. Jim Allen set the type 
and did most of the mechanical labor of the office. The Americans carried 
the county by a small majority and elected Mr. Letcher. Mr. Hawkins con- 
tinued in charge of the paper for about a year, when he resigned and moved 
to ^^'arrensburg. The Herald started up with a paid-up subscription list 
of about a thousand names, the office being in a small room twenty by thirty 
feet in "Dog row," and was prosperous for some years. 

^^1^en Hawkins resigned. Col. G. W. Allen became sole editor and 
proprietor. The .campaign of 1856 did not end the contest between the 
Americans and the Democrats for control of Saline countv. and. as might 



298 PAST AND PRESENT 

have been expected, it was not vei-y long after the Herald made its appear- 
ance before the leading Democrats realized that they needed on organ also, 
and such men as Claiborne F. Jackson, William B. Sappington, Darwin Sap- 
pington, John ^^'. Bryant, Judge McDaniels, T. R. E. Harvey and other 
leading Democrats purchased the material and established the Marshall 
Democrat, edited and printed by John S. Davis, a man of education and a 
practical printer. 

\\''hen the campaign of 1858 was approaching, the Herald, under the 
control of Colonel Allen, became weak-kneed as a party organ and failed 
to give satisfaction to its supporters. It was, however, conducted with good 
ability by Colonel Allen (who afterwards was killed at the battle of Wilson's 
Creek, while acting as an aide to General Price), but he had already begun 
to lean towards the Democratic party, at least that was the impression among 
the Americans. This feeling of dissatisfaction resulted in the establishment 
of a tliird newspaper in Marshall known as the Saline County Standard, of 
which Col. Samuel Boyd was editor and the Sandidge brothers having charge 
of the mechanical department. As the result, personal journalism was run- 
ning rampant in Marshall and personal encounters between the editors were 
not at all infrequent. For many years afterwards the bullet mark could be 
seen in Ming's Hotel showing where a bullet struck that was intended for 
Col. Sam Boyd, editor of the Standard, shot by John S. Davis, editor of the 
Democrat. 

Soon after the commencement of the publication of the Standard, the 
Herald was moved to Arrow Rock, where Colonel Allen and his son. Jim 
Allen, continued to publish it until the spring of 186 1. In May of that year 
it was merged into the Marshall Democrat. Soon after that the Standard 
suspended publication. The Democrat continued a few weeks longer, clos- 
ing about the last of June, 1861, when editors, typos, devils and all entered 
th'^ army, North or South, and afterwards had all the opportunities of fight- 
ing that they wanted. As already stated, Colonel Allen was killed at the 
battle of Wilson's Creek. Most of the others survived the war. John S. 
Davis lived afterwards in St. Louis, and James Allen resides in Jefferson 
City. Col. Samuel Boyd, as before stated, was for many years a leading 
member of the Marshall bar, while R. S. Sandidge, Esquire, is now and has 
been always editor and proprietor of the Saline County Progress, having also 
survived the arduous and dangerous services encountered throughout the 
Civil war in support of the federal government. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 200 

SALINE COUNTY PROGRESS. 

The Saline Progress was the fourth paper established in this county and. 
existing up to the present time, is the oldest of all of them, it being estab- 
lished in Marshall in July, 1865, by R. S. Sandidge and his brother D. M., 
and throughout the most of its career has been essentially a good county 
paper. The Progress was started and owned by a joint stock company, but 
is now owned and controlled by Robert S. Sandidge, under whose charge 
and management it has existed and prospered for forty-four years. 

SALINE COUNTY DEMOCRAT. • 

A Saline County Democrat was revived in Marshall and established in 
November, 1872, by Barnabas Frazee. In November, 1875, the paper was 
purchased by James H. Eakin, and under his control and the editorship of 
Dr. C. A. Clarkson it flourished until 1880, when it passed into the editorial 
control of J. M. Yantis. Some years subsequently, in June, 1889, it was com- 
bined with the Marshall Daily Nezvs, and subsequently published and is up to 
the present time published as the Democrat Nezvs, both daily and weekly, the 
paper being owned and controlled by a stock company organized under the 
general corporation law of Missouri. 

THE MARSHALL DAILY NEWS. 

The Marshall Daily Nezvs was established in June, 1879, by John C. Pat- 
terson, who had been connected with the Progress office in Marshall. Mr 
Patterson was then a young man, who had not reached his majority. Almost 
without capital, establishing the paper seemed a rather hopeless enterprise, a 
daily paper in a town with a population of less than three thousand. Young as 
he was, however, he brought to the undertaking energy, industr}^ and persever- 
ance, and succeeded in making the Daily Nezvs self-supporting, while the 
w^eekly paper w^as established on a firm basis, the weekly paper being first is- 
sued in October, 1879, published on the co-operative plan, but afterwards 
published entirely at home. The Nezvs was an independent paper in politics, 
but afterwards being consolidated with the Democrat as above stated, became 
Democratic under the new arrangement. It has since been edited by Col. R. C. 
Home, Charles Patterson and some others, and is now under the editorial 
management of John G. Miller, representative in the Legislature from Saline 
county. 



300 PAST AND PRESENT 



THE SALINE CITIZEN. 



This paper was esta1)lishe(l in 1884 by George Davis and was owned and 
edited by him. Mr. Davis having- formerly been an associate editor of the 
Progress. This paper was conducted by Mr. Davis until the year 1900, when 
the establishment was sold to Joseph Hamill, Mr. Davis continuing the editor- 
ship, under the management of Mr. Hamill. Subsequently, the paper was 
sold to its present owners, Messrs. Charles D. and G. A\\ Newton, and is now 
in a flourishing condition. 

THE MARSHALL REPUBLICAN. 

The Marshall Republican was established in i8gj by A. R. Grigsby. The 
newspaper and plant was sold in 1899 to Mr. Beatty, at that time the station 
agent at Marshall of the Chicago & Alton railroad. For a time it was leased 
and operated by Percy Vandyke, a native of Marshall, but now editor and 
owner of a paper in Newport, Arkansas, an independent journal. The paper 
was subsequently bought by its present owner, J. J. Witt, and is now in a 
flourishing and prosperous condition. 

SW^EET SPRINGS (FORMERLY BROWNSVILLE) HERALD. 

The Brozvnsville Herald was established in Brownsville (now Sweet 
Springs) in this county, in August, 1874, by a joint stock company called the 
Brownsville Publishing Company, and leased to the Rev. William M. Protts- 
man as editor and George W. Tuthill, of Jefferson City, as business manager. 
At the end of the first year Mr. Prottsman retired and the office was leased 
to Tuthill and J. W. Middleton, under the firm name of Tuthill & Middleton, 
until May, 1876, when Mr. Middleton's place was taken by the Rev. W. J. 
Lapsley. under the firm name of Geo. W. Tuthill & Company, with Robert S. 
Yantis as business manager. In September, 1876, Mr. Lapsley sold his inter- 
est to Mr. Tuthill, who then became sole owner, editor and business manager. 
The Herald is still being published, still doing good and earnest work for 
Sweet Springs and Saline county, the reward due persistent enterprise, effort 
and judgment, l)eing Democratic in politics. Neale & Barks are the present 
proprietors of this paper. 

MIAMI WEEKLY NEWS. 

The Miami Weekly Nezm was established in 1880 by T. J. Graves. The 
ownership and management has changed several times since its establishment. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 3OI 

and the paper is now in its twenty-ninth \'olume, being- (le\oted especially to 
the interest of Miami and Miami township. The present editor is Mr. Hitch- 
born. 

OTHER NEWSPAPERS. 

The Slater Rustler is a lively, strong- paper in its twenty-fifth volume, 
owned and edited by J. R. Edwards, Esquire. 

The Slater Ncivs has been recently established, and is in its third volume. 

The Arrozv Statesman is published by B. Diggs, and is in its sixteenth 
volume. 

The Blackburn Record is owned and edited by Dr. C. J. Blackburn, and is 
in its twenty-first volume. 

The GiUiani Globe (formerly the Gilliani Bee) is now in its ninth volume 
and is owned and edited by A. J. Ricard. 

The Malta Bend Nezvs is owned and edited by Oran L. Elliott, publisher, 
and is in its first volume. 

There have been at other times in the history of Saline county twelve or 
fifteen papers that have since become deceased and discontinued. They are 
as follows : 

The Marshall Banner, of which Vincent Bierbower was editor. 

The Saline Republican, Mr. Hampton, editor, which perished in the po- 
litical revolution in Missouri in 1870, was a fairly good paper and conducted 
with ability. 

The Irrepressible Conflict, established in 1877 by Dr. \\\ S. Holland, a 
Prohibition organ. 

The Marshall Gazette ceased to exist after one year of its life. 

The Brozinisville Herald went out of existence in 1875. 

The Miami Cable, a small paper started in Miami, in 1877, by Mr. Rey- 
nolds. A short time afterwards it was moved to Arrow Rock, and discontin- 
ued the next year. 

The Miami Index, a Democratic paper, established in 1874. It was after- 
wards removed to Slater, and its name changed to the Saline County Index, 
and subsequently moved to Marshall and its name changed to the Marshall 
Index. After being removed to Marshall, it was edited by Gen. R. C. Home, 
who had been editor of the Democrat Nezt's some years previously. 

The first paper published in Slater was the Slater Sentinel, in 1879. The 
paper was discontinued in the spring of 1880. 

The Slater Monitor, first established in Marshall in 1879, where it con- 
tinued for about a year, but was then moved to Slater in 1880, owned and 



302 PAST AND PRESENT 

edited by J. R. Miller. The Monitor had first been established at Jacksonville, 
Illinois, as a Greenback paper, and through all its changes continued a Green- 
back paper, except one page, which was edited by Mrs. Miller, and devoted to 
the temperance cause. The Monitor has since gone out of existence. 

The Independent Missoiirian was established in Marshall, in April, 1880, 
by Dr. W. S. Holland, S. E. DeRacken, editor, a Prohibition organ, which 
has since died out, while prohibition has not. 

The Arrozu Rock Enterprise, established by Scott Mills, son of Henry S. 
Mills, an old-time merchant and citizen of Arrow Rock. The main object of 
the Enterprise was to advertise the business of H. S. Mills & Company, but 
the boy made the Enterprise a spicy and readable paper, as well as a good ad- 
vertising medium. 

The Missouri State Republican, established in Marshall by A. G. Harlan, 
of Andrew county, Missouri, and M. R. Stansberry, of Illinois. Being Re- 
publican in politics, it had a short life in Saline county. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

AGRICULTURAL ASSOCL\TIONS AND FAIRS. 

Saline county has had several agricultural fairs and fair associations in 
years past. The initial movement in this direction was made as early as 1839, 
when the county court ordered that a meetings of the people should be held at 
Jonesboro on the 17th of June, 1839, for the purpose of forming a "County 
iVgricultural Society." But it does not appear that a society was formed at 
that time, or that any agricultural fair was held in the county for many years 
subsequently. 

An agricultural association was organized in 1856 in this county, of which 
ex-Governor Marmaduke was president. The stockholders, who largely lived 
in Miami township, located the fair grounds at Miami, and the first fair was 
held there in 1857, then afterwards annually until i860. Among the leading 
exhibitors of fine or improved stock at that time were Moses and James White, 
brothers, who were leading- exhibitors of both horses and cattle at these Miami 
fairs previous to i860. These two young men, each of whom owned a large 
farm in Saline county, were the sons of Capt. James White, of St. Louis, the 
young men being born and reared in that city, their father being a man of 
large wealth and an influential citizen, a brother of the distinguished senator 
from Tennessee, Hugh L. White. Moses White's farm was three miles west 
of Marshall and his brother, James, owned one of the best farms in Miami 
township. These brothers were large importers to this county of thorough- 
bred horses and cattle, the former being a leading exhibitor of his stock at the 
Miami fairs prior to the Civil war. He, Moses, married a daughter of the 
pioneer settler, XTathaniel Walker, and at his death left several children now 
residing in Colorado. His brother, James, never married, dying here at Mar- 
shall at the early age of twenty-seven years. These two young- men spent a 
great deal of money for fine stock from which the people of Saline county ulti- 
mately derived great benefit. The colts of the great stallion, "Red Fox," were 
well known and recognized here as superior roadsters for many years. Moses 
bought the premium short-horn bull at the national fair in Cincinnati in 1858, 
paying one thousand dollars for the animal which he brought here and kept at 
his farm, three miles west of Marshall, and perhaps a better animal of the 
sort was never brought to the county. 






304 PAST AND PRESENT 

The Saline County Central Agricultural and Alechanical Association was 
org-anized in 1871 and held its first fair at Marshall, September 26th of that 
year. That association held fairs for several years following, owning a very 
handsome and well improved fair grounds northeast of the town of Alarshall, 
the land since having been donated to the state of Missouri as a location for 
the colony for the feeble minded of the state. These fairs held by this asso- 
ciation were well attended and enjoyed by the people of the county, contribut- 
ing largely to the improvement of the livestock in the county. 

At the present time a new fair association has been organized and incor- 
porated and has purchased a very desirable and suitable tract of land of forty 
acres lying immediately north and adjoining the town of Marshall, on which 
it is intended to erect all the suitable building's needed for an extensive agri- 
cultural and livestock exhibition to be held annually hereafter. The grounds 
are "to be provided with a good race track and all other necessan.- appliances. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

RELIGION^ PREACHERS AND CHURCHES IN SALINE COUNTY. 

The inhabitants of Saline county were always a religious and devout 
people, many being- the descendants of Scotch Presbyterians. The pioneer 
preacher was a fighter as well as a preacher, and his services in either vocation 
were voluntary and without pecuniary compensation. 

Before the settlers had time to erect churches, religious services of the 
various religious denominations were held in the private residences that were 
most convenient to the neighborhood, and such a thing as a salaried preacher 
of the Gospel was unknown. The preacher gained his living as did his fellow 
settler, by daily toil in the fields and clearings, with the aid of his rifle. It 
was a part of his religion to lend his aid in devotional exercises without anv 
pecuniary compensation whatever. 

The names of some of the pioneer preachers are here given, and the 
time of their labors, it being uncertain who among them was the first to preach 
in the county, the claims of several conflicting in this regard. But Rev. Pey- 
ton Xowlin and Rev. Thomas Keeney, both Baptist preachers, were the first, 
or among- the first. 

Thomas Fristoe, a Baptist, in 1819. preached in Edmondson Creek settle- 
ment. 

Henry Renick, Cumberland Presbyterian, preached in 18 19. 
Thomas Cavanaugh, auxiliary worker with Renick. 

Finis Ewing and W. D. Wear, Cumberland Presbyterian preachers at a. 
very early date. Finis Ewing being a man of fine intellect and a leader of the 
Presbyterians, in fact, one of the original founders and org-anizers of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church in the state of Tennessee. 

It is, however, claimed that Justinian Williams, a Methodist, was the firsi 
ordained preacher who ever delivered a sermon in the county. 

Jesse Green was a pioneer Methodist preacher who lived near Arrow 
Rock. He preached on Sundays and worked at tlie cabinetmaker's trade 
during the week. 

Other pioneer proclaimers of the Gospel were Ebenezer Rogers, Thomas 
McBride, Robert King, Caleb Weedin, John B. Langdon. Archibald McCorkle, 
Jacob Chism, Daniel Bone, Barnett Wear. Fred B. Leach, William Leach. 
20 



306 PAST AND PRESENT 

Stephen Boggs. Luke Williams, Henry Weedin, Anthony Berley, William 
Nichols, David Anderson, Duke Young, Hugh Dodds. Robert Renick, Kemp 
Scott, Robert Sloan and Robert Morrow. 

Camp meetings became popular with the church people of the county after 
it had become pretty well settled up. The favorite places for holding these 
meetings were at Hawpe's, in the vicinity of Arrow Rock; at Riser's, in Tebo 
Grove, and at Salt Fork church, south of Blackwater. In after years grounds 
were established at Henry Weedin's, on Cow creek, and at Richard Durrett's. 
on Rock creek. 

In the year ICS35 a notable conference of the Methodist Episcopal church 
for the district was held at Arrow Rock. Over a hundred preachers were 
present. The boundaries of the conference extended south to the Arkansas 
line, and there were ministers present from all parts of the district. During 
the session there was an average daily attendance of a thousand people, a large 
concourse for that period. The conference lasted ten days, and the interest 
manifested was taken advantage of by the zealous ministers present, and many 
additions to the church were made. The venerable Bishop Roberts presided, 
and the services were for the most part very impressive. Many in attendance 
had nev^er before seen a real live bishop, and the occasion was long remem- 
bered. Among those in attendance were many christianized Indians from the 
territory afterwards called Kansas, the Delawares, \A'yandots. Shawnees and 
Kickapoos. Clad in their Indian costume and paying close attention to the 
services, they were objects of much attention. This conference was remem- 
bered by the people for many years afterwards. 

THE BAPTIST CHURCH. 

The oldest religious organization in the county, and which probably had 
the largest membership at the time. Zoar church was organized in 1825. in 
what is now the Hardeman neighborhood. The first church was built of logs, 
■on the northeast quarter of section 30, township 19, range 50. This log house 
.answered the purposes of the congregation until 1849, when a frame church 
was built, and used as a place of worship for many years thereafter. In i860 
the congregation abandoned the old church and locality, moving to Jonesboro, 
•where a new and more commodious house of worship was built, where this, 
the oldest religious congregation in the county, yet meets for devotional ser- 
vices, the Rev. Mr. White being the present pastor. 

The following table shows the names of the societies of the Baptist church 
in the county of Saline in the year 1900, and the time when they were estab- 
lished or constituted : 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 307 

Names of Churches. Address. When Constituted. 

Antioch Herndon 1852 

Arrow Rock Arrow Rock 1859 

Bethel Sharon 1846 

Blackburn Blackburn 1853 

Fairville Fairville 1875 

Fish Creek Orearville 1842 

Heath's Creek Ridge Prairie 1843 

Gilliam Gilliam 1886 

Good Hope Slater 1818 

Grand Pass Grand Pass 1889 

Union Marshall 1866 

Marshall Marshall 1869 

Miami Miami 1849 

Mount Leonard Mt. Leonard 1881 

Mount Zion Sweet Springs 1872 

Nelson Nelson 1888 

New Hope Wanamaker 1891 

New^ Prospect Sharon 1884 

Oak Grove Sweet Springs 187 1 

Orearville Orearville 1875 

Pin Oak Nelson 1897 

Providence Cretcher 1885 

Rehoboth Slater -. 1850 

Salem Woodson 1891 

Shiloh Miami 1874 

Sweet Springs Sweet Springs 1870 

Zoar Napton 1825 

Old Zoar has had for its preachers during its many years of existence, 
Peyton Nowlin, Thomas Fristoe, David Anderson, William Bell, Thoi'nton 
Rucker, William Gentry, J. D. Murphy, Thomas Hudson, John C. Hamner, 
William Cleveland, C. T. Daniels and J. L. Tichenor. There has been no 
cessation of preaching for any length of time since its organization. During 
the Civil war, Rev. J. D. Murphy was pastor, and services were continuous, 
the pastor residing in the village. At one time the church was surrounded 
by the militia during the preaching, the services were closed and the men in- 
side were made to fall in line, and marched off. 



308 PAST AND PRESENT 

METHODIST CHURCH SOUTH SMITH's CHAPEL CHURCH. 

This is one of the oldest church org-anizalions in the county, l)eing or- 
ganized in 1824. Some of the first members were Wyatt Bingham and wife, 
Adam Steele and wife, Walker Atkinson and wife. This church organization 
congregated in school houses for w'orship until the year 1857. At that time, 
although not a member of the church himself. Dr. Crawford E. Smith do- 
nated to the congregation four acres of ground for a church yard and ceme- 
tery, also contributing three hundred dollars towards the erection of a church. 
John T. and D. A. Stouffer were the contractors for the building of the church, 
it costing about two thousand dollars, the building being paid for when it was 
completed. The preachers for this congregation since its organization have 
been the Reverends Pace, Lee, Millice, Benjamin Johnson, Best, Nichols, 
Lacy, Anderson, James and Thomas Wallace, Thomas Finney, \Mlliam Prots- 
man, Joseph Dines. J. D. Reed, Warren Wharton, Nathan Talbot, Lowe, A. 
M. Rader, Josiah Godby, W. B. McFarland. J. D. Blevens, John R. Bennett, 
J. F. Hogan, M. Duren, W. M. Bewley. 

CATHOLIC CHURCHES. 

Ln 1840 to 1843 the first extensive settlement of Catholics was made in 
this county. They settled north of the present village of Shackelford, and 
immediately took steps tow^ards the organization and building of a church. 
The most prominent Catholics of that time w^ere Christopher Fitzsimmons, 
Patrick Loftus, William Prior, Michael Langan, Thomas Caffery and John 
Clarkin. These gentlemen entered the northwest quarter of the northeast 
quarter of section 10 in township 50 of range 22, and dedicated it to the 
church and erected a frame building thereon in 1851. 

The early pastors of this church were the Rev. Francis De Maria, S. J., 
in 1845; R^v. James Kinney, S. J., in 1846; Rev. James Murphy, 1847; ^^^• 
Thomas Cusack, 1850; Rev. Bernard Donnelly, in 1854; Rev. Joseph Meister, 
in 1855; Rev. Bernard Hilmer, in 1856, and Rev. Eugene O'Hea, in 1857. 
These pastors were traveling missionaries who passed through the county at 
various times and remained for a few days or weeks. Father Edward Hamill, 
the pioneer priest of Missouri, was the first regularly appointed pastor to this 
church, which was called the Annunciation church. 

In 1878 the frame church was torn down and a structure of dressed 
stone was erected in its stead, which stood until 1893, In 1892 it was found 
that the main body of the Catholic population was living south and west of 



SALINE COUNTY, xMISSOURI 3O9 

Shackelford. For their convenience property was bought in Shackelford and 
a larg-e church, the church of the Immaculate Conception, and a parsonage 
were built there. The following year a church was built in Mt. Leonard. 

Since the death of Father Hamill, in 1889, this parish has had as its 
pastors the Rev. James Mulvey, who died in 1893; Rev. John J. Hogan, who 
built the churches now standing, and who is now in Kansas City ; Rev. C. M. 
Scanlan, at present at Sheffield; Rev. John W. Keyes, now in Kansas City, 
and Rev. M. F. X. Jennings, the present pastor. 

A Catholic church was organized at Marshall in 1869, re-built in 1897. 
Rev. Francis O'Neil is the present pastor. 

There are Catholic churches at Slater, Frankfort and Nelson, in charge 
of Rev. T. J. Fortune, the present pastor. 

At Marshall, St. Savior's Academy, for girls and boys, was built by the 
Catholics of Saline county and sold to the Sisters of Loretto, who conducted 
the school for twenty-four years, and the}' sold it to the Sisters of Sion, who 
now conduct it as an academy for girls and young ladies, under the name of 
the Academy of Our Lady of Sion. 

There are about two hundred and fift}^ families in this county who are 
members of the Catholic church. 

Edward Hamil Council, No. 876, Knights of Columbus, a Catholic or- 
ganization, was installed in Marshall on July 3, 1904. Their beautifully fitted 
up headquarters are on North street. They have at present a membership of 
one hundred and seventy-five. 

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT MARSHALL. 

Trinity church was organized in 1872. The original members were E. 
D. Montague, William Gosline, John R. Vance, Mrs. Emily Montague, Mrs. 
J. H. Cordell, Mrs. J. V. Chase, Mrs. Maggie Montague, Mrs. Mary Gaines, 
Mrs. Joseph Field, Mrs. Leslie Marmaduke, Mrs. \A'illiam R. Bruce, Dr. and 
Mrs. B. St. George Tucker. E. D. Montague donated the lot for the church 
building, which was erected in the year 1874, at a cost of one thousand nine 
hundred dollars. The church was dedicated the next year by the Right Rev. 
C. F. Robertson, D. D. The membership in 1881 was seventy-two. A par- 
sonage was built in 1879. Both church and parsonage are free from debt. 

The following have been rectors of the church since its establishment: 
Reverends Samuel, Woodruff, Patrick, Higson, Donehoo, Fick. McElwain, 
Joseph, Plunkett and Bohn. 



310 PAST AND PRESENT 

The foreg-oing is all the information that we have been able to obtain 
with reference to the churches of the county. It is regretted that a more ex- 
tended history of the churches, congregations and church people of Saline 
cannot be given. The author has made efforts to get the necessary data, but 
failed, the church people to whom he has applied being unable or unwilling to 
furnish the required information. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
AUTHORS OF SALINE COUNTY. 

JUDGE NATHANIEL B. TUCKER. 

Judge Nathaniel B. 1\icker, a native of Virginia, was born at Williams- 
burg, September 6, 1784, and died at Winchester, Virginia, August 26, 185 1. 
He was a half brother of John Randolph, of Roanoke, his father, J. St. 
George Tucker, having married Randolph's mother. He graduated at Will- 
iam and Mary College in 1801, studied law and practiced in Virginia until 
181 5, when he came to Missouri territory, locating in St. Louis county. He 
was appointed circuit judge in 1818. by Edward Bates, acting governor, hold- 
ing this position for eight years. 

In 183 1 Judge Tucker had become a resident of Saline county, living 
on his farm, which he called "Ardmour," near the town of Jonesboro, the 
land now owned by the Dennis brothers. 

Judge Tucker was eccentric, like his half brother. When he came to 
the territory, he purchased a farm near Florrissant, and in a large hollow 
sycamore tree about ten feet in diameter, which was on the place, he. kept 
his law office, cutting off the tree about ten feet from the ground, cleaning- 
out the hollow, putting in a floor, a door and window, and arranging his law 
book shelves around on the sides of this natural wall. AMien circuit judge, 
he would get on a horse, gallop twenty or thirty miles to hold court, and as 
soon as the grand jury finished its business, try the case presented and then 
return home the same way. He was an extreme state's rights man. as he 
fully set forth in this "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United 
States.'' 

In 1828 Judge Tucker married Eliza Naylor, of St. Charles countv. 
Missouri, who died five months afterwards. He married his second wife, 
Lucy A. Smith, daughter of Gen. Thomas A. Smith, at Experiment, his coun- 
try residence, the T3th of April. 1830. Judge Tucker was an accomplished 
gentleman in every sense, of unusual acquirements, and his wife an elegant, 
handsome, refined and educated woman, and they resided at ".Vrdmour" im- 
mediately after their marriage. 



y2 PAST AND PRESENT 

Jiidg-e 1\icl<cr. while living in Saline, wrote a novel. "Georg-e Balcombe," 
the scene of which was laid in this county, and the leading- characters being 
General Smith and his wife. After returning to Virginia, in 1836, he wrote 
a very remarkal)le book. "The Partisan Leader," in which was set forth the 
Civil war, predicting" and delineating events as they afterwards occurred, 
1 86 1 to 1865, being quite prophetic. Sul)sequently he wrote a "Discourse 
on the Importance of the Study of Political Science as a Branch of Aca- 
demic Education in the United States" in 1841, "Lectures Intended to Prepare 
the Student for the Study of the Constitution of the LTnited States" in 1845, 
"Principles of Pleading-" in 1846. He left unfinished a biography of his 
half brother. John Randolph. 

^!1ie late "History of Missouri," by Lewis Houck. ascribes to Judge 
Tucker the authorship of the great seal of the state of Missouri, which was 
provided for by the first constitution of the state. The emblems and devises 
of the new state seal the constitution provided should be fixed by law, and 
accordingly the General Assembly adopted the present "Great Seal of the 
State of Missouri" as the arms of the state, and which at the time in heraldic 
vernacular was described as follows : 

"Anus: Parted per pale on the dexter side; gules, the white or grizzly 
bear of Missouri, passant, guardant. proper on a chief engrailed: arjurc, a 
crescent argent; on the sinister side the arms of the LTnited States, the whole 
within a band inscribed with the words 'United we stand, divided we fall.' 

"7'';;/- f/ic crest: Over a helmet full faced, grated with six bars, er, a 
cloud proper, from which ascends a star, argent, and above it a constellation 
of twenty-three smaller stars, argent, on an azure field, surrounded by a cloud 
proper. 

"Supporters: On each side, a white or grizzly bear of Missouri, ram- 
pant, guardant, standing on a scroll inscribed with the words, 'Salus Populi Su- 
prema Lex Esto,' and under the scroll in numerical letters AIDCCCXX."* 



* Houck's "Historj- of Missouri." 

So that the reader may better understand this licraUUo languaj^o. the definitions of the 
technical terms are here given : 

Anns: The ensigns armorial consisting of figures and colors l)orne in sliiclds. Iian- 
ncrs. etc., as marks of dignity and distinction. 

Fale: One of the great ordinances, l)eing a ])vn;u\ pcrpnidicnlar strijic in an escutch- 
eon equally distant from the two edges. 
• Dexter: Riglit. 

Sinister: Left. 

Gules: Red, to denote courage; represented on printed shields hy straight perpen- 
dicular lines closely drawn together. 

Passant: Walking; a term applied to any animal on a shield which appears to walk 
leisurely; passiim. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



6'6 



Tlie meaning- of the arms of the state is not now g-eneraHv nnderstood, 
and by many is considered simply a fancy picture. Yet the ^rms of Missouri 
possess a deep and profound significance and in beautiful and appropriate 
heraldic language expressed the situation of the new state, as the following 
explanation, which was published'at the time, shows: 

The arms of the state of Missouri and of the United States empaled 
together, yet separated by a pale, denote the connection existing- between the 
two governments, and show that, although connected by a compact, yet we 
arc independent as to internal concerns ; the words surrounding the shield 
denote the necessity of the Union. Ouadrepeds are the most honorable bear- 
ing. The great grizzly bear, being- almost peculiar to the Missouri river and 
its tributaries, and remarkable for its prodigious size, strength and courage, 
is borne as the principal charge of our shield. The color of the shield is red 
and denotes hardiness and valor. The chief is most honorable of all ordi- 
naries. The color blue sig-nifies vigilance, perseverance and justice. The 
crescent in heraldrv is borne on the shield b}' the second son, and on our 
shield denotes that we are the second state (Louisiana being the first) formed 
out of the territorv not within the original territorial limits of the United 
States and admitted to the Union. The crescent also denotes the growing- 
situation of this state as to its inhabitants, wealth, power, etc. The color 
white signifies purity and innocence. The helmet indicates enterprise and 
hardihood. The one blazoned on this coat of arms is that assigned to sov- 
ereigns only. The star ascending from a cloud to join the constellations 
shows Missouri surmounting her difficulties and taking her rank among the 
other states of the Union. The supporters, the same powerful animals, 
borne on the shield, which support the shield on which are blazoned the arms 
of the state and of the United States, denote, that while we support our- 
selves by our own internal strength we are also in supix)rt of the general 



Guardani: Having the face turned toward the spectator: regarding: looking. 

Proper: Represented in its natural color. 

Chief: The upper one-third of the escutcheon. 

Engrailed: To indent with curved lines as a line of division or an ordinary. 

Azure: Blue. 

Crescent: A bearing in the form of a new moon. 

Argent: Silver, white. 

Crest: An appendage to the shield placed over it and usually borne upon a wreath. 
It is generally some portion of the coat of armor or a device commemorative of sfune 
incident in apposite history. 

Or: Gold. 

Cloud proper: A cloud in natural color. 



314 PAST AND PRESENT 

government. The motto shows that the good of the people is the supreme 
law of this state. The numerals under the scroll show the date of the con- 
stitution "* 

Judge Tucker had two sons. Beverly St. (leorge Tucker, a physician, 
was a regimental surgeon in the Confederate army in Virginia, and also had 
charge of a general hospital at Petersburg. Virginia, serving throughout the 
Civil war. Immediately after the Civil war, he moved to Missouri and was 
a resident for many years of Marshall, and was a very successful and well 
known physician. Doctor Tucker subsequently moved to Colorado, becom- 
ing a resident of Colorado Springs, in that state, and here he died on the 
30th of March, 1894. 

Another son, Capt. Thomas Smith B. Tucker, commanded a company in 
the Confederate army in Virginia, subsequently becoming a farmer of this 
county, where he owned and conducted a farm for several years. He after- 
wards returned to his native state, Virginia, his death occurring in the vear 
KS73. 

JOHN B. JONES. 

At an early day in the history of Arrow Rock, about 1835, a young 
merchant landed on a steamboat there with a stock of goods for a general 
store, bought in Philadelphia. This was John B. Jones, a native of Balti- 
more, born in 18 10, and who could have been but little over twenty-one years 
of age when he opened his store there. But little is known of Mr. Jones' 
personal history, but we know that while he lived at Arrow Rock he was the 
author of two very interesting and popular books, that is to say, "The Coun- 
try Merchant" and "Wild Western Scenes," editions of which are yet pub- 
lished every year by the Lippincotts of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Jones left Arrow Rock about 1850. After returning East in 1856,. 
fifty thousand copies having been already issued and sold, he sold his copy- 
right of "The Country Merchant" and "Wild Western Scenes," to J. B. 
Lippincott & Company, Philadelphia, who have issued many editions since. 

Mr. Jones afterwards wrote and published "The Rival Belles," 1852; 
"Adventures of Colonel Vanderbomb." 1852; "The Monarchist," 1853; 



* Houck's "History of Missouri." 

It is not now known who suggested these arms of Missouri. If allowed to conjecture 
I would attribute the ideas they convey to Judge Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, who we 
know was at that time one of the most learned and accomplished residents of Missouri 
and perhaps wrote this explanation of the heraldic meaning. He was, too, a pronounced 
advocate of the rights of the states, an idea that seems to pervade the entire armorial 
bearings in Missouri. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 315 

"Life and Adventures of a Coniitry Merchant," 1854; "Freaks of Fortune,'' 
1854; "Winkles," a humorous tale, 1855, an edition of fifty thousand copies 
of which were sold in a few months; "The War Path." and a second series of 
"Wild Western Scenes," 1856. 

This popular author of books, who made his literary debut here in Sa- 
line county, was for many years connected with the press and established a 
newspaper in Philadelphia in 1857, entitled the Southern Monitor, devoted to 
Southern interests. He subsequently served the Southern Confederacy at 
Richmond probably as clerk in the war department, and after the war pub- 
lished "Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Capitol of the Confederacy 1866." 

The author of this history has not been able to learn the history of Mr. 
Jones since the publication of his last book in 1866, although he has made 
diligent inquiry. He left Arrow Rock about 1850. returning to Baltimore 
or Philadelphia, and was there devoted to literary pursuits up to the beginning 
of the Civil war. In the preface to the edition of "The Western Merchant," 
he relates the difficulties he encountered in getting his first book printed, being 
compelled to purchase an interest in a newspaper in which it first appeared. 
But his books were popular from the start and over fifty thousand copies 
had been sold h\ him \vhen he disposed of his copyright in 1856, and they 
are interesting books to read yet. 

PERRY SCOTT RADER, OFFICIAL REPORTER OF THE SUPREME COURT. 

Perry Scott Rader, son of Rev. Andrew M. and Isabella A. (McFar- 
land) Rader, was born in Jasper county, Missouri, about three miles from the 
present site of Joplin, November 24, 1859. Early in the Civil war his 
father's house — as were all the houses within ten miles around — was burned 
by the Kansas Jayhawkers and the family refugeed to Henry county, Mis- 
souri. His father was at that time a prisoner of war in Arkansas, having 
previously been captain of a company of Confederate soldiers, and later for 
three months the chaplain of Rains' division of the Confederate army, which 
in fact was scarcely more than a regiment. In 1863 the family again ref- 
ugeed from Henry county, having been driven out by Order No. 11 issued 
by Gen. Thomas Ewing. They moved to Saline county and that county 
has ever since been the family home. The father was a Methodist circuit 
rider and was one of those heroic men who set his face like flint toward duty, 
and went about all over southwest Missouri preaching to the early settlers 
and establishing civilization in this rich new country. Perry was raised to 
hard work on the farm, working in the fields during the summer months and 



3l6 PAST AND PRESENT 

in the winter attending the rural schools. \\ hen he was nineteen years of 
age, his father sent him to Central College at Fayette for one year, and at 
the close of the year gave him a horse, saddle and bridle, and that was his 
patrimony. He obtained a school a few miles west of Marshall, taught that 
A'ear and the succeeding year, and used the little money that he obtained from 
teaching to purchase calves, young mules and horses, selling them quickly 
and making a few dollars on each trade. 

The summer of 1882 Mr. Rader spent in Colorado Springs, was there 
just four months, got up a city directory and returned with a profit of just 
fifty dollars per month from the work he had done while there. He then 
returned to Central College and remained there four years, and in 1886 grad- 
uated with the full classical degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was elected 
principal of the schools at Brunswick, and taught there for the next year. 
In the meantime he was studying law, first during his vacation under Judge 
John P. Strother, of Marshall, who had long been a friend of the family 
and with whose boys he had roomed at college, and later under Tyson S. 
Dines, then of Brunswick, now of St. Louis. 

in tlie spring of 1887 Mr. Rader bought a half interest in the Howard 
County Advertiser and was its editor for one year. Then he sold his interest 
and in June, 1888, was admitted to the bar at Fayette, and for one year 
practiced his profession at that place. In 1889 he was elected editor of the 
Brunszvickcr, then a paper of wide circulation and influence in northern Mis- 
souri and remained its editor for six years, but all the time practicing 
law. By 1894 his practice had increased to such an extent that he gave up 
the paper and devoted himself to his profession. In 1897 he was elected 
reporter of the supreme court of Missouri, the duty of which officer is to 
write the syllabus or digest of the written opinions of the court and otherwise 
prepare them for publication. There were fourteen candidates for the posi- 
tion, three of them circuit judges. Among the candidates were James D. 
Fox, who has since been elected one of the judges of the supreme court ; 
Richard L. Goode, who has for some years been one of the judges of the 
St. Louis court of appeals, and Judge W. D. Shackelford, who has since 1899 
been a representative in Congress. On the final ballot Mr. Rader received 
the votes of six of the seven judges of the court. He was again re-elected to 
the same office in 1903, again in 1909, and since 1897 has resided in Jeffer- 
son City, though for many years he continued to vote at Brunswick. He 
has devoted himself assiduously to his profession ever since 1895, '^i''^^^' while 
he is reporter of the supreme court, he practices law when his time is not 
occupied with his official duties, most of his cases being in that court. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 317 

Tn 1898. soon after his admission to the bar, Air. Rader conceived the 
idea of writing a history of Missouri for the use of schools. He had observerl 
during- the time he was teaclier that the people of the state, both old and 
young, seemed to know very little about its history and to have little interest 
in it. He went to work gathering the data from every source possible, and 
gave over his evenings to that work, spending time at it, as he said, that 
most young men would spend in loitering on the streets or in idleness of 
some kind. He would not let it interfere with his professional duties, and 
hence the work progressed slowly. His purpose was to write an absolutely 
truthful and accurate history. In 1891 the volume was printed and has 
found a large place in the schools of the state. In 1897 the Legislature 
passed a law providing for a commission of five men to adopt a series of 
textbooks for use in the public schools of the state. Mr. Rader had filed 
his history for adoption as a textbook. When the commission examined 
it they sent a telegram for him to come to Jefterson City and on his arrival 
they informed him that they did not have a "Civil Government" that met 
their ideals, and stated to him that if he would return home and write a 
"Civil Government" and combine it with his history and publish the two 
as one volume, they would adopt it. He returned home, within a few weeks 
wrote a "Civil Government of the United States and of the State of Mis- 
souri," submitted the manuscript to the commission and they adopted it and 
the history together as one book, and since then, though the book has been 
frequently revised, it has been used in schools throughout the state, and while 
other liooks on the subject have sharply competed with it for adoption and 
use, it has held almost a uni\ersal place in the schools. Probablv more vol- 
umes of it have been printed than of all other books written by Missourians 
and printed by a Missouri publishing house, for his book is printed by the 
Hugh Stephens Printing Company, of Jefferson City. Mr. Rader at quiet 
hours has been working for three or four years on two or three other books. 
One is "Pastime Stories About Missouri and Missourians," and is meant to 
be a pleasing narrative of some things that have always been interesting to 
the mind of the man who loves Missouri. Another is a "History of Mis- 
souri" for general readers. It will consist of about three modern volumes, 
and is being worked out with patience and painstaking labor, the purpose of 
the author being not only to make a readable book but one that is absolutely 
correct and true to facts. 

The preparation of the written opinions of the supreme court has been 
his largest literary work. When these opinions are certified to him by the 
clerk, he goes through them and brings them to a uniform rule of spelling. 



3l8 PAST AND PRESENT 

punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, etc., and writes a digest of each, 
called the syllabus, which consists of the points decided in the case, stated 
in the most concise form possible, and care must be taken that no point in 
the syllabus is either an overstatement or an understatement of the things 
decided by the opinion. The writing of the syllabus is his chief work as 
reporter, and it may be said here that the written opinions of the highest 
court in each state are printed in a series of volumes called the "Reports," 
and the officer who prepares those opinions for publication is called the 
"reporter." Hence the title of the office. During his term as reporter Mr. 
Rader has published over eighty-five volumes of the Missouri Reports, more 
than one-third of the entire number published since the organization of the 
state, and in this work he has written the syllabus of more than five thousand 
opinions. 

JAMES DE OUINCY DONEHOO. 

James de Ouincy Donehoo, clergyman, was born at Fairview, West 
Virginia, August lo, 1864, the son of John R. and Eleanor (McCown) 
Donehoo. He was graduated from Washington and Jefi^erson College as a 
Bachelor of Arts in 1885, with the honorary oration, and he received from 
that institution the Master of Arts degree in 1903. He also attended the 
University of Pennsylvania, taking the course in Hebrew, and the Philadel- 
phia Divinity School, from which he was graduated in 1889. Mr. Donehoo 
served as a missionary at Tarentum, Pennsylvania, rector at St. Paul's church, 
Marion. Ohio; Trinity church, Marshall, Missouri, from June, 1892, to Octo- 
ber, 1902, during which time he wrote the "Apocryphal and Legendary Life 
of Christ" (The Macmillan Company), though it was not published until 
1903; Grace church, Monroe, Louisiana; was general missionary at New 
Orleans and rector of the church of the Epiphany at Opelousas. He was 
editor of the daily and weekly Dcmocrat-Nezvs at Marshall, Missouri, from 
1900 to 1902, and has contributed special articles to most of the leading 
Sunday papers and written many short stories. During the past two years 
he has contributed over fifty short stories to more than twenty maga- 
zines and periodicals in the United States and Canada. Mr. Donehoo is a 
member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and is a Royal Arch Mason. He 
married at Washington, Pennsylvania, April 23, 1889, Bessie Brown, and 
they have three children: Katharine W., born in 1891 ; Eleanor M.. born 
in 1894 in Marshall, Missouri; and James de O., born in 1896. at Marshall, 
Missouri. Since October i, 1909, he has been rector of Christ church (Oak 
Cliff") Dallas, Texas. 




(\KX. THOMAS A. SMmi. 



I 



CHAPTER XXX. 
DISTINGUISHED MEN OF SALINE COUNTY. 

BRIG. -GEN. THOMAS A. SMITH. 

A very conspicuous figure among the early settlers of this county was 
Brig.-Gen. Thomas A. Smith. General Smith was born at Piscataway, Es- 
sex county, Virginia, August 12. 1781. He entered the United States army 
as an ensign about 1800, and was commissioned second lieutenant of artillery 
the 15th of December. 1803; first lieutenant, 3Tst of December, 1805; captain 
of the Rifles (the crack regiment of the army), the 3d of May, 1808; lieuten- 
ant-colonel July 31, 1810; colonel the 6th of July, 1812; brevet brigadier- 
general for "distinguished and meritorial services." the 24th of January, 1814: 
brigadier-general. 25th of January, 181 5. 

When General Smith came to this county, in 1825, he had seen nearly 
twentA'" years of active service in the regular army of the United States. Soon 
after being commissioned, by President Jefferson, a second lieutenant, he was 
ordered West to join the army of General Wilkinson, then engaged in taking- 
possession of the Louisiana Purchase, which we acquired from Spain during 
the year 1803. Major-General Wilkinson was then the commander-in-chief 
of the army of the Lliited States, and here in Louisiana and Mississippi he 
was actively engaged for the next two years. 

Lieutenant Smith having been promoted to first lieutenant on the i8th 
of October, 1806, he was sent by General ^^'ilkinson to proceed to Washington 
Citv, to convey the information to the President concerning- the operations 
of Col. Aaron Burr, in the West. Having reached W^ashington City, he im- 
mediately made report to the President and thereupon the President imme- 
diately issued his famous proclamation against Colonel Burr and his adherents. 

Afterwards, Lieutenant Smith was employed in active service until the 
war of 1812, at which time he had been promoted to colonel of a regiment, 
being- in command of the regiment of Rifles, which was considered the crack 
regiment of all the army. He operated in 1812, at first at Fort St. Mary's, 
Georgia, against the Indians and Spaniards. In the spring of 1813 he was 
relieved of his command there wnth permission to return to Tennessee, there 
to recruit his regiment and join the army of the Northwest, under General 



3_'0 PAST AND PRESENT 

Harrison, operating on the shores of Lake Erie. He reached the army in 
Aug-nst. and in September, 1813, his regiment was transported across Lake 
I^-ic (Ml General Perry's ships that had recently been engaged in the battle 
of Lake Erie. Shortly afterwards, his regiment was engaged in the battle 

' of the Thames, in Canada, where the famous Indian chief, Tecumseh, was 
killed. In November, afterwards, he commanded the post of Sackett's Har- 
bor, when General \Vilkinson arrived to take the chief command, and, as a 
part of the forces, his regiment was engaged in the campaign against Mon- 
treal, down the St. Lawrence river, fighting the battles of Chrysler's Field, 
Lacoll Mills, etc. This winter campaign was disastrous to the American arms 
on account of the extreme severity of the weather; so disastrous, in fact, that 
General Wilkinson was removed from command in the spring of 1814, be- 
ing succeeded by Gen. George Izard. 

In the early days of September. 1814, Major-General Izard and a large 
portion of his command, including the brigade of General Smith (he having 
been promoted shortly before to brigadier-general), under orders from the 
secretary of war, proceeded to march west and join the forces operating on 
the Niagara river. Reaching Buffalo, New York, in the month of December, 
the campaign being closed. General Smith was granted a leave of absence to 
return to his home at Knoxville, Tennessee. While there, peace was declared 
and the war ended, the treaty being signed at Ghent, on the 28th of Decem- 
ber, 1814, and promulgated in the United States the 15th of February, 181 5. 
Following the peace, of course, the greater part of the army was discharged 
from service, the regular army being reduced and reorganized on the basis 
of ten thousand men and officers. General Smith and his regiment being 
among those retained. 

In July, 181 5, while remaining in Knoxville on furlough, General Smith 
received orders from Major-General Jackson, commanding the department 
of the South, to proceed at once t(j St. Louis and take command of the Ninth 
Military Department. This order he immediately proceeded to obey, arriving 
at St. Louis on the ist of September, 181 5, his orders reciting the fact that the 
V Indians were turbulent in the West and formidable hostilities were expected, 
and his presence considered necessary. On reaching St. Louis, he at once 
assumed command of all the forces in the district, consisting of some two 
thousand men. scattered over the vast frontier in barracks and camps. St. 
Louis was then a town of about twenty-five hundred population. Fort Bell- 

V fontaine, on the Missouri river, four miles above its mouth, had been the mil- 
itary headquarters for some years previously, the fort having been estab- 
lished by Maj.-Gen. James Wilkinson in 1806. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 321 

Here at Bellfontaine General Smith held command for over three vears. 
During- this time he located personally and had huilt Forts Armstrong, on 
Rock Island, in the Mississippi ri\cr; Fort Fdwards. on the Des Moines; 
Fort Crawford, at Prairie de Chien. and Fort Smith, on the Arkansas. 1"he 
last named fort was laid out and established by ]Major S. H. Long-, of the 
topographical engineers, in September, 1817, who, with the approval of the 
secretan^ of war, named the fort in honor of the commander of the depart- 
ment. During- the ser\-ice of General Smith, tlie Sac and Fox Indians were 
turbulent in Illinois and Missouri, but there was no general Indian war, as 
had been expected by General Jackson. General Smith had military sun'eys 
made of the Mississippi river by Major S. H. Long from the mouth of the 
Arkansas to its source, and of the Arkansas river from its mouth to Fort 
Smith. 

In the spring of 18 16 the General ascended the Mississippi with five com- 
panies of the Rifles in keel boats and pirogues, selecting- in person the loca- 
tion of Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, thence going- up the river to Prairie 
de Chien, where he located Fort Craw^ford, leaving the troops at either place 
to begin the erection of the forts. He continued to command the Ninth Mil- 
itary Department, which then included the greater part of Illinois and Wis- 
consin, and all the Louisiana Purchase west of the Mississippi river, until the 
18th of October, 1818. 

Congress having- provided for the opening of a land office at Franklin. 
Missouri, and for the sale of the land in the Boone's Lick country, he concluded 
to resign his position in the army and apply for the appointment of receiver 
of the land office at Franklin. This would require his resignation from the 
army, to which the secretary of war. his superior officers and friends at Wash- 
nigton were very much opposed, as shown by the correspondence on the mat- 
ter at that time. The pay of the office of receiver was considerablv less than 
that receiAcd as brig-adier-general commanding a department, and he had a 
difficult task to persuade his friends at Washington as to the propriety of his 
resigning. But having- become a man of family, and both he and his wife hav- 
ing inherited a large number of negro slaves, he doubtless felt that his duties 
to liis wife and children and slaves required his resignation, in (^rder that he 
might have control of his own movements and select a permanent place o\ 
residence. 

Captain O'Fallon. of the Rifle Regiment, went to Washington City in 
the winter of 1818 to urge the appointment of General Smith to the receiver- 
ship ; and his letters from \\'ashington show that he had g-reat difficulty in 
l^ersuading- the President to nominate him for a civil office that would neces- 

21 



322 PAST AND PRESENT 

sarily invol\-e his resignation from the army. However, his efforts were 
crowned with success, notwithstanding there were numerous other prominent 
men wanting the place. 

Cleneral Smith's resignation was accepted in October, 1818, and his ac- 
counts with the government approved and settled.^ He departed from Fort 
Bellefontaine, leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Chambers in command, and on the 
1st of November, in conjunction with the register, the land office at Franklin 
was opened and set in operation by them. The records show the receipts for 
sales of lands averaged over fifty thousand dollars a month for several years 
after the office was opened. The General built a large brick residence in the 
suburbs of Franklin, at that time the most populous and flourishing town 
west of St. Louis. In fact, lots in Franklin were as valuable as they were in 
St. Louis. Many of the subordinate officers of his command kept up their 
correspondence with him for years after his retirement, and these letters, yet 
preserved, show that he was most highly esteemed by them all. Major W. 
Morgan writing that he regarded him as he would his father, although Gen- 
eral Smith was only thirty-nine years old when he resigned from the army. 

Soon after locating at Franklin, General Smith began entering lands in 
Saline county, ultimately acquiring six or seven thousand acres of the splendid 
prairie land, a considerable portion of which he enclosed and put in cultiva- 
tion by his negroes. This farm he named "Experiment," regarding his ven- 
ture upon the business of farming as clearly experimental, after twenty years 
of military life. In 1826 he had his own dwelling house erected, but he did 
not occupy the place with his family until 1829. at which time he resigned 
the office of receiver, moving to Experiment, where he spent the remainder 
of his life, devoted exclusively to agricultural pursuits. He soon made Ex- 
V periment "blossom as the rose," the place becoming the largest and best im- 
proved and cultivated farm in this section of Missouri. Half a mile south of 
the Salt Fork, near where the points of the ridges of rolling prairie reach 
down to the water's edge, and the fringes of young timber lining the banks 
of the creek, he had surveyed and divided a plot of forty acres near the center 
of this large tract, for the site of his residence, negro quarters, stables, barns 
and other outbuildings. The plot of prairie was drained by a ravine through 
the middle, drawing off the water from a bold and permanent spring rising 
at the foot of the hill, on the north side of the ravine, the course being from 
west to east, falling into the Salt Fork. The enclosure on the south side of 
the gradual declivity extending down to the spring branch of five acres, em- 
bracing the yird around the residence; to the east immediately adjoining, sep- 
arated by a sod fence, was an equal area devoted to a garden and nursery for 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 323 

young trees. Three hundred yards to the north, across the spring branch, 
were built two parallel rows of double cabins for the negroes, adjoining which 
in the east was the overseer's house; the intervening space being studded 
with a growth of black locust. Around the yard were double rows of cotton- 
wood and honey locust, the yard itself being shaded with forest trees, oak, 
ash, elm, box elder, etc., interming-led with a variety of evergreens. The 
garden of four or five acres was divided into equal squares, separated by 
broad walks, bordered with flowers, the walks always kept clean and clear 
of grass or weeds. One-fourth of the garden was devoted to flowers, always 
kept in a perfect state of cultivation and order. The garden and yard at Ex- 
periment were the delight, above all other localities, of the writer in the mid- 
dle of the last century, when he can first recollect seeing them. At that time, 
the shade and ornamental trees having had the growth of twenty years or 
more, had obtained considerable size — the cottonwoods had become thirty or 
forty feet high, and they, together with the other varieties of shade and orna- 
mental trees, cast in the summer a grateful shadow over the bluegrass sward 
of the entire yard, and at the same time forming the abode and nesting place 
of innumerable birds — songsters, whose cadences were wafted the livelong 
day through the foliage by the winds from the great stretch of prairie adjoin- 
ing, stretching out to the west as far as the eye could reach. It would seem 
now that the memories of Experiment, impressed upon me in my childhood, 
are never to fade from my recollection, though more than half a century has 
elapsed. 

From the time General Smith made his permanent residence at Experi- 
ment to the beginning of the Civil war, after the General's death in 1844^ the 
place was owned by his only surviving son. Dr. Crawford E. Smith, and at 
that period the author frequently enjoyed the noted hospitality and good liv- 
ing of the house. There was never any lack of house servants, at all times in 
readiness. At least two cooks, two waiting maids, a dining room waiter, a 
carriage driver, whose business it was to look after the driving and riding 
horses ; a gardener, and a man to feed and care for the dogs, and in addition 
to these, an unusually well qualified man servant, whose duty it was to wait 
upon any gentlemen visitors. 

If the visitor at Experiment was from a distance and disposed to take 
part in the deer drive, he was furnished with horse and gun and other ac- 
coutrements of a complete hunter's equipment. There was a small armory 
of guns and pistols of various kinds kept in a room built for that particular 
purpose and the arms under the care of one of the servants. 

No country was ever better adapted to deer driving than that about this 



3-M 



PAST AND PRESENT 



place in the first half of the last century, nine-tenths of the country being open 
l)rairie. with skirts of timber along the streams and scattered clumps of Inrush 
and thickets here and there over the open land. 

General Smith was a lover of horses and dogs, always having a pack of 
thirty or forty deer hounds, besides coursing and bird dogs. When I was a 
boy, it was an interesting sight when the dogs w^ere fed in a long trough for 
that purpose, the food being usually corn meal mush. A great deal of the 
General's time was devoted to the planting and culture of fruit and orna- 
mental trees, having his own nursery for starting the trees, himself super- 
intending the culture, grafting, etc., and in the course of a few years he had 
the o-reatest variety and most extensive orchard in this section of the state, 
in addition to a general assortment*, of evergreen and exotics. Some of the 
yellow pines set out by him. now (1909) are perhaps eighty feet high and 
two feet in diameter. Adjoining the old garden, there are yet pecan, chest- 
nut and mulberry trees set out by him, which are large, flourishing trees, be- 
sides white pine, hemlocks, spruce, locusts, and innumerable cedars, monu- 
ments of good taste and foresight. 

Here on this farm General Smith spent the last fifteen years of his life, 
dying in 1844, at the age of sixty-three. After resigning the ofiice of re- 
ceiver, he w^as never a candidate for office, nor made any effort to become a 
popular leader; on the contrary, he maintained the reserve and perhaps hauteur 
. of the military officer acquired by long habit. He and his wife lie buried in 
the family graveyard on the fann, the location having been designated by him 
before his death, a beautiful and appropriate locality near the public highway. 
Tw^o thousand acres of the original tract entered by General Smith nows in 
1909, belong to his grandchildren. 

A grandson, owning that part, has donated to the Presbyterian church 
about five acres of land, including the family cemetery, for a churchyard and 
cemetery, and on this land there has recently been erected a handsome stone 
church, erected mainly through and by the family, the land, however, being 
donated in perpetuity to the congregation of the Presbyterians organized in 
that locality, to be managed and controlled by a board of trustees, thus in- 
suring for the future the care and protection of the family graveyard, and at 
the same time the church forming a lasting memorial to their grandfather, 
the original owner of the soil. 

CLAIBORNE FOX JACKSON. 

Governor Jackson was born near Flemingsburg, Fleming county, Ken- 
tucky, in 1806. He was delicate when young, but became stronger as he 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 



325 



g'rew up, and on reaching his majority became a handsome, athletic and ener- 
getic man of six feet in height and remarkably well proportioned. 

Young Jackson migrated to Missouri in 1825, settling at Old Franklin, 
Howard county, in 1826, finding employment there as a clerk in a store. 
He formed a co-partnership a year or two afterwards and bought out his 
employers, conducting the establishment for some years afterwards. He 
proved successful as a mercantile man, being a very fine penman and an ex- 
traordinary accountant and bookkeeper, attaining in <ifter years, it was said, 
the accuracy in figures of an adding machine of the present day. It was 
said of him that no matter how long a column of figures was submitted for 
addition, his accuracy was such in addition that he never missed the total. 
He established a branch store at Arrow Rock in 1830, becoming himself a 
resident of that place. 

In 1836 Mr. Jackson was a candidate and was elected to represent Sa- 
line county in the Legislature. Under VanBuren's administration, he held 
the office of postmaster at Arrow Rock. Some years afterwards he moved 
his residence to Howard county, being chosen cashier of the bank at Fayette, 
which position he acceptably filled for several years, and here, while a resi- 
dent of Howard county, he was first elected to the House of Representatives, 
and subsequently thereafter senator from that senatorial district. In the 
session of 1849 he introduced into the Senate a set of resolutions on the sub- 
ject of slavery, which ever afterwards bore the name of "Jackson Resolu- 
tions," and afterwards he advocated them with such force and eloquence as to 
secure their passage and adoption b}- both houses of the Legislature. These 
resolutions gave him great prominence throughout the entire state, if not the 
entire country. He remained a resident of Howard county until after the 
death of his father-in-law. Dr. John Sappington, in 1855, when he moved 
back to Saline county, to the farm formerly owned by Doctor Sappington. 

Shortly afterwards, Mr. Jackson became a candidate for Congress, but 
suffered defeat. In i860 he was nominated by the Democratic party as its 
candidate for governor, being elected by a handsome majority, notwithstand- 
ing he had three other candidates opposing- him. He was inaug'urated gov- 
ernor of the state just as the clouds of civil war were rising in the political 
horizon, peace and quiet soon afterwards vanishing from the state for the 
four years following. Governor Jackson liad had no military training or 
war experience, and it was a new thing which he entered upon with great 
hesitancy and reluctance, but he was a state's rights man and politician, be- 
lieving that the states had some right which the national government was 
bound to respect and that he was under obligations as governor of the state 



326 PAST AND PRESENT 

to pursue the course he afterwards undertook in an effort to prevent the in- 
vasion of the state by the federal troops. The event and termination is a 
matter of history known to all. 

Governor Jackson thought it would be cowardly and disgraceful to 
quietly submit to federal power, which he knew was to be enforced by peo- 
ple hostile and unfriendly to the interests of the people of Missouri, who had 
elected him. Therefore, he felt obliged to make resistance at all hazards. 

Governor Jackson died, after a lingering illness, December 6, 1862, in 
the state of Arkansas, near the capital, Little Rock. His family, consisting 
of his widow, two daughters and a son surviving him, returned to Missouri 
after the close of the war. In 1867 his remains were removed and reinterred 
in the Sappington cemetery in this county, and marked by a suitable grave- 
stone. 

Governor Jackson's only surviving son, Col. William S. Jackson, was 
born at Arrow Rock the 13th of July, 1834. He was mainly educated at Fay- 
ette, but afterwards, taking a course at the University of Virginia, studied law, 
but never practiced, following the life of a farmer in Saline county until his 
father became governor. He was appointed his private secretary, for which 
position he was admirably fitted and qualified. Entering the military ser- 
vice in 1 861, he was commissioned aide-de-camp for the Sixth Military Dis- 
trict, with the rank of colonel, accompanying his father and the army to 
southwestern Missouri. From Arkansas, going on to Richmond, Virginia, 
he received a commission as recruiting officer for the Partisan Rangers, be- 
ing assigned to Missouri, and under which commission he operated during 
the entire war in Missouri and Arkansas. He surrendered at the close of 
the war to Colonel Denny in Howard county, but was afterwards consider- 
ably annoyed and harrassed by the then existing civil authority. 

Colonel Jackson possessed a striking and distinguished personality, 
graceful and attractive". He was the most popular man in the county, having 
strong friends and supporters among all sorts and classes of people, being 
afterwards elected circuit clerk in spite of every determined opposition from 
other candidates. He married in 1866, and died during the year 1880. His 
death terminated a career which promised to attain much higher official posi- 
tion in the future owing to his overwhelming popularity and ability, and was 
greatly regretted by the people of Saline county, where he was esteemed 
and admired by most everybody. 

JUDGE \V. B. NAPTON. 

Judge W. B. Napton, who had been a resident of Saline county for forty 
years, died at his old home on the 8th of January, 1883. Although not a 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 327 

member of the supreme court at that time, his long service having ended on 
the 1st of January, 1880, yet the bar of the city of St. Louis assembled and 
prepared a memorial upon his death, which contains a suitable and correct 
sketch of the man, lawyer and judge, which we are content to transfer from 
the Seventy-sixth Missouri Reports, where it was printed by order of the 
supreme court, the memorial being as follows : 

"The bar of the city of St. Louis assembled in the court house on the 
20th day of January, 1883, to hear the report of the committee, consisting of 
the Hon. John H. Wickham, Hon. Samuel T. Glover, Hon. James O. Broad- 
head, Hon. Albert Todd and Hon. George A. Madill, appointed at a previous 
meeting to prepare and present a suitable memorial upon the death of the late 
Hon. William B. Napton. The Hon. Thomas T. Gantt was chairman, and 
Thomas K. Skinker, Esquire, secretary. 

''William Barclay Napton was born at Princeton, New Jersey, on the 
23d day of March, 1808, and died at Elk Hill, his residence in Saline county, 
Missouri, on the 8th day of January, 1883. He graduated at Princeton Col- 
lege in 1826. The faculty of that institution declined to discriminate be- 
tween William B. Napton, Joseph Addison Alexander nnd Peter McCall, and 
divided among these three the first honors of the class. Each of these were 
highly distinguished in later life. 

"Young Napton on graduating suddenly found himself reduced to his 
own resources. Up to that time his father had educated him, but then sus- 
tained reverses which disabled him from doing more. Just at this time the 
professor of theology at Princeton received a letter from General Gordon, 
near Charlottesville, Virginia, inquiring after a private tutor. He immedi- 
ately recommended Mr. Napton and advised him tO' accept the position. His 
advice was followed, and the subject of our remarks proceeded to the resi- 
dence of General Gordon, where and at Charlottesville he spent about six 
years, part of the time as a private tutor for General 'Gordon's family, part 
of the time conducting, together with Charles Minor, an academy at Char- 
lottesville, the chief function of which was to be a preparatory school of the 
University of Virginia, and himself engaged during the whole period in 
prosecuting the study of the law and modern languages at that universit}-. 
He enjoyed at Charlottesville and its vicinity a society of unusual brilliancy. 
Mr. Jefferson was but lately dead. Mr. Madison survived and lived in what 
was considered the neighborhood. General Gordon was a distinguished law- 
yer and member of Congress. At his house, some fifteen miles from Char- 
lottesville, Napton was accustomed to meet Thomas Jefferson Randolph, 
Thomas Walker Gilmer, William C. Rives, Philip Barbour and others, to 



328 PAST AND PRESENT 

say nothing- of the scholarly faculty of the University of Virginia. Nowhere 
in the countrv could superior (it is hard to say where equal) social advantages 
have been found. 

"Young Napton was necessarily much influenced by the political opinions 
of these men. He naturally became a member of the strict-construction, 
state's rights school, whose leading and perhaps undeniable tenet is that the 
federal government has only such powers as are conferred upon it expressly. 
by the terms of the federal constitution, coupled with another and much 
more questionable article of faith, viz : That the state Legislatures, except so 
far as expressly restrained by the prohibition of the federal constitution and 
the organic law of the several states respectively, possess all the powers ex- 
ercised immemoriallv by the parliament of Great Britain. 

"In the year 183 1 Mr. Napton was admitted to the bar of the supreme 
court of Virginia, and in 1832 he came to Missouri, settling in Columbia, but 
soon removing to Fayette, Howard county. This was at that time the po- 
litical center oi the state. He made the acquaintance of some of the leading 
men residing- there, and the remarkable clearness and vigor of his style com- 
mended him strongly to such celebrities as Governor ■Miller, who urged him 
to take charge of a journal at Fayette, to be called the Boniislick Ga.acttc. 
He ccmiplied with the request and the ability with which he conducted that 
paper is still spoken of in that region. In 1834 he was elected secretary of 
the State Senate. In 1836 Governor Boggs appointed him his attorney-gen- 
eral. Laying aside thereupon the duties of journalism, he continued as at- 
torney-general until 1839, when he was appointed to a seat on the bench of 
the supreme court, and from that time was absorbed in his judicial duties. 
In 1 85 1 a constitutional amendment made the judiciaiT elective in Missouri. 
^Jlie first election was held in August, 1851, and he failed to be chosen. We 
are in danger of forgetting- that at that day it was reg'arded as unbecoming- 
for a person willing" to serve the state as a judge, and especially as a judge 
of her highest court, to solicit the place by any electioneering arts. Neither 
party then ventured to nominate candidates for the bench. A preference was 
expressed, mainly, if not exclusively, by the l)ar in different quarters i^f the 
state, for this or that jurist, and an inquiry was made whether he would, if 
chosen, accept the duties of the office. In this manner Judge Napton was 
among the persons voted for in August, 1851, but, as before stated, he failed 
to be elected. The popular choice fell on Judge Hamilton R. Gamble, of St. 
Louis William Scott, of Cole, and John F. Ryland, of Lafayette. 

"Judge Napton returned to the practice of law and was engaged in a 
number of the most important cases pending before the court, the bench of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 329 

which he liad so recently adorned. At the general judicial election m 1857 
he was. without solicitation and without nomination, elected to a seat on that 
bench, and his labors re-commenced at the October term of that year. He 
remained on the bench, laboriously performing- the duties of the office until, 
owing- to political complications, he and his colleag-ues were displaced by the 
act of the state convention in 1861. His last decision in that year is re- 
ported at page 411 of 31 Missouri Reports, but a number of opinions pre- 
])ared by him, though not delivered, were adopted as the views of the court 
which was appointed to succeed him and his colleagues, and appear in subse- 
([uent volumes of our decisions. 

"In 1863 Judge Napton removed to St. Louis and opened an office for 
the practice of his profession. At that time St. Louis w^as almost the only 
place in the state where the civil courts were open. Without parade, he. took 
his place among the St. Louis bar, all of the older members of which were 
well acquainted with his force. He took charge of none but important cases, 
but of these he had a large share, and was actively and profitably employed, 
professionally, for the ensuing- ten years. 

"On the 2 1 St of June, 1873, one of the members of the supreme court 
died almost as suddenly as if he had been the victim of a fatal accident. On 
receiving the intelligence. Governor Woodson waited only for the grave to 
close over the deceased, and on the 24th of June appointed Judge Xapton 
to the vacant place. His letter, seen by some of us on the day it was received 
in St. Louis, informed Judge Xapton that he had, without solicitation and 
without even knowing that the commission he enclosed would be accepted, an- 
ticipated what he knew was the unanimous sentiment of the bar of Missouri. 
We wish to emphasize this incident, for in the Fifty-second Missouri Reports 
it is erroneously stated that Judge Ewing died on the 2d and that Judge Nap- 
ton was commissioned on the 24th of June, 1873. 

"Judge Napton's tastes led him to prefer the bench to the bar, but he 
could not without a pecuniary sacrifice accept this commission. His first im- 
pulse was to return it with thanks to Governor Woodson, but the urgency 
of manv of his friends, members of the bar of St. Louis, decided him to ac- 
cept. the appointment. In 1874 he was elected for the remainder of the term 
of Judge Ewing, and continued on the bench until the" 31st of December, 
1880. He survived his retirement only a few days more than two years. 

"\\'hen we state that of forty-one years, ending December 31. 1880, 
Judge Xapton spent twenty-five on the bench, and that his labors appear in 
thirty-six of the sixty volumes of the State Reports issued after his appoint- 
ment and before his final retirement, we have given no adequate idea of his 



330 PAST AND PRESENT 

public services. He brought to the supreme court a mind weU stored with 
the principles of jurisprudence. His clear, patient, penetrating and discrim- 
inating intellect enabled him to fix with nicety upon the point of every con- 
troversy. It was a pleasure to him to examine every record as far as possible 
by the light of the discussions and adjudications of earlier jurists; and when, 
as frequently occurred, the cjuestions presented were of the first impression, 
to apply to them logically the principles of legal science. He did not affect to 
know all the law of a case the moment the statement of it was made. It may 
almost be said that he was too patient in listening to vapid discourses on a 
point respecting which no lawyer could doubt, but the failing was on the 
right side in a court of last resort. 

''The language in which he gave to the bar the results of his reflections 
upon a case discussed by the advocates on each side, and by the judges them- 
selves in council, w'as almost absolutely perfect. It was clear, simple, forci- 
ble, and without the smallest infusion of the oratorical display. In this re- 
spect his opinions are models. Sometimes a case of atrocious fraud would 
be laid bare by the evidence, and to this he would unsparingly apply the law ; 
but he never resorted to denunciation. He did not shrink from giving to any 
conduct on which it was his duty as judge to animadvert that place in the 
category of offenses which the law and the evidence assigned to it, but he 
went no further. He gave to no one the chance of thinking or saying that 
he had gone out of his way to make a personal attack. When he dissented 
from the majority of his brethren he contented himself with stating temper- 
ately, concisely and clearly the reason of his non-concurrence, and many of 
these dissenting opinions became in a few years the view of the whole court 
when the same legal propositions were a second time examined. 

"It is superfluous to speak of the spotlessness of Judge Napton's char- 
acter. During his busy life no colorable charge was ever brought against 
him. He despised all resort to unworthy arts and never stooped to them. 
It has been shown how far he was from soliciting what are usually consid- 
ered honors. He knew his own worth ; was honestly proud of it ; was well 
aware that in consenting to sen^e as one of her judges he laid an obligation 
on the state, at the cost of a personal sacrifice, and disdained to appear as a 
mendicant for an office, which, unless conferred spontaneously, is the reverse 
of an honorable distinction. 

"Judge Napton did not pride himself upon the rapidity of his work. He 
preferred to hold up as long as possible the final sentence in any case admit- 
ting of doubt. This was not due to indolence. No better proof of this could 
be given than the mass of undelivered opinions left in the files of the court 



\ 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 33 1 

when he was displaced in 1861. He had heard and considered the cases in 
which these opinions were prepared ; had given form to his views of the law 
upon them ; but instead of emulously adding them to the list of cases already- 
decided by him, he reserved them for the possible "sober second thought" of 
the vacation. This practice has its evils. Delays in the administration of 
justice is a serious evil; but when a pause is made only to make sure that 
the next step is planted on firm ground, it is vindicated in the eyes of all ra- 
tional men. An eminent judge of England took as his motto Sat cito sat tuto. 
We do not know that Judge Napton adopted this maxim as the guide of his 
judicial conduct, but he certainly conformed himself to it. 

"The Judge's judicial services are not easily computed. He has given 
to our jurisprudence, especially that branch of it which concerns land titles, 
decisions of incalculable value. On every branch of commercial law, too, he 
has shed the light of his clear mind ; and he has given to all who succeed him 
an example of patient, unflagging, impartial attention, and most thorough 
research. His demeanor was generally grave; always so on the bench. 
When freed from toil of judicial duty he was affable, but in no sense did he 
cultivate the arts of popularity. He sought public approval by the quiet, 
conscientious and thorough performance of his duties. It has been said that 
he belonged to the political state's rights school. He showed the sincerity of 
his principles by preferring the service of the state to the more highly salaried 
offices of the federal government. And every one must see that the welfare 
of every state is intimately connected with the entertainment of this prefer- 
ence. 

"Missouri has had but a meagre share of the judicial offices in the gift 
of the federal government, but she has had good cause to be proud of her 
own judiciary. It embraces names not easily matched, and none of them is 
brighter than that of our lately deceased brother. One characteristic we 
think we may claim for our judges: that of uprightness, justice and inflexi- 
ble honesty. Of course we do not refer to the mere quality of personal hon- 
esty, for that we hope would confer no special distinction on any court. We 
mean that steady discountenance of unconstitutionally dishonest legislation, 
and of fraud in all its shapes and however ingeniously disguised, which we 
consider characteristic of the supreme court of Missouri. Some instances of 
rulings on the first subject — unconstitutionally dishonest legislation, throw- 
ing delays in the way of collecting just debts — occurred in 1822 and 1835. 
The example thus set was followed by Judges Napton, Scott and Ewing in 
1 86 1. It is impossible without intolerable prolixity to collate the cases in 
which he and his colleagues have discharged the other branch of their duty — 



Ov")- 



PAST AND PRESENT 



have rel)ukc(l and punished fraud, and impressed on tlie people of Missouri 
the lesson of lofts- and unhending morality. The ,i^rave has closed over this 
distinguished man, of whom it may emphatically be said that he was bene 
meritiis de rcpuhUca. He has an abiding claim to the gratitude of the state, 
and his memory cannot fail to be cherished by her bench and bar, for no one 
can claim to be even tolerably conversant with her jurisprudence who is not 
familiar with the contributions made to it by William B. Napton. 

"John Wickham, 
"S. T. Glover, 
"James O. Broadhead, 
"Albert Todd, 
"George A. Madill.'' 

In presenting this report, Mr. Wickdiam spoke as follows: 

"The facts stated in these resolutions were collected by a committee 
appointed by that meeting, together with the chairman, Judge Gantt, from 
such data as they had access to at the time; and give a fair outline of the 
intellectual career of this great jurist. 

"All that can be said of him in that aspect of his long and useful life, 
has been said, and may be summed up in these few words, viz : That he had 
an earnest, intense and ever present desire to see justice done between man 
and man ; and never wronged a suitor, or perverted a principle in the whole 
course of his judicial career. Thirty-six volumes of the Missouri Reports 
contain his opinions delivered while on the supreme bench, and form a 
monument more lasting than marble or bronze. 

"It may not be out of place to say a few words about the private life 
and character of this eminent man. It is strange and mortifying to think 
how soon the facts relating to the lives and career of our most distinguished 
men seem to fade from the public mind in this age of so-called progress. 

"It is said that republics are tingrateful, and it may be true, for how- 
ever long and valuable a man's services may be to the state, when he can 
serve it no longer he is turned loose to pine away and die, like an old horse 
on a common, and his memory buried in oblivion, passes from the minds 
of men. 

"But few survive who know Judge Napton in the ])almy days of his 
early struggles and triumphs, for 

" 'The names he loved to hear have been carved for many a year on 
the tomb.' 

"The annals of his private life are brief, simple and pure. 'Integer vitae 
sceleris que pnrus.' 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 3 53 

"He was married in 1839, to Miss Meliiida Williams, a daughter of 
Judge Thomas L. Williams, who was for many years chancellor of eastern 
Tennessee and judge of the supreme court of that state, one of whose 
brothers was for a long time a representative in Congress from North Caro- 
lina, and another in the Senate of the United States from Tennessee, and 
United States minister to Spain. Her grandfather. Col. Joe Williams, com- 
manded a regiment at the 1)attles of Kings Mountain and Guilford Court 
House. Coming- from this distinguished family, brilliant in intellect, and 
charming in person, Miss \Mlliams was in every respect the equal, if not the 
superior, of her young and talented husband, then just rising into prominence 
as the attorney-general of this state. She was on a visit to her aunt, the wife 
of Gen. Thomas A. Smith, at his farm 'Experiment,' in Saline county, Mis- 
souri, when she first met and captivated the heart and fancy of the rising- 
young jurist. They were married on the 27th of March. 1838, at the resi- 
dence of Richard Shelby. Esq., a son of Governor Shelby of Kentucky, and 
the husband of the bride's eldest sister. 

"Ten children were born of this happy marriarge, nine sons and one 
daughter, all of whom are still alive. Fi^-e of these sons have gone west 
and seek their fortunes on the mountains and plains of Montana; one is a 
lawyer in Kansas City, and one in St. Louis. The daughter is married to E. 
D. Montague and lives in Marshall, Saline county, and the youngest son 
carries on the farm and resides at the family residence, 'Elk Hill' in Saline 
county, Missouri, that beloved spot to which the Judge ( jcim iiiorifurus) 
retreated with that instinct which seems to lead man. in common with the 
lower animals, to the home of his youth when the vital powers are failing, 
and when he, like 'the stricken deer, in some secpestered park, lies down to 
die, the arrow in his heart.' 

"On December 31, 1862, in the darkest hour of the great civil war 
which deluged this once happy country with blood. Judge Napton had the 
misfortune to lose his wife, the faithful partner of hisi joys and sorrows, 
and the mother of his young and helpless children. This was a cruel blow 
to him. From this time till his death he was a sadder and lonely man. and 
to use his own language, 'Henceforth he lived in the memories of the past, 
not forgetting the duties of the present.' 

" 'Melancholy marked him for her own.' 

"It was soon after this sad bereavement that he niox'ed to St. Louis 
and my acquaintance with him begun. He was then a pleasant, gentle and 
silent companion, full of memories of the past generation and well informed 
upon all the current topics of the day. When he would visit his old friends, 



334 PAST AND PRESENT 

Thomas Skinker or Dr. George Penn, in St. Louis county, it was frequently 
my fortune to he with him. when with these old friends of his youth, he 
seemed to snatch a momentary joy, and to 'breathe a second spring.' But 
he soon relapsed into his customary mood and there was always a tinge 
of sadness in his manner, which was grave, dignified and silent. 

"On his last visit to St. Louis in the summer of 1882, he was at my 
house in St. Louis county, and I thought I saw then that a change was com- 
ing over him. He would sit silent and still for hours, with a far-off look in 
his eyes, that I had never observed before, and I wondered often 'of what 
was the old man dreaming, as he sat in the old armchair;' was he dreaming 
of his early struggles and triumphs at the bar; or of his long and painful 
labors on the supreme bench; or of his ruined and desolate home; his wife 
dead, the light of his life extinquished, his boys scattered far and wide over 
the great West, and he left lonely in the world ; or was he dreaming of that 
sad scene when, old and covered with the toil and dust of twenty-five years 
spent in the service of the state he had loved so well, it ignored his last 
silent appeal and cast him forth unheeded to die of old age and neglect, 'Un- 
wept, unhonored, and unsung.' 

"God grant that he may have been spared these bitter reflections, and 
that his end may have been as calm and peaceful as his spirit was meek and 
gentle. 

"In the dark days succeeding the death of his beloved wife, when the 
cloud of civil war lowered over the land from Maine to Georgia, when men's 
hearts failed them, and all seemed lost, his thoughts were lifted from earth 
toward heaven, and, bowing his proud intellect before the throne of his 
Maker, he was received into the bosom of his kind old mother, the Episcopal 
church. Here, under the ministration of his friend, the Rev. Dr. E. Carter 
Hutchinson, with the meekness and simplicity of a child, he attained that 
calm altitude from which the earth and all things earthly were dwarfed into 
insignificance. In this faith and in this frame of mind he died; and let us 
hope that, like the 'pure in spirit,' he shall see God. Reqiiiescat in pace." 

Thomas L. Napton, the second son of Judge Napton, after serving 
through the Civil war in General Forrest's command, returned home in 1865, 
renewed the study of law, and in 1866 located in Montana territory to prac- 
tice. He was very successful in the practice for more than twenty years, 
until his death at Butte on the 2d of November, 1888. At his death, the 
Montana Bar Association adopted a memorial resolution reciting that : 

"He was a lawyer of profound learning, a friend whose loyalty knew 
no diminution, a gentleman whose courtesy attracted all persons, a citizen 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 335 

of high integrity, and a man who permitted no circumstance or event to 
separate his affection from his brethren of the bar. Of a character which 
was the admiration of his fellow citizens, of an amiability which attached 
his acquaintances to him as a friend, of a research which was a high example 
to lawyers and scholars, of a modesty which permitted no conceit, and of 
many noble traits of personal character ; he was respected by the courts, 
dear to his colleagues, admired by all who knew him, and we proudly testify 
to his lofty purpose in every ambition and event of his life. So long as grati- 
tude for professional fidelity shall endure, so long as we shall appreciate 
the stability and solidity of human character, so long as men shall strive to 
improve the administration of public justice, the memory of our brother 
will endure." 

Two sons. Welling Napton and H. P. Napton, are at present (1909) 
practicing lawyers in the state of Montana, the first mentioned at Missoula 
and the latter at Butte. His son, Charles M. Napton, practiced law in the 
city of St. Louis for more than thirty years. His death occurred in 1907. 
Four other sons engaged in agriculture are residents of Oregon and Idaho, 
namely : John Napton and Louis W. Napton in Oregon, and James S. Nap- 
ton and Frank Napton in Idaho. 

GEN. GEORGE C. BINGHAM, THE MISSOURI ARTIST STATE TREASURER AND 

ADJUTANT-GENERAL OF MISSOURI. 

General Bingham was born near Wier's Cave, Augusta county, Vir- 
ginia, March 20, 181 1, and died at Kansas City, Missouri, July 7, 1879. 
When he was eighteen years of age, his family came to Missouri, settling at 
Franklin, Howard county. The family embraced besides the parents, seven 
children, three daughters and four sons, George C. being the second son. 
His father died in 1823, and his mother moved with her family to a small 
farm near the Arrow Rock in Saline county. A venture in the tobacco busi- 
ness made by the father had proved unfortunate, and the little farm in Saline 
county, worked by the sons, was the only support of the family. The chil- 
dren of the family were dependent for the most part for their education upon 
their mother. 

At the age of sixteen years. George C. was bound as an apprentice to 
a cabinetmaker in Boonville. A portrait painter came to the little town of 
Boonville, and young Bingham, who had already exhibited some skill in 
drawing, had awakened in him an impulse to become an artist. His efforts 
were encouraged and in 1837 he went to Philadelphia and studied in the 



336 PAST AND PRESENT 

Pennsylvania .\caclemy of JMiie Arts. Three years later he went to Wash- 
ini^-ton Cit\- and opened a studio, and during the five years he hved there 
he painted the portraits of a numljer of distinguished men. among them 
ex-President John Quincy Adams, at that time a member of the House of 
Representatives. His name and fame were now estabhshed and he became 
known as "The Missouri Artist." In 1845 he returned to his old home in 
Saline county, where he was warmly received b}' his friends, who were proud 
of the reputation he had gained. 

About this time Mr. Bingham painted portraits of many of the promi- 
nent people of Saline county, some of which are yet preserved. He was 
accustomed to taking an active interest in politics,* and in 1846 he became 
a Whig candidate for the Legislature, when he was elected by a majority 
of three votes. He was also elected a member of the House in 1848, where 
he ser\-ed with distinction and ability, particularly in his opposition to the 
adoption of the "Jackson Resolutions," which had been introduced by Clai- 
borne F. Jackson, senator from Howard comity. 

After his legislative experience in Saline, General Bingham returned 
to his profession as an artist, when he was the author of many famous 
paintings, among them "The Jolly Flatboatmen," "The County Election," 
"The Stump Speaking," and many others. In 1856 he visited Europe and 
devoted three years to the assiduous cultivation of his art in Duesseldorf. 
Returning home as the Civil war was coming on, with prompt decision he 
avowed himself a Union man, raising a company for the Federal service. 
His company was attached to Colonel Mulligan's command at Lexington, 
and was included in the capture of the garrison at that place by Gen. Ster- 
ling Price in September, 1861. Shortly afterwards he was appointed state 
treasurer by Provisional Governor Gamble. 

When General Ewing commanded the Federal forces in the district of 
Kansas City, he issued Order No. 11 of August 25, 1863, ordering the 
depopulation of Cass, Jackson, Bates and part of Vernon counties, Bing- 
ham vehemently denounced the measure as oppressive, cruel, unwarranted 
and unnecessary. Three years later, after the peace, he immortalized the 



* General Bingham's success and reputation as an artist were considerably marred 
and diminished by his inordinate hankering for politics while he lived here in Saline. He 
was continually taking an active part between the old Whigs and Democrats, and, remov- 
ing to Jackson county after the Civil war, he was several times a candidate for the 
Democratic nomination for Congress, but here he was unsuccessful in his political aspira- 
tions. The only office he held after the Civil war was that of adjutant-general of the 
state, to which he was appointed by his old-time Whig friend and associate, Governor 
Charles H. Hardin. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 337 

scenes whicli attended the execution of Order Xo. 1 1 on canvas. He also 
painted fiill-Iength portraits of Washington. JelTerson and Clay, and the 
equestrian tigures of General Jackson and General Lyon to be seen in the 
state capitol at Jefferson City. 

(leneral Bingham was a very able and caustic writer as well as a gifted 
artist, and this faculty was frequently exhibited in controversies with other 
public men in Missouri. In fact, he might properly be called the "Missouri 
Junius" as well as the "^lissouri Artist." General Bingham was the soul 
of honor, upright, liberal, gentle and true in all his relations, a companion 
whose society ne\-er wearied his friends,, and whom they loved with con- 

I' stantly increasing affection, a member of the Baptist church, and an exem- 
plary Christian. 
DR. MATTHEW W. HALL. 

Doctor Hall was native of WashingtcMi county, Kentucky, bom there 
in 18 1 7, and was a son of Nathan Hall, a famous Presbyterian preacher. 
In 1820 his father moved to near Lexington, Kentucky, remaining there 
until his son Matthew was twent}- }ears of age. In the spring of 1837 he 
moved from Kentucky to Illinois, settling at Salem, where he lived for eight 
years, practicing his profession. In February, 1845, he moved from Salem, 
Illinois, to Arrow Rock. Saline county, where he continued to practice medi- 
cine for twelve years. In the year 1857 he moved to his farm in Salt Fork 
township, on which he lived the balance of his life, dying there in 1894. 

Doctor Hall was educated and graduated in medicine at the Transyl- 
vanian L'niversity, Lexington, Kentucky. In 1839. while living at Salem, 
Illinois, he was married to Agnes J. Lester, of Charlotte county, Virginia, 
and reared a family of eleven children, namely : Dr. C. Lester Hall, of Kan- 
sas City ; ^^^ Ewing Hall, now deceased ; Dr. John R. Hall, of Marshall ; 
Mrs. Louisa Trigg, of Boonville ; Matthew W. Hall. Jr.. living in Saline 
county; Dr. Thomas B. Hall, who owns and occupies the old family resi- 
dence; Florida, now the wife of the Hon. Dorsey \\\ Shackelford, at present 
member of Congress from the eighth district, now serving his sixth term, 
and the youngest. Miss Efifie, now the wife of Mr. Glover, of Kansas City. 

At an early age Dr. Hall became a member of the old-school Presby- 
terian church, maintaining- his church relationships and Christian character 
throughout his life. He was also an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason, 
and at his death had been a member of the Arrow Rock Lodge for over fort)' 
years. 

In i860 Doctor Hall represented this county in the Legislature and. 



338 PAST AND PRESENT 

being an earnest Southern man, warmly supported all the war measures pro- 
posed by Governor Jackson and attended the called session of the Legisla- 
ture at Neosho. ^Vfter the Civil war, in 1874, Doctor Hall was again elected 
by the Democracy to represent Saline in the Legislature. In his public ser- 
vice, Doctor Hall always acquitted himself with credit and the approbation 
of his constituents. Li truth, no better man than Dr. M. W. Hall ever lived 
in Saline county. It may be said that he was universally popular and highly 
esteemed as a physician and as a citizen wherever he was known in the state. 
He died November 19, 1894, and was buried in Ridge Park cemetery, Mar- 
shall, Missouri. 

GEN. RICHARD C. VAUGHAN. 

Richard C. Vaughan was born in Goochland county, Virginia, July 30, 
18 1 3. He grew to manhood in his native county, where he received" a liberal 
education. He read law and was licensed to practice by the court of appeals 
of Virginia. He practiced three years in Virginia, and in 1839 came to 
Missouri. He made the long journey in wagons, starting a few months 
after his marriage, in Richmond, Virginia, to Margaret McNaught, a native 
of Scotland, whom he met while on a visit to her relatives in this county. He 
settled first in Glasgow, Howard county, where he practiced his profession 
two years. In 1842 he removed to Saline county on a farm about six miles 
northwest of Slater, and for fifteen years was a farmer. Among his neigh- 
bors at that early day were William and Samuel Wheeler, Daniel Hick- 
ersoh, James Jones, William Wolfskill, Benjamin Graves, Edward Garnett, 
Capt. C. P. Bondurant, Judge McDaniel, Pinkerton Booker, Robert Y. 
Thompson and others. 

In 1857 Mr. Vaughan went to Lexington. From 1858 to 1861 he 
edited the Lexington Express, and advocated the principles of the old Whig 
party. In the Civil war he espoused the Union cause and went into the 
Federal service. He acted as aid to Colonel Mulligan, with whom he was 
surrendered at the battle of Lexington. He was paroled by General Price, 
Avent to Washington City in 1861, and returned in 1862, when he was ap- 
pointed clerk of the circuit court. The following August he was commis- 
sioned brigadier-general for the Tenth Military District, and remained in 
the service till the close of the war. He was appointed United States asses- 
"sor of the revenue district in 1866, but held this position only a short time, 
the United States Senate refusing to confirm his appointment on account of 
his conservative principles. He acted with the Democratic party after the 
war, and did all in his power to overthrow the corrupt and tyrannical prin- 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 339 

ciples of the Republican party as manifested in the "Drake Constitution," 
and with men hke Frank P. Blair, Samuel T. Glover, Gratz Brown, George 
C. Bingham, James S. Rollins, etc., he stood for the complete restoration to 
every citizen of all rights enjoyed before tire war. 

The most prominent trait in General Vaughan's character was the God- 
like one of forgiveness. Living through the tempestuous days of the Civil 
war and being a man of decided convictions, he had his enemies as well as 
friends; but he had no enemies he would not have gladly gone more than 
half way to be reconciled to if he thought they deserved his friendship, and 
to bestow a favor or render assistance to those who disliked him was his 
greatest pleasure. Many who thought him a foe found him a friend. He 
died in 1889. 

JOHN G. MILLER. 

One of the most distinguished congressmen of Missouri and this congres- 
sional district, about the middle of the last century, was John G. Miller. He 
lived at Boonville, but he first settled in this county when he came to Mis- 
souri with his father. Gen. William Miller, moving here from Kentucky in 
1837, and settling on a farm in the southern part of the county, seven miles 
south of Marshall. 

Mr. Miller was a native of Boyle county, Kentucky, where he was born, 
the 29th day of November, 1812. He graduated at Center College, at Dan- 
ville, and subsequently studied law. Moving to Missouri, he located tempor- 
arily in Saline county, moving to Boonville, where he commenced the practice 
of his profession, about the year 1840. He met with rare professional suc- 
cess, soon enjoying an extensive practice. 

In year 1850 Mr. Miller became the candidate of the Whig party for 
Congress, and was elected over his opponent, James S. Green, the Demo- 
cratic candidate, who had been a member of Congress and was afterwards, 
in 1857, elected United States senator. Green was generally admitted to 
be the strongest and ablest stump speaker in the state. Miller was his op- 
ponent in two campaigns, in which he defeated him, which is almost con- 
clusive evidence of Miller's great ability as a canvasser himself. 

Mr. Blaine, in his Memoirs of the United States Senate, says of Mr. 
Green, senator from Missouri, "As a debater in the Senate, he may have had 
equals, but certainly no superior." 

John G. Miller, being a Whig, must have been an extraordinarily good 
campaigner to have defeated Green in two successive congressional cam- 
paigns, in a district created by a Democratic Legislature, Miller served two 



340 



PAST AND PRESENT 



sessions in Congress, and had been elected for the third time when his death 
occurred. Bv that time he had become an exceedingly able and influential 
meml)er of the House of Representatives — in fact, had acquired such stand- 
ino- there as it was said would have insured his election as speaker in the ses- 
sion of 1854 and 1855. when such a long contest for that office occurred, had 
he been able to be present during that session. No speaker was elected for 
over a month after Congress convened, the contest between Whigs, Demo- 
crats and Abolitionists resulting in the election of Penington, of Pennsylvania. 

John G. Miller was married in Saline county on the 31st day of May. 
1841. to Margaret Williams, at the residence of her sister, Mrs. R. P. Shelby. 
Subsequent to his marriage, he took up his residence at Boonville, having a 
family of five children. He was a man of first-class ability and splendid char- 
acter and of remarkable popularity. As a candidate before the people, he 
was almost invincible. He was also equally strong and popular in the House 
of Representatives at Washington, and while there was a particular friend 
and companion of Daniel Webster. Mr. Webster developed a special regard 
and friendship for him. 

The author of this history can mainly recollect the Hon. John G. Miller 
as a companion in the deer driving of that period, a sport in which he took 
particular delight and pleasure. Every fall of the year he made regular visits 
to this county for the special purpose of deer hunting, joining in the sport 
with his cousin, Thomas W. Gaines, who was the leading deer hunter and 
most successful sportsman in the county. Mr. Gaines kept a fine pack of deer 
hounds and was always ready for a hunt in the deer season. One was always 
sure to get venison when hunting with him. 

John G. Miller died on the first day of May, 1855, at his father's resi- 
dence in this county. The ravages of consumption prevented his attendance 
in Congress in the winter of 1854-55, and he was carried off by the destruc- 
tive disease, consumption, during the spring of the latter year. 

THOMAS CRUTCHFIELD DUGGINS. 

Central Missouri, and particularly Saline count)', was settled bv immi- 
grants mostly from Virginia and Tennessee. These states were originally 
settled by English, the Puritan and Cavalier types of civilization, with a 
strong per cent, of Scotch-Irish — another type of men whom the historians 
of the present time love to honor, and who, through a period of several hun- 
dred years, have stood at the front with the best type of the Puritan and the 
best type of the Cavalier, in the advancement of the civilization of the English 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 34I 

speaking people — makino- our civilization at the present time the highest and 
best on earth. 

The Scotch-Irish element, whether it came from North Ireland or not, 
or from England, or from any of the older states in North America, contrib- 
uted some of the best citizens to Saline county back in the pioneer times. 
In their general moral make-up, their shrewd sense, their active intellect, 
their undaunted perseverance, their indomitable courage, their profound re- 
ligious faith, their tenderness of family affection, their stanch patriotism, 
which have so distinguished this type of men — all these splendid qualities of 
humanity have suffered no degeneration from the transplanting of this race 
of men from the Old into the New World. 

A typical representative man of the Scotch-Irish lineage among the in- 
fluential pioneers of Saline county was Thomas Crutchfield Duggins, gen- 
erally known as the "Old Surveyor." 

Thomas Crutchfield Duggins was born in Louise county, Virginia, 
March 10, 18 10, and was one of twelve children. He was married in Albe- 
marle county, Virginia, in 1833, to Elizabeth White Jackson. He moved to 
Missouri and settled on a farm about three miles north of Columbia in Boone 
county, Missouri, in 1838. He traveled this entire distance in a wagon. In 
1840 he moved to Saline county, Missouri, and settled on a farm east of 
]\Iiami, but in 1844 he removed to his farm located three miles west of 
Slater, where he continuously resided until a few months prior to his death, 
which occurred in Marshall, Missouri, in January, 1880. 

Prior to his removal to his farm near Slater Mr. Duggins was em- 
ployed by the government to assist in surveying the ''Platte Purchase," and 
w-as afterwards elected county surveyor of Saline county, which position he 
held for sixteen years, and with such skill and accuracy that his surveys gave 
general, if not universal, satisfaction to the people. After the Civil war he 
was again often called into official service as an experienced aid to the county 
surveyors. 

COL. WILLIAM A. WILSON. 
% 

Col. William A. \\^ilson was a native of V^irginia, being born Decem- 
ber 17, 1807, in Augusta county. He and two elder brothers came to Mis- 
souri in 1825, locating in Howard county. He afterwards moved to this 
county and resided at Marshall the remainder of his life. In June, 1835. he 
married Mary E. Reeves, a daughter of ex-Lieutenant-Governor Reeves, 
of Howard county, Missouri. His famil\' consisted of five sons and two 
daughters. 



242 PAST AND PRESENT 

Colonel Wilson and Judge Abiel Leonard lived in Howard county 
about the same time, and their wives, being sisters, a very strong, social, 
personal and political friendship grew up between them, which continued 
throughout their lives. Both of these men were staunch old-line Whigs, 
and after the Civil war was inaugurated they cordially supported the na- 
tional government. 

In 1835 Colonel Wilson was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the militia 
by Governor Dunklin, while he lived in Howard county. In August, 1836, 
he moved over to Saline, and in 1838 was elected county judge, serving with 
Judges Field and Brown. In February, 1850, he was appointed county 
and circuit clerk and ex officio recorder, in the place of John A. Trigg, re- 
signed. In March, following, he was elected to said offices for an unexpired 
term extending to 1854, at which time he was re-elected, and filled these 
offices for a term of six years. 

Under the Gamble provisional government of 1862, Colonel Wilson 
was appointed circuit and county clerk and in the same year was provost 
marshal with the rank of major. When the Seventy-fiirst Regiment of the 
Enrolled Missouri Federal Militia was organized, he was made lieutenant- 
colonel of the regiment, and after this he was probably better known at 
Federal headquarters of the state or national government than any other 
man in this county. He filled all the clerkships of the county from that 
time, including the place of recorder, up to the date of his death, in August, 
1865. 

Colonel Wilson was a lawyer by profession, and practiced that profes- 
sion except while he was in office. Just before the war he was a partner of 
Col. T. W. B. Crews and the Hon. William H. Letcher. He was a man 
of more than ordinary ability, and for many years commanded the confidence 
of the people of Saline county, discharging faithfully all of his official duties. 
For nearly twenty years prior to the Civil war no man in the county was 
more generally known or highly respected. 

It is not, perhaps, saying too much that he formed a nucleus around 
which the Union element of this county rallied and organized and gained 
strength. Colonel Wilson was faithful in all the relations of life ; as a hus- 
band, parent, friend, the same integrity of character and goodness of heart 
were manifested, gaining for him that respect and confidence which he pos- 
sessed to an eminent degree. Colonel Wilson survived all the dangers of the 
Civil war, dying here at his home in ]\Iarshall, and was buried in the ceme- 
tery at Mt. Olive church, four miles south of the town. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 343 

JOHN LOCKE HARDEMAN. 

One among the most intelligent and successful farmers in Saline county 
at an early day was John Locke Hardeman. He was a native of the state 
of Tennessee, born July 27, 1809. He moved to this state in 1819, accom- 
panying his father, John Hardeman, who, with his family, settled in Howard 
county in 18 19. His father, being a man of wealth, refinement and culture, 
purchased a large tract of land in the Missouri river bottom in Howard 
county, opposite the mouth of the Lamine river, where he had, in addition 
to an extensive farm, the largest and most beautiful and handsomely ar- 
ranged botanical garden in the western country, and it afterwards became 
famous throughout the state. 

His son, John Locke Hardeman, usually called by his second name, 
became a citizen of Saline county about 1830, having entered a large tract 
of land within five miles of Arrow Rock. He was one of the most suc- 
cessful farmers in the county, bringing to bear in his operations rare intel- 
ligence and industry. He was one of the leading hemp raisers in the county, 
and, recognizing and encountering the difficulty of preparing the product 
for market, he was induced to exercise his inventive faculties, and about 
1855 he invented and had patented a hemp breaking machine, which proved 
very successful and much reduced the severe labor of breaking hemp. 

In 1854, Mr. Hardeman was elected to represent this county in the 
Legislature. ]\Ir. Hardeman never married. At his death, which occurred 
July 31, 1858, he had accumulated a fine estate, which was inherited by his 
kindred. The present village, which bears his name, being situated on a 
part of his land, was called for him. His brother, the late Dr. Glenn O. 
Hardeman, was long a prominent physician of Marshall. During the Civil 
war, to avoid trouble, he moved to Gray Summit, Franklin countly, where 
he recently died. 

GOVERNOR M. M. MARMADUKE. 

Governor Meredith M. Marmaduke was bom in ^^^estmoreland county, 
Virginia, in 1791. At the age of twenty-two he was commissioned colonel 
of the Westmoreland County Regiment, and served with it in the second 
war w^ith Great Britain, the war of 1812. After the war he was clerk of the 
county court of Westmoreland ; also United States marshal for that district. 
He migrated to Missouri in 1821, stopping first at Old Franklin, and three 
or four years afterwards embarking in the trade to Santa Fe. He was sub- 
sequently married to Lavinia Sappington, daughter of Dr. John Sappington, 



344 



PAST AND PRESENT 



a native of Xashville. Tennessee. Governor Marmaduke had a family of 
nine children, six sons and three daughters, namely: Col. Vincent Marma- 
duke, General and Governor John S. Marmaduke, Meredith M.. Jr., Darwin 
\V., Henry H., and Leslie, Mrs. Jane B. Harwood : Mrs. Sarah Yerby and 
Mrs. Lavinia Bruce. 

Ciovernor Marmaduke engaged in the Santa Fe trade for about six years, 
and was verv successful. He then entered land and settled on his farm, live 
miles west of Arrow' Rock. He was both practical and successful as a fanner, 
accumulating a large fortune. He was greatly interested in agricultural pur- 
suits and took an interest in everything affecting their welfare. He was pres- 
ident of the first agricultural society of this county, and also of the district 
fair association. 

Soon after his settlement in the county Mr. Marmaduke was elected 
county judge, and subsequently county surveyor, and helped survey the town 
of Marshall at the time it was originally located in 1839. In 1840 he was 
elected lieutenant-governor on the Democratic ticket with Thomas Reynolds, 
from Howard county, as governor. The latter died during his term of office 
in 1844. Lienlenant-Goxernor Marmaduke succeeding to the place of gov- 
ernor, serving out the balance of the term with entire satisfaction to his 
friends and the people of the state. In 1845 li^ was elected a member of the 
constitutional convention to revise the organic law of the state. 

\Mien the troubles of 1861 came on. Governor Marmaduke was a Union 
man, and opposed all movements towards secession, but he was unable to 
control his sons in this regard, all of whom became ultimately in sympathy 
with the Southern cause, and two of whom. Colonel Vincent and General 
[ohn S., taking a leading part in the war, the question soon becoming one 
of submission or resistance to the invasion of the state by the federal armies. 
The elder sons, Vincent and John, favored resistance after the fighting had 
begun, the old Governor himself remaining exceedingly quiet and non-com- 
mittal, so far as the author of this history ever knew or heard. These two 
sons of Governor Marmaduke. Vincent and John S., were, at the beginning, 
divided in opinions in reference to the approaching war. For a while Vincent 
adhered to the Union and was elected a member of the state convention in 
the winter of 1861 as a Union man. John S., who was a lieutenant in the 
army, on sei-vice at Salt Lake City, or in New Mexico, soon resigned his 
place, immediately returning here to Saline county and tendering his sword 
and services to Governor Jackson. 

Gfjvernor Marmaduke remained at his residence throughout the Civil 
war. He was not personally molested and had but little property destroyed. 



I 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 345 

He died on March 26. 1864, at his residence, five miles from the town of Ar- 
roAv Rock, at the age of seventy-three, with inflammation of the stomach and 
bowels, and was buried in the Sappington cemetery by the Freemasons, of 
which society he had been a member for a number of years. 

Col. Vincent Marmaduke, the eldest son of M. M. Marmaduke. was laorn 
in Saline county, at his father's farm, in the year 1830. When a boy, by 
orders of his father, he was made acquainted with the mysteries of agricul- 
ture, being compelled to do all sorts of work necessarily done on a farm and 
calculated to develop the bodily strength. He began his education at a school 
taught by Mr. Boswell at old Jonesboro, about 1840, and subsequently to 
that he was sent to Chapel Hill Academy in Lafayette county, Missouri, at- 
tending this school two terms. Subsequently he went through a four-years 
course at Yale College, where he graduated in 1852 or 1853. Then he 
studied law and obtained a license to practice, but never engaged in profes- 
sional business, devoting himself to agricultural pursuits on a splendid farm 
he owned a fe\y miles south of Marshall. 

Colonel Marmaduke was always a very active man, both in his private 
business and in public affairs, being- a man of ability and of good education 
and acquirements. In 1861 he was elected, as a Union man, delegate to the 
constitutional convention, which the Legislature had authorized to be called, 
fully expecting that it would pass an ordinance -of secession. As to this the 
Legislature was very much disappointed, for there was hardly a secessionist 
elected to the convention throughout the whole state. 

Afterwards, in 1862, Colonel Marmaduke, being suspected of disloyalty, 
was banished from the state and sent into the Southern lines, where he joined 
the Southern army and saw considerable military service. The war being- 
over, he returned to Missouri, some years afterwards becoming- the owner of 
his father's old place. He lived there eng-aging in farming for several years. 
In 1882 he was elected to the Legislature from this county, where he repre- 
sented his people with fidelity and ability. 

Col. Vincent Marmaduke was a handsome man, of fine physique, high 
spirited, jovial and companionable, and will long be remembered by his 
friends and companions. He departed this life on the 25th of March. 1904. 
cit Marshall, at the residence of his son-in-law. Dr. William Harrison, after a 
lingering illness. 

The second son of Governor M. M. Marmaduke, John S. Marmaduke. 
was born March 14. 1843, ^^ ^^'s father's house in Saline county. Though in 
his boyhood his father was a large slave-holder, yet John S. was taught and 
accustomed to work on the farm. He was educated at a school at Jonesboro, 



346 PAST AND PRESENT 

in the first instance, subsequently at Chapel Hill Academy, in Lafayette 
county. At the age of seventeen, he entered Yale College, where he re- 
mained two terms; then he received an appointment as cadet in the Military 
Academy at West Point, where he went through the whole course, graduating 
in 1857. He was then assigned as lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry Regi- 
ment, and soon afterwards trudged his way across the plains, marching from 
Fort Leavenworth to join the army of Albert Sydney Johnston, then march- 
ing against the Mormons in the city of Salt Lake, Utah. Here, at Salt Lake 
City, he served two years, after which he was ordered to New Mexico. On 
leave of absence he returned to Missouri in 1861, and when the conflict be- 
came inevitable, he resigned his commission in the army and, after its ac- 
ceptance, tendered his sei*vices to Governor Jackson. He was elected captain 
of the first company that w^as raised and ecjuipped in the county, marching 
off to Jefferson City at the call of the Governor to defend the capital. At 
Jefferson City, in June, 1861, he was elected colonel of a regiment, of which 
his company was a part. Soon afterwards Governor Jackson and his troops 
abandoned Jefferson City, taking up a position at Boonville. Here, on the 
approach of Generals Lyon and Blair, with a pretty well trained and well 
equipped army, composed of some regular troops and volunteers from St. 
Louis. Colonel Marmaduke was placed in command of the forces by Governor 
Jackson. General Price, commander-in-chief of the Missouri troops, being at 
the time sick in bed, Colonel Marmaduke thought a battle at this time should 
be avoided, but the captains of some of the Missouri companies insisted on 
making a stand and offering every resistance that w^as possible. The conflict 
that followed and the results have been fully explained in this volume else- 
W'here. Colonel Marmaduke, with the advantages of his West Point educa- 
tion, made a good record all through the Civil war, at the end holding a 
majoT-general's commission in the Confederate army. 

Returning to his native state after the war closed. General Marmaduke 
was first elected railroad commissioner, then subsequently, in 1884, governor 
of the state, serving three years of his term, dying December 28, 1887. His 
course as governor was very acceptable to the people of Missouri, and it is 
often said that he was one of the best governors the state ever had. In fact, 
he attended strictly to the business belonging to the executive office, not go- 
ing outside of this to hunt up trouble. He was buried in the cemetery at 
Jefferson City. At his grave the state has erected a suitable monument. 

John S. Marmaduke's election as governor was a remarkable instance 
of the governor's chair of one state being three times filled by members of 
the same familjr and of residents of the same county. For although General 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 347 

Marmaduke at the time of his nomination was living temporarily in St. Louis, 
yet being- a native of Saline county, he naturally came to this county to in- 
augurate his campaign. This he did, enlisting the support of his friends and 
relatives, securing instructions for himself at the very beginning of the cam- 
paign, showing that he regarded the friendship of the people of Saline county 
of vital importance to him. He considered this his home county. 

Thus Saline county has had the unusual distinction of three governors 
of the state belonging to one family, two of them being sons-in-law, the third 
the grandson of Dr. John Sappington. 

COL. T. W. B. CREWS. 

Colonel Crews was born in Henry county, Virginia, March 16, 1832, 
and was the only child of Gideon Crews. Colonel Crews moved with his 
father and mother, in 1846, to Howard county, Missouri. Shortly after- 
wards he entered Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, where he remained one 
session to the end of the junior year. Having a preference for Union Col- 
lege, New York, he applied for admission to the senior class at that col- 
lege, and upon examination was admitted. Here he graduated in the fol- 
lowing year, 1852, and immediately thereafter began the study of law, 
subsequently completing a course of leg^al study and reading under Judge 
William B. Napton, of Saline county, at his country residence and law office 
on Blackwater, twelve miles south of Marshall. Here he applied himself to 
the study of the profession for nearly three years. In Januar\', 1855, he 
opened an office in Marshall, beginning the practice, which he continued up 
to the commencement of the late Civil war. The Civil war, of course, in- 
terrupted his law practice, and he engaged in preparation for hostilities, in 
which he afterwards learned the lesson of fortitude and the possibilities of 
moral, " mental and physical strength in the army life. At the very begin- 
ning of the war he took the field in command of a company of Saline county 
volunteers of the Missouri State Guard, the 26th of May, 1861, his com- 
pany being a part of the command of Gen. Monroe Parsons, subsequently 
participating in the battles of Boonville, Carthage, Springfield, Dry Wood 
and Lexington. At the latter place, just before the battle, he was promoted 
to the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the Second Missouri Regiment of Cav- 
alry, being promoted for gallantry on the field of battle. Immediately after 
the battle of Lexington he was rendered unfit for service by a severe spell of 
typhoid fever, and while thus confined to his bed at his home in Marshall he 
was captured and sent to St. Louis as a prisoner of war. He was soon, 



2,4^ PAST AND PRESENT 

however, paroled, beino^ rec|uired to report weekly at St. Louis. He made a 
temporary home in Franklin county in order to lie convenient to military 
headquarters. After l)eing paroled, he resided in Franklin county, near 
Lee's Summit, where his wife owned some land. Here he built a residence, 
to w^hich his family removed, and where he continued to reside the remain- 
der of his days. 

In 1866 Colonel Crews opened an ofhce and ])eg'an the practice of law 
in the city of St. Louis, but maintaining his residence in Franklin county. 
His legal business gradually became extensive and up to his death, in 1891, 
he ranked among the good practitioners in both the state and federal courts. 

In 1872 Colonel Crews became a candidate for the Democratic nomina- 
tion for Congress. He failed to receive the nomination, being beaten by the 
silver champion, Richard P. Bland. Then again, in 1882, the district hav- 
ing been changed, he again became a candidate for nomination for Congress, 
but the fates were against him and he lost the nomination by one vote in the 
convention. Thus he was left to devote his time and attention to the prac- 
tice of law. Afterwards, in 1875, ^''^ ^'^^^ sent by his people to represent 
them in the convention which formulated the present state constitution, and 
in the formation of which he took an active and conspicuous part. 

In politics, as in private life, Colonel Crews maintained a character for 
strict and inflexible integrity. As a speaker, he was fluent, impassioned and 
forcible, and as a reasoner, clear and coherent. He was a man of fine per- 
sonal appearance, agreeable and impressive, and with manners dignified and 
courteous. He was a very careful and systematic man in the preparation of 
his cases and a staunch believer in the thoroughness of all work. He was 
always most genial and alTable in his intercourse with his fellow men, and 
was gifted with manv rare qualities, which endeared him to his friends and 
fellow' citizens. One of his strong' characteristics was his intense love of 
nature, and although his calling took him into cities and crowded assem- 
blages of men, he was always glad to escape to his residence in the country 
when through with his work. Therefore, notwithstanding that for years 
before his death he had a practice requiring the most ardent lal^or to dispose 
of, he always maintained his residence in Franklin C(nmty. alwa^-s spending 
all the time he could spare in the midst of its rural delights and pleasures. 

Shortly after he began practice in T857, Colonel Crews had built a 
residence in the town of Marshall, and married Virginia Jeffries, a most 
amiable and loval)lc woman, daughter of C. F. Jeffries, Esquire, of Frank- 
lin county, Missouri, one of the pioneers, who came to this state from Vir- 
ginia. Mr. Jeffries w^as a highly esteemed citizen and one of the early 
settlers of Franklin county, and for a number of years a county official. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 349 

Colonel Crews died in St. Louis, June 25, 1891, at the age of fifty-nine 
years. His widow and a family of six children survive their father. The 
mother, Mrs. Crews, died at her home in Franklin county. December 31. 1896. 

Colonel Crews was a man of high spirits and joyous temperament. He 
was particularly fond of deer driving and while studying law at Judge Xap- 
ton's. in this county, he indulged in deer driving very liberally indeed, en- 
jo^•ing the sport immensely during the hunting season for the three years 
he spent there, and he was also quite successful and in the deer dri^'e could 
always claim his proper share of the game. 

Colonel Crews was a warm hearted man, and a \'ery dear and intimate 
friend of the author of this work at the time he was a law student and for 
years afterward. 

GEORGE G. VEST. 

Senator Vest's public career is well known, and I will view him entirely 
from a social standpoint. 

In social intercourse, he was the most engaging and entertaining man I 
ever met — bright and humorous. I first saw him at Jefferson City, in January, 
1858, during a session of the supreme court, where I had gone from home 
here in Saline to bring back my father's horse. Mr. Vest and J. W. DrafTen 
were present, each having cases in the supreme court, which were called and 
argued by them the first day of term while I was present, and this was also 
my first visit to the supreme court of Missouri. 

Mr. Vest had already acquired a reputation as a lawyer and advocate at 
Georgetown, Pettis county, and been offered and accepted a partnership in 
the practice by the late Joseph L. Stephens, of Boonville, an older man and 
lawyer, who already enjoyed an extensive law business, which he offered to 
divide with Vest by reason of his marked ability in the profession. 

We were all traveling horseback, and I was glad to have the company of 
Vest and Draffen on the return journey as far as Boonville. The weather was 
cold, with five or six inches of snow on the ground, but this did not seem to 
diminish the high spirits or good humor of Vest, who was continually talk- 
ing the whole way, mainly directing' his remarks to "Duke" Draffen, as he 
called him. Air. Draffen was a man of about the same age. or perhaps a little 
older, and almost as good a story teller as Vest himself. It was my first ac- 
quaintance with Mr. Vest, and that day I thought him the most entertaining- 
and amusing man I had ever met. He kept me laughing almost the whole 
distance, until that night at Boonville my lungs and breast were so sore that I 
could scarcely breathe, caused by continual laughing at his talk. 



350 PAST AND PRESENT 

Years after this, I happened to be thrown in his company at Hot Springs, 
Arkansas, for a month or two when both of us were complaining of ill- 
heaUh. Here we were together on the most intimate terms for more than a 
month, and this intercourse sensed to conjfirm the opinion formed twenty 
years before on the horseback ride from Jefferson City to Boonville. Of 
course, we met at intervals between times. Once in the Southern army in 
southwestern Missouri, where he was the same delightful humorous and en- 
tertaining person that he was everywhere. I think Vest had all the humorous 
talent and ability of Mark Twain, and if he had turned his attention to author- 
ship he might have become just as famous as Mark, the undisputed head of 
all our humorous authors. As a conversationalist, he had few, if any, equals 
and no superiors in this western country. Thirty years ago, when sitting on 
the ample porch of the summer hotel at Sweet Springs, he was always found 
surrounded with friends and admirers whom it seemed a pleasure for him to 
entertain and amuse no difference how many might be around him. 

I said to him one day, after he had been in the Senate for nearly twenty 
years, that I was sorry he had ever been elected senator for I had since been 
deprived of his society nearly altogether, which I considered a great priva- 
tion and misfortune. 

Yes, Vest was a stronger man in a social way than he was a statesman 
and senator. He was stronger also before a jury in a difficult case than he 
was in the Senate, and he was a leader there, we all know. 

Mr. Vest was never a permanent resident of Saline county, but he prac- 
ticed law here for nearly twenty years, and here, at Marshall in our circuit 
court, was the scene of some of his greatest triumphs as a lawyer, and I be- 
lieve he loved the people of this county, and was more attached to the locality 
than any other place on earth, and with such feelings, he came back here to 
die at his summer cottage at Sweet Springs, at the age of seventy-four, about 
one year after his term as United States senator from Missouri expired, 
having served twenty- four years. He was born the 6th of December, 1830, 
at Frankfort, Kentucky, and died in October, 1904, at Sweet Springs, 
Missouri. He left surviving him his devoted wife; a daughter, Mrs. Jackson, 
of St. Louis, the wife of a prominent lawyer there, and a son, Alexander Vest, 
and two grandchildren, the children of his deceased son. George G. 

COL. JOHN SMITH T. 

The most singular and remarkable man in some respects who ever lived 
in Saline county was Col. John Smith T, who lived and made salt for many 
seasons at the great salt springs on section 20, township 50, range 22. Here 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 35 I 

he entered and owned at an early date some two thousand acres of land, and 
here he built a brick house and salt works. The Colonel was an elder brother 
of Gen. Thomas A. Smith, born in Virginia. He came west in the year 1802, 
first settling at Nashville, Tennessee, removing thence to Missouri in 1804. 

At Nashville Colonel Smith lived long enough to become involved ni 
several duels and other hostile encounters, which were at that period not 
easily avoided in the state of society found in that frontier community by 
men of spirit and courage. At that time in the West a man who would suffer 
an affront without resistance or who failed to respond when called out to 
assert or defend his reputation, had nO' chance whatever. At that time Nash- 
ville contained among its inhabitants many men who then, or afterwards, 
acquired reputations for their fighting qualities, Andrew Jackson ultimately 
taking the leading part. The general reputation of the place w'as well sus- 
tained by such men as Thomas H. and Jesse Benton, Col. John Overton, 
Colonels Coffey, Carroll and McNairy and others. 

Colonel John Smith after he moved to Missouri added the suffix "T" to 
his name, meaning John Smith from Tennessee, in order to be distinguished 
in that way from other John Smiths, and this answered very well for that 
purpose, and, together with his combative nature and boldness of spirit, main- 
tained his distinctive character from other John Smiths. 

It is stated by one of his biographers, the late Col. John F. Darby, a con- 
temporary of Colonel Smith, that he killed fifteen men with pistols during his 
life, the majority of them in duels ("Personal Recollections," by John F. 
Darby, St. Louis, 1880, G. R. Jones & Company). At that period the inclina- 
tion to settle personal differences on the "field of honor" was very general in 
the West. In fact, the habit was almost universal among prominent men in 
both civil and military life, and it remained so for thirty or forty years after- 
wards. 

There is no authentic record of the duels in which Col. John Smith T 
was engaged, but soon after he reached Nashville he acquired a reputation as 
one who never failed to respond when called out, and his reputation as a dead 
shot and a dangerous antagonist became general throughout the western coun- 
try, following him to Missouri, when he moved to the west of the Mississippi. 

At the same time Colonel John Smith T was a man of better education 
than nine out of ten of the prominent people of that time. He had been a 
student at William and Mary College in his native state and letters of his, yet 
preserved, show that he was a fair scholar and an expert penman, as expert 
with a pen as he was with a "derringer," the kind of pistol almost in universal 
use in personal combat at that period. 



:.-2 PAST AND PRESENT 

Colonel Smith was also a shrewd and energetic man of affairs. Before 
leaving Tennessee, he bonght a tract of land and laid out a town at the mouth 
of the Cumberland river called Smithland. After he removed to Missouri, he 
became the owner of valuable Spanish grants and mining claims in our newly 
acquired Louisiana territory. While his operations extended over a wide area, 
he made his home and headquarters at a country seat, wdiich he called "Shib- 
boleth." in St. Genevieve county. Missouri. Among his other claims to lands 
was the "Yazoo" claim in Mississippi territory, for which it w^as said the 
federal government offered him one hundred thousand dollars, but at the end 
of a long litigation over this claim the suit w'as determined adversely to him 
in the supreme court of the United States. 

At Shibboleth Colonel Smith engaged extensively in lead mining, at the 
same time being in various kinds of land claims, some Spanish grants of 
doubtful character, and was thereby involved in many suits and personal 
difficulties, usually settled by duels or other encounters that were always fatal 
to his antagonist. Though not a professional law'yer, he was appointed judge 
of the court of common pleas by the territorial governor. He was an ac- 
tive man in public affairs, and made several trips to Washington at his own 
expense, looking after the interests of the people of the territory. 

Colonel Smith had a passion for firearms, always having at least two 
pistols in his belt or pocket. Among his slaves w^as a favorite named Dave, 
w^ho was a skillful gunsmith, and when the Colonel went from home he was 
nearly always attended by Dave as a body servant and guard. Dave always 
being- provided wdth a gun and a pair of holster pistols. 

In the year 1806, when Burr's expedition was going down the Ohio and 
Mississippi, Otto Schrader. an Austrian, came to live at St. Genevieve. 
Schrader had been an officer in the army in his native country, an aide-camp 
to the Archduke Charles in his first battle with Napoleon, and w-as fond of 
relating interesting incidents of his military life. Being a man of good educa- 
tion, he was elected coroner soon after he located at St. Genevieve. 

'^ Col. Jack Smith T was then judge of the court of common pleas and 
Col. Heni-y Dodge, afterwards United States senator from Wisconsin, was 
sheriff of the county. These two prominent men hearing of Burr's expedition 
to Mexico, determined to join it, both being delighted with an opportunity to 
engage in fighting whenever there was any to be done. They went down the 
river from St. Genevieve in a boat to New Madrid. On reaching there they 
found, much to their chagrin, the President's proclamation denouncing the 
scheme as unlawful and warning all good citizens to desist from engaging in 
it. These men, not having any idea of engaging or embarking in any treason- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 353 

al^le r)r insurrectionary enterprise so far as the United States was concerned, 
abandoned the project at once, disposed of the boat immediately, purchased 
horses and returned home. 

When Colonel Dodge reached his home at St. Genevieve, he found the 
people of the tOAvn in great consternation and excitement, an indictment fin- 
treason having been found against him and Colonel Smith also, based upon the 
report that they had gone down the river to join Burr's invasion of Mexico. 
Colonel Dodge. l)eing a man of powerful physicjue, considering himself greatly 
outraged by the indictment, assaulted and whipped nine of the twelve jurv- 
men, and would have doubtless whipped the others, had they not run away 
out of his reach. Colonel Jack Smith T hearing of these proceedings at his 
residence in the country. About noon a day or so afterwards, he saw Otto 
Schrader, the coroner and acting sheriff, approaching his house on horse- 
back. A\'alking to his front door, he yelled out at him, "I know what you are 
coming- here for, and if you attempt to arrest me I will shoot you dead. I will 
not submit to arrest. It was an outlandish outrage to indict me for treason, for 
I am as true and staunch a friend of the government as any man in the territory. 
Mr. Schrader. dinner is just ready, get down from your horse and come in 
and take dinner with me; but mark you. if you make a motion to arrest me, 
you are a dead man." Schrader dismounted and entered the house. Colonel 
Smith pointed to a chair at the table for him to occupy, taking a seat himself 
immediately opposite Schrader, as he did so drawing his pistols from his belt, 
cocking them and laying them on the table, one on either side of his plate with 
the muzzles pointing towards Schrader. Then he treated his guest with 
marked consideration and courtesy, directing the servants to wait upon him 
and seeing that every chance was offered him to partake of his bountiful 
liospitality and good cheer. After dinner Colonel Smith and the Coroner 
rode into town together. A great crowd had collected together in the streets 
owing to the general excitement. Colonel Smith took particular pains to let 
them know that he was not under arrest and no prosecutions followed the 
indictments. 

Otto Schrader. being a man of cultivation, was soon after this appointed 
one of the territorial judges by Mr. Jeff'erson, in connection with Lucas and 
Josiah Meigs. Jr., with power to frame laws for the government of the terri- 
tory. 

Lionel Brown, nephew of Aaron Burr, resided at Potosi. He had a 
quarrel with Colonel Smith and sent a challenge, which was accepted. Being 
one of the most noted champions of the ''code." Augustus Jones was the 
second on the part of Brown. Colonel McClannahan acting in like capacitv for 

-'3 



354 PAST AND PRESENT 

Smith. The meeting was arranged by the seconds to take place across the 
river in Monroe county, Ihinois. Major John F. Darby in his "Memoirs," 
describes this duel as follows: "The pistols were loaded, the ground meas- 
in^ed off, and the principals placed. The pistols were cocked and handed to 
them. The rules and agreements of the high contracting parties, upon which 
the lives of two men in full health and in the full enjoyment of all their 
faculties depended, had been reduced to writing. It was provided that after 
the pistols had been cocked and handed to the l:>elligerents, the second who 
had won the giving of the w^ord (generally determined by tossing a coin) 
should put the question, 'Gentlemen are you ready?' If the parties answered, 
'Yes,' or 'Ready,' then the second proceeds to count 'One,' 'Two,' 'Three,' 
neither party being permitted to fire before the word 'One" nor later than 
the word, 'Three.' 

"In this case Colonel Smith, w'ith the rapidity of lightning, as soon as 
the word 'One' was uttered, put a ball in the center of Lionel Brow^i's fore- 
head and he fell dead before the word 'Three' was spoken. Smith was un- 
touched. Some one now raised the alarm that the civil authorities of Illinois 
were after them. McClannahan forgetting to uncock his pistol, put it in his 
breeches pocket, in haste to get to the river and across. In rowing over, the 
pistol fired off, wounding him in the leg, from w'hich he did not recover for six 
months." 

In 1829 Colonel Smith, being at Nashville, challenged Gen. Sam Houston 
to fight, but the General declined the invitation, making a public explanation 
of his refusal. The duel did not take place. General Houston backing out. 

The final serious and fatal encounter of Col. Smith T w-as with a man 
whom he killed at St. Genevieve, and for which he was indicted, but finally 
acquitted, by a jury. He became so notorious as to excite general curiosity, 
and although courteous and polite in his intercourse with acquaintances, yet 
he was shunned, as being a dangerous man, particularly when "in his cups." 

From his home at Shibboleth, Colonel Smith T made annual visits to 
his property in Saline county, to look after his interests and in addition in- 
dulged in deer driving sport in which he took great delight. In the fall he 
would set forth from his residence in St. Genevieve, on horseback, attended 
always by his faithful negro servant and body guard. Dave, the latter well 
armed with a double-barrelled shotgun and large holster pistols, of his own 
make. Dave being an expert gunsmith, for his trip to Saline county, to spend 
a month or two in the royal sport of deer driving. Dave rode in the rear 
of his master a few yards distance, keeping his eye open for ambuscades, 
knowing his master had many enemies. On one of these journeys, the Colonel 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOURI 355 

spent the night at a hotel in Jefferson City, — in fact he always made it a 
point to stop at Jefferson to rest for a clay or two. The late Hon. James S. 
Rollins, a distinguished Missourian, in his latter years took great delight in 
relating his introduction to Col. Jack Smith T at a hotel in Jefferson City, 
when Colonel Smith was on his journey from his annual hunt in Saline 
county, in the winter time when the Legislature was in session. 

Major Rollins, then an eloquent young lawyer, who had recently opened 
a law office at Columbia, Missouri, had just arrived at Jefferson to fill an 
advertised appointment to deliver a temperance lecture, the Major being a 
gifted young orator and a very enthusiastic temperance advocate. On enter- 
ing the hotel barroom, used also as the reception room for guests, he found 
a gentleman, a stranger to him, sitting there warming himself before the 
open wood fire, who had apparently arrived lately also. This individual was 
a man whose personal looks would alone attract the attention of a stranger, — 
not only that, but arouse his curiosity as well. He soon began a conversation 
with Rollins, ascertaining his name and residence, and after exchanging ob- 
servations of Columbia and vicinity, he said, "Mr. Rollins, walk over here and 
let us have a drink of the landlord's licjuor." Mr. Rollins being out to make 
a temperance speech, of course it did not strike him as being a very becoming 
performance to drink liquor under such circumstances. So he declined, tell- 
ing the gentleman that he did not indulge, etc. Colonel Smith at first used 
some mild persuasive language to induce the young man to join him, becoming 
more and more urgent, and at last, excited, finally saying to Rollins, drawing 
his pistol from his belt, laying it on the bar counter, "Sir! I allow no gentle- 
man to decline to drink with me; you can either drink or fight." At this junc- 
ture the landlord stepped up behind Rollins, whispering in his ear. "That is 
old Jack Smith T ; for God's sake drink with him or he will kill you." "Well," 
Major Rollins in relating the incident would say, "I had heard of this no- 
torious and dangerous man, and it flashed upon me that I had better drink 
with him, than suffer the result of his threat to kill me. From his manner, 
I had every reason to believe that he would not hesitate to shoot me down. 
So I took the drink of whiskey or brandy with Colonel Smith at the bar. Re- 
suming our seats before the fire, the Colonel became more amiable and agree- 
able. Not being accustomed to drinking, the liquor soon had its effect on me ; 
the Colonel insisted on taking another and another until I was entirely too 
much intoxicated to even make an attempt to deliver my temperance lecture." 
Major Rollins related this account of his introduction to Col. Jack Smith T. 
when he was a member of the State Senate thirty years after it occurred, say- 
ing it was ineffaceably engraved upon his memory. 



356 PAST AND PRESENT 

It is impossible to endorse or approve of the tragical life of Col. Jack 
Smith T, and it is not written with the expectation that this sketch will meet 
the approval of any reader, but so far as dueling is concerned, the practice of 
that mode of settling personal disputes was general with his contemporaries, 
and he was no worse than hundreds of other men of spirit and resentment, 
men such as Gen. Andrew Jackson and Thomas H. Benton, afterwards ele- 
vated to the highest positions bestowed by public favor. His conduct in many 
instances was a source of distressing regret and mortification to his more 
distinguished brother, General Smith. 

Col. Jack Smith had a most amiable, mild and as gentle a wife as a 
woman could possibly be, and he was most devotedly attached to her. Through 
all his troubles and trials, she clung with a true love of woman, stronger than 
David's love for Jonathan. Colonel Smith had only one child, a daughter, 
who first married John S. Dedrick, by whom she had two children, a son and 
a daughter. After Dedrick's death, she married Capt. J. M. White, a gen- 
tleman of high character and great respectability, who lived in the city of 
St. Louis. By this marriage she had and reared a large family of children. 
She w^as gentle and amiable in her manners, respected and loved by every- 
bodv who knew her. She had been brought up a Presbyterian, but from this 
church she voluntarily withdrew and attached herself to the Roman Catholic 
church from conscientious convictions alone, and in that faith she afterwards 
lived and died a devout member of the church. Col. John Smith T loved his 
daughter with as great affection and warm attachment as any man that ever 
lived, at least so said Major John F. Darby in his "Recollections." 

Col. Jack Smith T went to Tennessee, in the neighborhood of Memphis, 
in 1835, to open a cotton plantation and here he died with disease, none but 
his negroes being present. His remains were afterwards brought up on a 
steamboat to Selma, in Jefferson county, Missouri, where his son-in-law, 
James M. White, lived, and was buried in March, 1835. 

Major Darby further says John Smith T killed the most of the men he 
shot in fair and open duels, where his own life was at stake, in what in his 
day and time was considered honorable, open and manly warfare, and when 
he killed a man in any sudden quarrel or broil he always stood his trial, and was 
honorably acquitted by a jury of his countrymen. He was as polished and 
courteous a gentleman as ever lived in the state of Missouri, and as "mild a 
mannered man as ever put a bullet into the human body." 



L.HAPTER XXXI. 

MEMORIES OF THE AUTHOR INCIDENTS OF EARLY TIMES IN SALINE COUNTY. 

The author of this work, being a native of the county, remembers with 
more or less distinctness backward to the micklle of the last century, and in 
some instances and particulars even earlier than that period. In the southern 
part of the county, where he grew up to manhood, there were yet living some 
of the real pioneers, hunters and trappers, people who lived in log houses and 
still retained many primitive fashions, habits and ways. He remembers when 
plows with wooden shares or mould-boards were used ; remembers when all 
the cloth for family use was mainly woven on hand looms at home, and when 
the cooking was all done in iron ovens, pots and kettles about a large fire- 
place where wood was the fuel, and when the buckets and piggins were made 
of cedar staves with one stave prolonged upward above the rim to form a 
handle. He remembers when all the wheat and hemp was cut with a cradle 
and the wheat threshed out on a treadyard with horses ridden around over it 
until the grain was removed from the meshes, and when cornbread was the 
main staff of life, and when wheat bread was regarded as a luxury. He saw 
the first threshing machine used to thresh grain in this county, the machine 
being disconnected with a fanning or cleaning machinery. He remembers 
the first reapers to cut wheat without binding it in bundles, and in short, has 
witnessed all the great modern improvements in agricultural implements and 
machines and the great increase in the products of the soil made possible 
thereby. 

He remembers wdien the county was very sparsely settled; when there 
were no houses on the vast prairie between Marshall and the Brakes of Black- 
water; when the old county jail, built of stone on the same lot now occupied by 
the present building, was the first house in the town when approached from 
the south ; remembers when the countiy west of town on the Lexington road 
was almost one wa\'ing field of hemp for miles on either side of the road, there 
being several hundred acres on one farm alone, that of Aaron F. Bruce, who 
was one of the largest hemp raisers in the county. 

He remembers when the greater part of the splendid prairie land about 
Mt. Leonard and Blackburn was nearlv all vacant, Iving unclaimed and un- 



358 PAST AND PRESENT 

occupied, yet belonging to the government, a very large part of it being en- 
tered and taken up under the "'Graduation Law" of 1854. This law provided 
when any man not owning land might enter three hundred and twenty acres at 
twelve and one-half cents per acre, and might enter that amount when it was 
found lying adjoining to land he already owned if yet vacant and belonging 
to the government. Congress soon became dissatisfied with this law and it 
only remained on the statute book until the next session of Congress, when 
it was repealed, and this placed the government land at the price of one dollar 
and twenty-five cents per acre as it had been before the passage of this 
"Graduation Law." 

He remembers when Saline county was the finest game country on earth, 
when the white-tailed deer were more numerous than sheep are now% and 
when there were probably more wild turkeys than there are tame ones now ; 
remembers when the royal sport of deer-driving might be indulged in freely 
to gratify the sporting proclivities of the most ardent sportsman, even when 
it was denied to those in less favored localities in the adjoining counties, this 
game having remained here after becoming extinct even to the west of us in 
Lafayette and Jackson counties. 

He remembers when the prairies fairly swarmed with numberless flocks 
of wild geese and prairie chickens (the latter were called paroquets by Wash- 
ington Irving and other writers of early travel in the Western states), and 
when the lakes and creeks were filled with great flocks of wild geese and 
ducks in such immense numbers as when in flight to darken and almost ob- 
scure the light of day. 

Saline county was in reality entitled to the designation of a hunter's 
paradise, the opportunities for killing game being unequalled, and at the same 
time no extremes of climate or trackless deserts to be encountered by the 
sportsman as are found in South Africa, Australia, and other great game 
countries. 

He remembers when there was only one bridge over Blackwater, and 
when there was not a single railroad in the state of Missouri, nor a line of 
telegraph, — in short, remembers all the changes that have taken place in Saline 
county in the last sixty years of our history. 

ADDITIONAL INCIDENTS OF EARLY TIMES IN SALINE COUNTY. 

Lewis and Clarke, the now famous explorers, who' were sent out by Mr. 
Jefferson in 1803 to explore, examine and report the kind of country we had 
purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte, give us the earliest authentic account of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 359 

Saline county in their publication made some years afterwards. This ex- 
pedition in ascending the Missouri in the spring of 1804, gives Saline county 
notice as follows in the vicinity of Arrow Rock : 

"On the 9th of June (1804) we set out early and reached a cliff called 
the Arrow Rock, near to which is a prairie called the Prairie of Arrows and 
Arrow creek, a small stream about eight yards wide, whose source is in the 
adjoining prairies on the south. At this cliff, the Missouri is confined within 
a bed of two hundred yards, and about four miles to the southeast is a large 
lick and salt springs of great strength. About three miles further is Black- 
bird creek, on the north side opposite to which is an island and a prairie in- 
closing a small lake. 

"Five miles beyond this we encamped on the south side, after making in 
the course of a day thirteen miles. The land on the north side is a high rich 
plain ; on the south it is also even and of good quality and rising from fifty to 
one hundred feet. Twenty-five miles above Arrow Rock a head-wind forced 
us to remain there all the next day, during which we dried the meat we had 
killed and examined the surrounding country, which consists of good land, 
well watered and supplied with timber. The prairies also differ from those 
east of the Mississippi as the latter are generally without any covering ex- 
cept grass, wdiile the former abound with hazel, grapes and other fruits, 
among which is the osage plum of a very superior size and quality." 

Long before this, the "Arrow Rock" was well known to the early French 
and Spanish voyageurs, trappers and hunters, and the town located on the 
bluff was afterwards given the same name. 

In 1839 the county seat was removed from Jonesboro to Arrow Rock. 
The reason for this removal is not very apparent at this day, and we have 
discovered no reason assigned for it at the time of the removal. Here also 
was the place where the early Santa Fe traders crossed the Missouri river, and 
the first ferry in this section of the country was established at that place. In 
fact, the relations between the people of old Franklin and Arrow Rock were 
very intimate, that is, their trade relations, it being only ten miles from the 
eastern terminus of the Santa Fe trail. 

There is a legendary account regarding the Santa Fe trade to the effort 
that the second expedition, which went out in 1822, brought back great quanti- 
ties of gold and silver, Mexican coin. This coin was packed up and secured 
in bundles, two of wdiich formed an ordinary "pack" for a mule, sewed up in 
rawhide fastened together with rawhide thongs. When this expedition got 
back in the fall of 1822. they brought into one of the storehouses at Franklin 
all of these packs of coin, and the rawhide thongs being cut, exposed to view 



:^C)0 PAST AND PRESENT 

great i)iles of money, the sig-ht of which brightened the eyes and excited the 
cupi(hty and ax'arice of all the people of Franklin, who had been for sometime 
previous using coon skins for currency and as a legal lender. These piles of 
money "jumped to the eyes." as the French say. of the people of Franklin, 
and many of them were afterwards encouraged to embark in the Santa Fe 
trade, though it was a very hazardous and dangerous business. 'i"he old 
Santa I'e trail was the longest and best nattu^al road to be found anywhere. 
Thirty-five years after the location originally of the Santa Fe trail, the author 
of this book traveled over the trail in company with an ox train of freight 
wagons, that is to sa)'. in the year 1857. There is probably no wagon road 
of the same length of such easy grade and (n-er which a wagon can l)e drawn 
from one end t(^ the other very heavily k^aded with merchandise. It was. in 
fact, a great natural highway. Throughout its whole length, we saw no place 
that needed or had received any mark of a shovel, scraper, spade or plow 
used in repairing it. In fact, we saw no place that looked as if it had even 
been worked on by a body, although the government in years ]iast had sent 
out some parties for the purpose of improving the highway. 

The first ferr}- at Arrow Rock was established by Captain Becknell ( who 
originated the Santa Fe trade) in 182 1. The ferry boat was constructed of 
two keel boats lashed together, and covered with a platform with a railing 
around it. Captain Becknell afterwards ( 1828 and 1830) represented Saline 
county in the Legislature. The town was surveyed by Governor Marmaduke 
in the fall of 1829, and had for sometime previously been called New Phil- 
adelphia, but its inhabitants becoming dissatisfied with the name, procured the 
passage of an act of Legislature changing the name of the town from X^ew 
Philadelphia to Arrow Rock, the name of the bluff on which it was located. 

THE TOWN OF JONESBORO. 

This old town was once the county seat of the county, remaining so for 
more than a dozen years, although its population in its flourishing days was 
but a few hundred: still it was the seat of an extensive flouring mill anrl a 
place frequented by people from a long distance. It was also a favorite out- 
fitting depot and starting' point for some traders, explorers and adventurers. 
who traded to Santa Fe in early days and who. living in this county. i)re- 
ferred this place as a starting point at which to load their wagons and collect 
their teams. These parties would join the regular caravans at Independence 
or some point west of them. Jonesboro was frequently visited by early set- 
tlers from Grand Pass and other parts of the county and by people fr(Mn 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 361 

Cooper and Pettis counties, who came there to mill and to hny suppHes from 
the well supplied stores. 

The court room was of log's and an upstairs room o\^er store houses 
situated on the second bottom of the creek about a hundred yards from the 
bank, but in this court room when the court was in session might be found 
some of the ablest young- lawyers then in the state of Missouri. In the first 
place. Judge Todd occupied the bench and after him. Judge Scott in 1836, 
who afterwards became judge of the supreme court. As lawyers at the bar 
here were Abiel Leonard, John E. Ryland, Gen. DufT Green, and William B. 
Napton, as attorney-general. The lawyers usually stopped at the residence 
of Rice \\'ood. about a half a mile east of the town, where they always found 
comfortable quarters and good fare. 

On the removal of the county seat to Arrow Rock, the business of Jones- 
l^oro began to decline, and in a few years there were no stores remaining there. 

At the time of its prosperity, and wdiile it was the county seat, the an- 
nual musters of the militia for this section of the county took place at Jones- 
boro. These military meetings and trainings were then required by the 
statutes of the state, the section governing the matter being as follows : 

Section 29. Every commanding oliicer of a company shall parade his 
companv for inspection, on the first Saturday of April annually, at ten o'clock 
in the forenoon, at such place as the said commanding officer shall appoint, 
and it is made the duty of the commandants, at every muster,' whether for 
training or inspection, to exercise their respective companies not less than 
three hours on each day. And the troops of this state shall be paraded in the 
month of ]\Iav annuallv. for training and discipline, in battalions on such 
dav and place as the commanding officers of the respective regiments and 
extra battalions shall appoint : the said troops shall be paraded in the month 
of October in every year, for review, inspection or discipline, either in brigades, 
regiments or battalions (regard being had to the scattered or compact situa- 
tion of the troops), at such times and places as the commanding officer of the 
brigade may order. And every commanding oft'icer, non-commissioned of- 
ficers and musicians of his regiment or extra battalion shall, by his order, 
assemble the officers, non-commissioned officers and musicians of his regi- 
ment or extra battalion, in the month of September in every year, for training 
and discipline; he shall, by his order, appoint the time and place, continue such 
training not less than two, nor more than four days consecutively, and may 
require such officers, non-commissioned officers and musicians to encamp on 
the ground during the continuance of such training so soon as the militia are 
furnished with tents and camp equipage. And the places to be appointed for 



362 PAST AND PRESENT 

training, inspections and reviews as aforesaid, shall always be as central as, 
in the judgment of the officers appointing the place, convenience will admit, 
provided, that no officer, non-commissioned officer, musician or private shall 
be obliged to travel more than twenty miles to any training, inspection or re- 
view." 

Under the militia law of that period, all men of the age of eighteen, and 
under the age of forty-five, were subject to duty as militiamen, except such 
as could obtain exemption on the grounds of bodily infirmities rendering him 
unfit for military service, and the law required every commanding officer to 
parade his company for inspection. 

The effect of this old militia law was to furnish a regular and a very 
flourishing crop of titled civilians, and in the absence of any titles of nobility 
such as our ancestors in England had, our people have been compelled to re- 
sort to militaiy titles, nearly all of which were gained as officials in the militia, 
but many of whom were never really in actual military service. 

When Jonesboro flourished, there was also a good school there. The 
late Col. Vincent Marmaduke and his brother John, the general and governor, 
attended school there in their boyhood, but the name of the teacher is lost in 
the obscurity of the past. 

Alexander Galbraith, who built the mill, was the first settler in that neigh- 
borhood. 

In 1823 Mrs. Walker Atkisson, who was married at that time and set- 
tled near Jonesboro, said years afterwards that she had for neighbors James 
Robertson, Samuel Davis, Richard Scott and \^'yatt Bingham. Several years 
afterwards Dr. George Penn came and lived on the hill just above Jonesboro, 
where he practiced medicine. Asa Finley lived near the mouth of Salt Fork. 
Mrs. Atkisson was married in 1823, the marriage ceremony being performed 
by Judge George Tennille. 

Walker H. Finley, judge of the county court in 1854, settled December 
24, 1829, on section 22, township 49, range 20, the land being entered by his 
brother, W. A. Finley. Judge Finley afterwards stated, "Here I labored for 
ten years. At the time, the country seemed to be almost a wilderness. The 
neighborhoods were few and far between. The winter of 1830 and 183 1 was 
the severest ever known in Missouri up to that date. Snow fell the last of 
November, 1830, remaining on the ground until the first of the following 
March. No such snow storms have I ever witnessed since, and the weather 
was extremely cold. The snow at that time on a level was from four to five 
feet deep and there were drifts from ten to twenty-five feet deep. At that 
time, most of the people lived in very moderate size houses built of logs. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 363 

they being their own architects, and built in accordance with the situation. The 
snow was so terrijfic and so much of it that it would bank up around the 
houses, sometimes covering the windows and reaching up to the eaves of the 
houses, and the inmates would be compelled to work their way out with 
shovels. The decade following was one of regular and moderate seasons. 
The springs and summers were pleasant, but the winters were regularly cold 
and severe, having snow and cold weather with but little variation throughout 
the winter until after the first of March, when spring would come in with all 
its glories and with the rays of sunshine, warm the earth and cheer the people 
of Saline county." 

In September, 1830, Judge Finley, in company with his sister, Phil Houx 
and David Morrow, went from Wyatt Bingham's to Lexington on horse- 
back. By making an early start, the journey, then called sixty miles, was 
accomplished in one day. There were only two or three settlements between 
Jonesboro and Lexington. Cornelius Davis lived near where Marshall now 
is. The Hayeses, Owenses, Hunters and Gillettes were on Salt Pond creek. 
Johnson Grove and Page and Samuel Walker lived on the Tebo. The trail 
was not more than eight or ten inches wide, leading through the prairie on 
which in many places the grass was taller than a man on horseback. The 
Judge returned home after an absence of a week without missing the road or 
getting lost. 

The Judge said at that time, 1830, "game was very plentiful, deer were 
very abundant. I could stand on a ridge in the prairie between the mouth of 
Salt Fork and Marshall and count at one sight twenty, forty and sometimes 
sixty deer in a herd quietly feeding. It was no trouble to kill deer then ; three 
or four a day was not considered a very great accomplishment." 

The first marriage I remember after arriving in Saline county was that 
of Claiborne F. Jackson and Aliss Sappington, February 17, 183 1. The next 
marriage was that of Dr. George Penn and Miss Chambers, a daughter of Col. 
Benjamin Chambers, the first county clerk, and after that Judge N. B. Tucker 
and Lucy A. Smith, the daughter of Gen. Thomas A. Smith. The mortality 
of the county was certainly very light. There were not many people to die. 
Samuel Brown-john, an Englishman, died near Jonesboro in the vear 1830, 
and was buried there. The business men of this community when I first made 
my appearance here were Dr. John Sappington, Col. M. M. Marmaduke, Col. 
William Lewis, Gen. Thomas A. Smith, Wyatt Bingham, Nathan Harris, 
Asa Finley, Judge Huston, Benjamin Huston, Nowlin Hawpe, Thornton, 
Nave, Beatty, the Browns, Harveys, Davises, Lawlesses, Atkinson, and Mar- 
shall, who were then identified with the interests of Saline county. "These 
men are all dead now," Judge Walker Finley himself dying in 1898. 



364 PAST AND PRESENT 

The tirst school house in this section was near W'vatt Bingham's. It 
was built of numd logs, the kind of houses both teachers and pupils were ac- 
customed to. The teachers were Green Finley and, afterwards, John A. 
Trig-g. It was a subscription school, the teachers receiving about twenty 
dollars a month. 

The southeastern portion of Saline county began to be occupied about 
the vear 1825. The first settler, Stephen Dial, entered and located upon sec- 
tion 12, township 48, range 20. Richard Howard, from Virginia, came in 
1830. entering section 11, township 48, range 20. The first marriage in that 
neighborhood was that of James Campbell and Lucy Ann Rucker, half a mile 
Avest of the present town of Ridge Prairie. The ceremony was performed by 
the Rev. William D. Wear, a prominent Cumberland Presbyterian minister. 
The first regular physician in that neighborhood w'as George W. Rothwell, 
wdio became distinguished in his profession while he remained here. Some 
years afterwards he moved and located in Pettis county. The first school 
taught in the neighborhood was by the Rev. Thornton Rucker. He had 
about thirty-fi\'e pupils at one dollar per month tuition. Some of them were 
boarders and some of them li\-ed from four to eight miles away. 

The first school house for the neighborhood was built in 1839, near 
Richard Howard's, being built of logs with a big wdde fireplace. It was built 
entirely of the material at hand, no mone}^ expended in its erection. 

The mill used by these settlers was on Muddy creek, in Pettis county, 
sixteen miles aw^ay. Economy was everywhere enjoined and practiced by 
the settlers. 

W hen I'ncle Dick Marshall's daughter, Linda, was married, her father 
called her up to him after the ceremony and after the w^edding supper, and 
said, "Now, Linda, you hear me. Don't let your face be seen in a store for 
six years. You understand." 

Heath's creek, in the southern edge of the county, w^as named for Mr. 
Heath, of St. Louis, who came up the river from St. Louis as early as 1808 
and made salt from the salt springs along the bank of the creek just at the 
edge of Cooper county. The Elk Lick White Sulphur Springs on Heath's 
creek, near the southern line of the county, furnished as good sulphur water 
as can be f(nind anywhere in the state and before the Civil war it was a 
watering jjlace of considerable local reputation, being frequented by many 
people during the summer seasons. The Springs was also a noted place for 
political speakings and gatherings. 

.Among the other early settlers in the southern part of the county were 
Major Milton Wood, I^eter Thornton, Gen. William Miller. Col. William 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 365 

Davis, Thomas W. Gaines, Judge Napton, Richard P. Shelby. James H. Uc- 
Alhster, James Hunt, and John B. Dedrich. 

The early marriages there were those of Madison \\'ood and Angeline 
Thornton ; Mr. Herron and Paulina Wood ; William B. Napton and Melinda 
Williams; John G. Miller and Margaret \Wlliams, daughters of Judge 
Thomas L. Williams, of Tennessee. 

The first school taught in the neighborhood was taught near the Bing- 
ham farm by a teacher^iamed Pat Parsons. Jonesboro and Oliver's mill were 
the main milling places; some of the settlers, however, went to Pinhook in 
Pettis county. 

On Finis creek. Renault's French gold seekers mined quite extensively 
in 1720. searching for precious metals, and erected rude smelting fnrnaces. 
Tliese men probably visited and mined on Blackwater also, where they left 
some remains of their mining operations. Robert Fitzgerald. Charles Beasley. 
and Caleb Witcher were among the first settlers on Finis creek. 

Vp in Grand Pass township, in the western part of the county, John P. 
DeMoss located in township 52. He states that the first settlers were Capt. 
Dan Kiser, of Virginia, and George Davis, who came between the years 
1 8 18 and 1820, from Ross county. Ohio, locating on section 8, township 51, 
range 22. Afterwards, in 1830, came the Lewises, William H., George W. 
and Col. John M., settling on sections 21, 22 and 2y. Col. John F. Yancey 
came from Virginia in 1834. settling on section 18. Alexander McClintick 
came from Virginia, in 1834, settling on section 29. Capt. John A. AMhte 
came in 1836, from Virginia, settling on section 22, and Mr. Renick came 
from Ohio, in 1839, settling on section 23. 

The first marriage in this neighborhood was that of John Kenton and 
Tulia Davis about the year 1836. Squire J. S. McMillian, in 1836, married 
Nelson McReynolds to Anna Craig in Lafayette county. His jurisdiction in 
such matters being confined to his own township, many years afterwards the 
parties, doubting the legality of the ceremony, went through it again before a 
clergyman. 

Anna DeMoss died October 26. 1839, the first person dying in the neigh- 
borhood, and was bnried in the graveyard one and one-half miles west of 
XA'averly in Lafayette county. 

The first practicing physician was Doctor Gulp, who came from Alabama, 
and afterwards returning to that state. 

The first preacher was a Methodist, and the first religious sennces were 
held at the residence of Captain DeMoss. 

The first school was taught at the Notle>- Thomas place, by Louisa 



366 PAST AND PRESENT 

Lewis, who resided at Waverly in 1881. She had about a dozen pupils at a 
salary of twelve dollars a month. Those who could afford it in those days 
usuall}' employed private teachers. The Hon. John W. Bryant, afterwards a 
leading lawyer of the county, was tutor in the family of Colonel Yancey for 
some time. 

The first school house in the neighborhood w-as built on Colonel Yancey's 
farm in 1828, by Colonel Yancey, William DeMoss, James Brown, Alex 
McClintick and George Davis at a cost of about fifty dollars. 

For many years after the country was settled, there w^as but one road, 
the state road, running east and west. There were no l)ridges, no defined 
roads to the timber or from one house to another. Milling was done at 
Dover, or Jonesboro twenty miles away. Other supplies were obtained at 
Dover and Arrow Rock, and sometimes from Lexington. From the latter 
place all lumber was bought. Goods were brought from Dover and Jones- 
boro in wagons, from Lexington by steamboats, when they were running. 
The first boats up the river went no higher up than Lexington. 

The first physician in that section was Dr. John Sappington from Arrow 
Rock. 

The first orchard planted in the neighborhood was by George Davis. 

Joseph McReynolds settled on section 17, in 1824. Samuel McReynolds 
settled on section 18 in 1821. Both were Tennesseeans. Notley Thomas, 
who settled on section 18 in 18 18, was a Kentuckian. 

The first resident physician was Dr. G. W. Hereford, who continued to 
practice until his death, in 1884. Mrs. Hereford, his widow, is still living 
in Marshall, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. 

The first school was taught in section 18, near the county line, by Hugh 
French in the year 1827 or 1828. French had ten pupils, for which he w^as 
paid one dollar each per month. The school was the first school house built, 
a house of logs with puncheon floor. 

The trading places at that time were Old Franklin, Boonville and Arrow 
Rock. The nearest mill w^as at Dover. The first postoffice was in Lafayette 
county, about a mile beyond the Saline county line on the Webb place near 
Waverly, John Dustin being the postmaster. The first steamboat carrying 
freight and passengers which ascended the Missouri river as high as Lexing- 
ton is thought to have been "The Globe," owned and commanded by Captain 
Glasgow^ after w^hom the town of Glasgow, Howard county, was named. The 
first trip was made in 1835, and on her third trip down the river, being 
heavily loaded with corn, she struck a snag and sank. Before that time, navi- 
gation on the river was for the most part by keel-boats pulled up by ropes. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 3^7 

In the first years of this settlement, green horse flies were a great plague. 
It was utterly impossible to travel in the daytime with horses on account of 
the immense swarms of these blood-thirsty insects. Farmers were frequently 
compelled to work at night all through August and September. The flies 
were hatched in the long prairie grass abounding everywhere. 

Hugh Gilliam first settled township 51, range 23, in 1837. Richard 
Malone, of Tennessee, and Nicholas James, of Virginia, who came in 1830, to 
section 32, township 52 ; Harper Meadows, also from Virginia, who came in 
1835, settled on section 7, township 51. Milton and Alexander Galbraith, 
who had lived down about Jonesboro, came to section 31, township 52. 

The first regular physician was Dr. James Warren, who afterwards 

moved to Waverly. 

The first minister was the Rev. Jamison, Methodist, and the first religious 
sei-vices were held at the house of Mrs. Mary Gilliam. The first school taught 
in this section was by Edward March, who had about fifteen scholars at one 
dollar a month. The first school house was built on section 9 in 1846, costing 

aoout fifty dollars. 

Mrs. Nancy James was renowned in early times as a weaver of cloth. 
She also became famous as a weaver of figured coverlets and other orna- 
mental cloth. 

The nearest grist mill was that of James Brown, south of Malta Bend. 
The nearest supply point was Webb's landing and Dover. 

The first postoffice in this section was on the farm where John Black 
afterwards lived, and was called Cow Creek. Green McCafiferty was post- 
master, and in that day the postage was twenty-five cents on a letter. 

The winter of 1830 was noted for its severity. The deep snow laid on 
the ground nearly all winter, the ravines being so filled up as to render travel 
almost impossible. In February, Col. John M. Lewis moved into a cabin on 
Salt Fork, where he remained till the close of the winter. Doctor Penn* of 
near Jonesboro, was the physician attending the sick in this neighborhood 
during this dreadful and eventful winter. 

*Dr George Penn. a physician, who practiced all over Saline county in the early 
davs was for a time a partner of Dr. John Sappington. Doctor Penn was a native of 
Nelson county, Virginia, born in February. 1800. He was educated at Hampden Sydney 
Colle-e He afterwards studied medicine, taking a course and graduatnig at the Medical 
Colle-e in Philadelphia. He practiced a few years in his native county, removmg to 
Missouri in 1830, settling in Saline county. He entered land and improved a farm one 

mile from Jonesboro. „ ,, ,^, , 4.1 o-,- 

Tn December, 1831, Doctor Penn was married to Sarah Bella Chambers, the ver> 

handsome and accomplished daughter of Col. Benjamin Chambers, the first county clerk 



308 PAST AND PRESENT 

During- the Civil war. it was in this township that General Price's army 
halted for some days during his march through Missouri in the fall of 1864. 
The head(|uarters were near Riser's liridg^e, but the camps were located up 
and down Salt Fork for many miles. Here was where our favorite western 
general. Sterling Price, w^as visited by hundreds of people, male and female, 
who admired him and loved his cause. Here also he received and put in ser- 
vice hundreds of recruits, who availed themselves of the opportunity to escape 
from the hateful domination of the Federals and to enroll in the regular army 
of the Confederate States of America. This township furnished its quota 
of men of either side during the Civil war. It was in this neighborhood where 
the regiment of Col. Joseph O. Shelby was org^anized and rendezvoused in 
August, 1862. 

The Grand Pass, which gives its name to the lake nearby and to the 
t(nvnship. is a narrow pass of highd>ottom from one hundred to five hundred 
yards wide [between the waters of Salt Fork (Mi the one side and the lakes 
in the river bottom on the other. The old state road passes over it, the great 
old thoroug-hfare of emigration and traders to Santa Fe and to California, 
and the name was given the pass by these early travelers. 

In the early trading times. 1830 to 1835, a hotel was built and kept at the 
Pass by John and William Early, who were cousins of the Rev. John Early, a 
noted Methodist bishop of Kentucky. The Earlys sold out to George Fran- 
cisco, who kept the hotel for some years, when it bimied down. 

The postoffice was kept at the house of Capt. John DeMoss, the mail 
coming cMice a week from old Jefferson and from Dover in the West. 

The Grand Pass and Davis lakes are two lakes in the river bottom north 
of the plains, one about three miles in length and a mile in width in earlv times. 
One is called Grand Pass lake on account of its proximitv to the Pass ; the 



of Saline count}', a sketch of whom we have heretofore given. Doctor Penn Hved on 
his farm near Jonesboro for many years, where he practiced his profession, also taking 
an active interest in politics. He had patients scattered throughout the limits of the county. 
In 1834 Doctor Penn was elected and served as a representative in the Legislature 
from this county and was also afterwards a member of the state .Senate from the twenty- 
third district in 1838. In 1844 he was appointed by Governor Marmaduke as the agent of 
the state to superintend the survey of the state line between Missouri and Arkansas, 
jointly with some agents of the state of Arkansas. In 1847 he was appointed surgeon of 
the First Regiment of Missouri A^olunteers in General Kearney's army, which marched 
out to take possession of New Mexico, remaining there until the close of the war. Sub- 
sequently, after his return in 1847, he was appointed sub-treasurer of the United States 
at St. Louis. The acceptance of this appointment made it necessary for him to move 
his residence from Arrow Rock, where he was then living, to St. Louis. He purchased 
a farm in St. Louis county, near the town of Bridgeton, where he lived the remainder of 
his life. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 369 

Other, several miles long and a half a mile wide, was named for George Davis, 
one of the earliest settlers, who lived directly on the high ground above the 
lake. Just below is the magnificent body of level land called the Petite Saux 
plains. The soil is very deep and very rich and as productive as any land to 
be found anywhere. The name of these plains comes down from a very early 
date, named probably by the early French trappers, "Plaines des Petites 
Sauts," plains of the little falls, on which Malta Bend is built. These plains 
are about six or seven miles from east to west and varying from one to five 
miles in width. They lie about forty feet above the level of the low bottom 
and fifty feet above the river at a low stage. 

At the organization, in 1832, of Grand Pass chapel, the Methodist church, 
there were present John and William DeJNIoss, Mrs. Jo McReynolds and 
daughter, Capt. John B. \A^ebb and his wife, the Misses McReynolds. Mrs. 
Margaret Lewis and daughter; Mrs. L. S. Major, Mrs. Harriett Lewis, wife 
of Gen. G. W. Lewis, and the Rev. R. H. Lee. the minister. 

The town of Malta Bend was located on the Petite Saux plains, and was 
laid off by Joseph R. Lunbeck in 1857. There were then three dwelling 
houses, one dry goods store and a postoffice. The town derived its name 
from a famous old steamboat, named "Malta," which struck a snag at the 
bend of the river opposite the town and sunk, and thus the bend of the river 
acquired the name of the steamboat, and then the town became the heir of 
the name, Malta Bend. The town of Malta Bend now has railroad com- 
munication with the rest of the world by the Missouri Pacific, and, being 
surrounded by such productive land, must always be a prosperous town. 

One of the first shipments of produce from the county along the river 
was made by Samuel Perry in 1822. He bought a flatboat load of pork at 
from one dollar to a dollar and a half per hundredweight, which he took down 
the river and sold at old Franklin and Boonville, realizing a good profit. The 
first shipment of potatoes and other produce was made the following year. 

Doctor Penn was not only a man of fine reputation as a physician, but he had an 
active and an alert mind, well informed in political affairs, and was a good stump speaker 
and canvasser and naturally took an interest in politics and public affairs. The last 
public office he held was that of assistant bank commissioner in i860, Governor Jackson 
being chief commissioner, Jackson being succeeded after his election as governor by 
ex-Governor Sterling Price. 

Doctor Penn lived to the advanced age of eight\--six years, dying at his home in St 
Louis county in the year 1886. His family of children surviving him were Mrs. Virgmia 
P. Smith, wife of Dr. Crawford E. Smith, of "Experiment," Saline county, Missouri; 
Dr. James Penn, physician, St. Louis county; George Penn, Esquire, St. Louis county; 
and Mrs. Lucy Edmunds, of St. Louis county, all grandchildren of Col. Benjamin Cham- 
bers, the first clerk of Saline county, in 1820. 

24 



370 



PAST AND PRESENT 



These exix)i"ters made tlieir own l:)oats nut of limber hewn in the wotnls and 
of planks sawed l)y luind w ith the old-time whip saw. 

Amony- the earliest ])ioncers of the Miami bottom, whose memory the 
older settlers used to delight to honor, was Robert Patriek, the government 
contractor, some of whose good qualities have been mentioned before in this 
historv. Patrick could travel through the Indian territories with his droves 
of beef for the armv when no other white man could. His residence was at 
Patrick's I'end, on the Missouri, where he had a tract of land of a thousand 
acres and where he collected his cattle preparatory to driving them to be de- 
livered at the L'nited States forts. 

While Mr. Patrick was engaged in driving his cattle he supplied himself 
and his emplovees with food in the following manner: Before leaving his 
home, he would parch a quantity of corn, grind it in a hand mill and put it in 
a leather sack for safe keeping. This answered for bread. His meat was ob- 
tained from the herds of deer along the line of his road, and from this 
economical way of living he saved enough money to buy a large tract of land 
from the government, and his wife also raised cottcMi and flax which she her- 
self prepared for the spinning wdieel and the loom, weaving all the cloth that 
was required by the family. The women of these early settlements prepared 
all the cloth used for their clothing from the raw material. Four yards of 
cloth were supposed to be enough to make a woman's dress. Some men 
tanned their own leather and made their own shoes, and buckskin ser\'e(l for 
men's clothes. 

In the southern part of Miami township were !Vlajor Thomas H. Har\-ey 
and Lewis Carthrae, P. Y. Irvine, J. H. Irvine, Hugh Irvine, Col. J. B. 
Brown, an old miller, Joshua Gauldin and J. A. Saufley. All of these people 
were from the state of Virginia. 

In the neighborhood of Fairville, upon the authority of Josiah Gauldin. a 
resident since 183 1, it may be stated that the first settlers were Green Mc- 
Caffertv and wife, the surveyor of the county, wdio came before the year 
1831, locating on section 31, towmship ^2, range 21; Daniel Snoddy. from 
Rockingham countv, Virginia, located in 1832, on section jo, townshii) 51, 
range 21 : James Lewis, from West Virginia, in 1836, located on section 10. 
township 51, range 21. Daniel Snoddy married Jane Brown in 1833, at the 
residence of James Brown, the ceremony being performed b}' a ^Ieth(^dist 
preacher. 1"he first regular i)hysician was Dr. George Penn. from near Jones- 
boro, who afterwards became a noted Democratic politician. subse(|uently 
removing to St. Louis county. The first schools were taught in a grove on 
section 15, where the first school house was built, which was a frame house 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 37I 

eighteen feet square. Among- the teachers here in this school house was 
Capt. Jonn W. Reid, who afterwards commanded the company of Sahne 
county men in Doniphan's expedition to the Mexican war. The Glasgow 
and Lexington road w^as the only thoroughfare through this settlement in 
the early days. The people went to Jonesboro and Arrow Rock for what they 
needed in the way of store goods, and the main store in Arrow Rock was 
then kept bv C. F. Jackson, who also became a noted Democratic politician 
and was ultimately elected governor of the state, just as the clouds of Civil 
war began to appear and overcast the political horizon. The main merchants 
at Jonesboro were Hook & Brothers and IMarmaduke & Sappington, a hrm 
composed of M. M. Marmaduke and E. D. Sappington. 

Miami township abounds in many features of interest to the archaeologist 
and antiquarian. Here are the Pinnacles and the site of the old French fort, 
and the probable site of the massacre of the Spaniards by the Indians in the 
eighteenth century. 

There are many evidences and traces of occupants prior to the occupa- 
tion of the whites in Miami township, among which are the remains of the old 
fort, which is about four miles southeast of Miami in what is called the Pin- 
nacle hills. In the old fort there have been found and dug up portions of 
human skeletons. The Indians who were here when the white man came knew 
nothing of the people who had built the fort, or the mounds in that neighbor- 
hood. There was also found in the early days quantities of unglazed broken 
crockeryware in the vicinity of the Pinnacle hills. There were also pipes 
made of red stone, arrow heads made of flint, and red stone used for paint. 
These were undoujjtedly left Ijy the Indians. Stone axes have also been 
found. 

Honey was very abundant in the wild A\o()ds when the country was first 
occupied. Nearlv every other hollow tree was a bee tree and the hollow trees 
without honey were filled with coons. 

I'he great earthquake of 1811 destroyed a large portion of New ^Madrid 
countv. leaving' many people in a state of destitution and ]:)overty. As has 
been before stated in this history. Congress came to their relief, passing an 
act granting to each settler who was damaged by the earthquake a claim for 
an equal amount of land to that which had been destroyed by the earth(|uake, 
which claim might be located anywhere there was any land owned by the 
government which had been surveyed and was subject to sale. Jacob Ish 
bought two of these New Madrid land warrants, locating the first warrant in 
1 816, in the Big Bottom, and this was probably the first land title in Saline 
count^• derived from tlie government. 



■^•^2 PAST AND PRESENT 

The land of Saline county was surveyed in 1816 and 1817, and a land 
office established at old Franklin, the land at first being offered at public sale, 
beginning the 2d of November, 1818, advertising on what particular day the 
congressional township would be offered for sale. The terms of the land 
sales was one-fifth cash and four annual payments, which proved very dis- 
advantageous for both the government and the purchasers for the reason thai 
purchasers were disposed to buy and did buy more than they were ultimately 
able to pay for, and consequently this plan of disposing of the public domain 
was shortly abandoned. The lands of those who had purchased more than 
thev were able to pay for, under a subsequent act of Congress reverted to the 
government, and were again oft'ered for sale. 

THE TOWN OF MIAMI. 

This town was formerly called Greenville, and at one time aspired to be 
the county seat. The land upon which the town is located was entered by 
Henry Ferrill, in 1833. In 1836 he established a ferry over the river and 
laid out the town in 1838, which was called Greenville until 1843. when, by 
act of Legislature, it w^as changed to Miami. 

In 1838 a steam sawmill was set in operation, which enabled people to 
build frame houses, but the first warehouse was built of logs and from this 
the first crop of hemp, owned by P. Y. Irvine, Esquire, was shipped by J. J. 
Ferrill in 1840. Hemp soon became the great staple of the county, and in 
i860 Saline county was the greatest hemp-growing region of the West, and 
Miami the main shipping point for that article. The population of ^Jianii had 
then reached about eight hundred. The Civil war brought on a great change 
in the agricultural products of the county. The main attention was given to 
the raising of corn, wheat and stock, these crops gradually taking the place 
of hemp. 

In early years it was thought by many that the soil of Saline county was 
not well adapted to the growth of wheat, but experience of late years has 
shown this idea to be erroneous. The crops of wheat now are not only large, 
but the grain is of as good quality as any produced in the West. 

One of the main difficulties and troubles encountered by the early settlers 
was the scant supply of timber for building and fencing purposes. The timber 
found in Saline county by the first occupants was mainly in the Missouri river 
bottoms and of narrow strips in the low creek bottoms of the smaller streams. 

On the ridges and hills back from the river and the creeks there was a 
scope of country of various width described by the government surveyors 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 373 

in making the original surveys as "barrens," a rolling and hilly prairie coun- 
try that was covered with a scattering growth of old large trees of white oak 
and black oak, hickoiT and black jack, etc. This land called barrens after- 
wards grew up in timber, that is, it began to become timbered when the set- 
tlements became strong and numerous enough, together with the well-trav- 
eled roads to keep back the prairie fires and protect the young growth from 
destruction in that way. These fires had hitherto prevented the spread of the 
young timber. This preservation and protection of the young timber occurred 
after the county had become pretty well settled up and the land entered and 
owned by the settlers. 

But for many years before this second growth timber got large enough 
for house logs, they were a scarce article at a distance from the Missouri 
river and to get first-rate house logs some of the first settlersi were compelled 
to go across the river to Howard county after them. There are yet two 
dwelling houses standing in the central part of Salt Fork' township originally 
built of hewn logs that were cut and hewn in Howard county, rafted across 
the river and hauled out by ox teams to the place where the houses were 
erected. One of these is the old residence of General Smith on section 9, 
township 49. range 20, built in 1826. The other was the residence of ]^Irs. 
Rebecca L. Mitchell (aftenvards Mrs. R. L. Shelby), situated on section 21, 
township 49, range 20, built in 1830, and yet (in 1909) in a good state of 
preservation, having been weather boarded with walnut planks soon after 
it was built. It is a house of four rooms, being eighteen feet wide by sixty- 
five in length, with two large stone chimneys, the fire-places being nearly large 
enough for a stick of cord-w^ood, and from appearances it will be a good house 
eighty years to come, it being eighty years since it Avas built. 

In consequence of the scarcity of the timber, the labor and expense of 
fencing the lands was very great, and many farmers in the central part of 
the count}^ have been compelled to haul rails ten or twelve miles to enclose 
their land. But in the latter part of the last century this new growth of tim- 
ber as above described had much of it become large enough for house logs 
and rails, and in fact, there was five times as much timber in the last quarter 
of the century as was found here by the early settlers when they first occupied 
the county. 

There was a town called Jefi^erson on the bank of the Missouri river im- 
mediatelv aljove where Cambridge was afterwards built. For eleven years 
this town was the county seat. Imt the town declined at an early day on ac- 
count of the landing being destroyed by the changes in the current of the 
river, and there remains no vestige of the former town at the present day. 



374 PAST AND PRESENT 

'The town of Cambridg'e. on the Missouri just l^elow tbe former site of 
Jefferson, was a flourishing- shipping point for man}- years before the con- 
struction of the Chicago & Alton raib'oad. 1'be town was ])egun in 1845 
and was regularly laid out in 1848. The first business man was F. A. 
Brightwell, who built the first house and was the first i)ostniaster. the post- 
office being established about the time the town was begun. The town of 
Slater has sapped the life out of Cambridge. 

The town of Slater has been a flourishing place since its foundation in 
1878. The town is largely a railroad town, but is situated in a magnificent 
farming country, and. being one of the general division points of the Chicago 
& Alton railroad, it has quite an extensive round house, repair shops and 
turn-table. The round house accommodates twenty locomotives and there 
are ten miles of side-tracking at Slater. The land on which this town was 
built once belonged to Josiah Baker. Jr. He donated t() the railroad com- 
pany half of his land u^xdu which the town is located for railroad purposes, 
and in this way secured the location of the town. Slater can now boast of 
many commodious and pleasant residences, built of brick with all the modern 
appliances of water, heat and light, granitoid walks, etc. It is a live town, 
and improving gradually. 

The town of Saline City, in Clay township, situated on a high bluff bank 
of the Missouri river, is said to be the best and one of the most favorable 
places for the building of a bridge across the river between St. Louis and 
Kansas Citv. but vet no railroad com[)any has adopted it as a crossing, not- 
withstanding its most favorable situation. 1die site of this town was cleared 
off by Rufus Biglow. in 1858. and the town surveyed and i)latted by Col. 
George \\ . .Vllen. the land belonging to 1'homas Jackson and T>ewis Ever- 
sham. Hie landing at this point is good, and sfnne ship])ing is done l)y the 
ri\-er. The town was named Saline City, though the ])oint had been known 
bv the Indians and by them called Little Arrow Rock. W'iien tiie posloflice 
was established it \vas found that there was alread}- a postoflice in Missouri 
named Saline City, and then the postoffice de])artment at Washington regis- 
tered the place as Little Rock. Missouri, the town site having long been called 
''Little Arrow Rock." 

Just below Saline City there is a creek emptying" into the Missouri named 
Pierre Fleshe. thus called l)y the 1^'rench in the seventeenth century. .\t the 
mouth of this there was a camp of trappers, and at that time a (juantity of 
furs were "cached" there. The stream itself, though a small one. abotmded 
in beaver, otter and other fin"-l)earing aniiuals. and was much resorted to by 
the hunters and tra]')])ers of the earlv times. John Thornton, an old ])ioneer. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 375 

told Jerrold Letcher that Pierre Fleshe, named by the Inchans. puts into 
the Missoini where the current formerly ran as swift as an arrow, and hence 
its name, meaning a swift arrow. Of course. Mr. Thornton was mistaken 
about this, but it matters little. 

Orearville was first called Centerville. The site was first settled b)- one 
James Smith, of Tennessee, who entered on sections 26 and 2~. He after- 
wards sold to James Shelby, a son of Isaac Shelby, the first goxernor of 
Kentucky. He sold to Ennis Combs, and his grantee to B. V. and X. C. 
Orcar. The town was started in 1852, 1)}- X. C. Orear, who afterwards serxed 
as justice of the peace there, and the town has since been the headciuarters 
of a ^•erv extensi\-e family for wliom the place was named. 

Edward Reavis and Duke Prigmore were among the early settlers in tlie 
southwestern part of the county. They landed at Boon^■ille in 1818, when 
there was only one store in that place, kept Ij}' Air. W'yan, in a small log house. 
Prigmore stopped at Buffalo Prairie, about the mouth of Blackwater, after- 
wards moving t( . the neighborhood of McAllister Springs. A\'hen he arrived 
there he found two families. Reavis and Alayes. These four men, Air. Prig- 
more making- fi\-e. were tlie only white people in the neighborhood. Alayes 
moved awav in a short time and his place was occupied by John and Robert 
()v.en>. Tliis was about the year 1824. T\\o or three years after this, (in 
account of Indian troubles, all of the settlers left, going to Howard county, 
except Prigmore, who went to Lafayette, then called Lillard. But before the 
summer was over, Air. Reavis came back. The others came back the next 
s])ring. Idle Osages, Kaws, Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes, Delawares and a few 
Shawnees were the Indians who frequented that part of the country at the 
time. Thev were ])erfectly friendly and fairl}- honest. The white settlers 
traded, hunted, ran horse and foot races and wrestled with the Indians in peace 
and good fellowsliip. Hiis had been the hunting ground of tlie different 
triljes, and the^■ were much inclined to rexisit it. The white people were all 
farmers, except Air. Rea\-is. who farmed and also made salt. Idie nearest mill 
was a horse mill owned b\' one AIcFarland al)out fort}-five miles ot+ in Cooper 
county, southwest of Boonville. They would take a wagon kjad to mill once 
or IV ice a year, and that was so much trouble that Air. Prigmore bought a 
-mrdl ])air of mill stones and fixed them up so that the}' could be run by hand. 

When these people, Reavis, PriguK^-e and Alayes, settled there, i'.i 1817 
and 1818. there were ]^lenty of buiTalo, bear, elk. deer, panthers, wol\-es, wild- 
cats and catamounts, turkeys and bees, that is, on the headwaters of I'lack- 
water. The l)ear, jjanthers and wolves were \-er}- destructi\-e to the stock, es- 
jiecially to the hogs. Hear was hunted with dogs, when snow was on the 



Xj(j PAST A XI) PRESENT 

o-round, deer and such game with rifles, and woh'es and cats, principahy 
witli steel traps. If any of the settlers got a new gun, the rest of them were 
envious until they could beat the new gun shooting at a target. At a house- 
raising all the neighbors for eight or ten miles would collect together, all bring- 
ino- their guns. If, after the house was raised, no deer was wanted, they shot 
at a mark before going home. Rifles were used altogether. 

A camp meeting was held once a year where Dover now stands, and 
everybodv went. The camp meeting w^as held by Christians and Cumberland 
Presbyterians. 

The first house built at Bro^^^^sville was of logs and was put up by Asa 
B. Pennington, about the year 1834. 

The first bank in Marshall was that of Dunnica, Cordell & Company, in 
1868. and was the second bank in the county. Previous to that there was one 
bank in Arrow Rock. The company was composed of W. F. Dunnica, J. H. 
Cordell and James H. Eakin, this partnership being succeeded in the business 
bv Cordell & Montague, with J. H. Cordell and E. D. Montague, partners. 
This bnnking concern was succeeded by a stock company called the Saline 
County Bank, in 1874, of which W. AV. Field was president, and J. H. Cor- 
dell, cashier. In March, 1877, the Saline County Bank wound \\\\ its business 
and sold its real estate to the Farmers' Savings Bank. On the same day the 
firm of Cordell & Dunnica, composed of J. H. Cordell and William F. Dun- 
nica, l^egan a new banking business. 

The banking- house of Wood & Huston commenced the Ijanking business 
at ^Marshall in February, 1874, the banking business being owned and con- 
ducted by Will H. W^ood and Joseph Huston, who had long been business 
men of Arrow Rock and well and favorably known throughout the county. 
This bruiking house did a g'ood business from the start and remains up to this 
time one of the strongest banking houses of central Missouri. 



\ 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST. 

MISSOURI COLONY FOR THE FEEBLE MINDED AND EPILEPTICS AT MARSHALL. 

. Tliis institution was established by act of the Legislature approved May 
24, 1899. and was ultimately located at Marshall. The matter of selecting- a 
location for the institution was left to be determined by the board of mana- 
gers, \vho was appointed by Governor Stephens. The location of the institu- 
tion was made the subject of competition to be governed by the most liberal 
offers that were received. This matter was finally determined in favor of 
Marshall, the people of this town paying about twenty thousand dollars to se- 
cure it. 

It was declared in the act establishing the colony "to be for the humane, 
curative, scientific and economical treatment of the feeble-minded and epilep- 
tics." The law also directed that the institution should be built on the cottage 
or village plan, and should contain cottages for domiciliary use, an infirmary, 
ch?pel, school house and work shop. The management is vested in five man- 
agers, two of whom shall be women, and but two of the others of the con- 
trolling political party. The term of office is four years, two to be first ap- 
pointed for two years ; three for four years, and ^•acancies to be filled every 
two years thereafter; compensation one hundred dollars a year and traveling 
expenses, being similar to that of other eleemosynary institutions of the state. 
The officers of the institution are superintendent, treasurer, steward and 
matron. 

When the building of the colony was commenced, a general design was 
formulated by the architect and adopted by the board for the buildings that 
are contemplated for the colony when complete. The appropriations for the 
institution that have been made so far up to this date. 1909, have been about 
sufficient to complete half of the buildings of the original design. The Legis- 
lature will doubtless ultimately provide for the completion of the buildings 
necessarv to carry out the original design. About half have now been built 
and completed, the institution containing l)etween four and five hundred in- 
mates. 



378 PAST AND PRESENT 

The present officials in control of the institution are: C B. Simcoe. su- 
perintendent; Doctor Powell, assistant superintendent; S. W. Arnientrout, 
steward; [. P. Huston, treasurer; Miss M. S. Jamison, matron. 

THE Missorur ki\"ek. steamboats^ river trade, and transportation. 

l-'rom the hrst settlement of the county until the huildin^- of the railroads 
the people of the county were greatly interested and concerned in the steam- 
hoa.ts and the Missouri river traffic. This county had a greater river front 
than anv other county, Saline's river bank being divided among three coun- 
ties on the opposite side, Howard, Chariton and Carn^U. Saline county was 
f(M-merlv almost entirely dependent on steamboat carriage for its commerce 
and mode of travel for half a century or more, and our people must be greatly 
interested' and benefited by the revival of transportation l;)y steamboats on the 
river, which now seems probable. 

It has lately dawned on the commercial intellect of the leading merchants 
of Kansas City that the navigation of the Missouri river is the very salvation 
of their commerce and prosperity. The manufacturing and commercial ]ieo- 
ple and their interests now govern the country through the Congress, and 
thev will doubtless have both the power, the inclination and the dis])osition 
to ])rocure whatever appropriations it may be thought necessary to i)ur the 
rivers in condition for the revival of the commerce thereon. 

The passenger travel on the river will also l)e important when boats be- 
come numerous and frequent. From 1850 to i860 has been called the 
''golden era" of steaml)oat navigation on the Missouri ri\'er. It is hoped that 
the "golden era" mav return and if it does. Saline count)- will enjoy as great 
ad\antages from it as any other in the state of Missouri. 

.\SSESSED \ALrATI()N. 

The total assessed \-aluation of Saline county, Missoiu"i. for the taxes for 
the \e;u" 1909 is as follows; 

Real Estate $ 8,992.590.00 

Personal Property • 3.699,974.00 

Railroad, Telegraph and Tele])h<ine 1,499.333.50 

Merchants 444,060.00 

Total $14,635,957.50 



► 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 379 

TAXES LEVIED FOR THE YEAR I9O9. 

State Tax $ 24,91 5.24 

County Tax 73,187. 1 1 

Road Tax 36,628,95 

School Tax 98.914.31 

Poor House Tax 8,812.01 

Salt Poiifl Railroad Tax. .* 1,542.40 

City Tax 979-93 

Total $244,979.95 

2,795 Poll Tax Payers 8,385.00 

Total Tax Levied $253,364.95 

SCHOOL FUNDS. 

Permanent County School Funds $150,892.32 

Permanent Township School Funds SO-i/i-So 

Total School Funds Loaned $181,063.85 

Total amount expended for public schools in county 

from .Vugust i. 1908. to August i, 1909 $127,997.49 




TORN G. MILLER. 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



HON. JOHN GAINES MILLER. 

One of the well known native citizens of Saline county, Missouri, is John 
Gaines Miller, having been born here on March 2, 1857. He is the son and 
only child of William B. and Rachael A. Miller. He received his primary 
education from his mother, who was a graduate of Monticello Seminary of 
Illinois and from the private schools of the days immediately following the 
Civil war. From 1869 to 1874 he attended Prof. G. B. Newton's Academy 
at Marshall, Missouri. In the fall of 1874 he entered \^'estminster College 
at Fulton, Missouri, where he remained four years, graduating from that in- 
stitution in 1878 wnth the degree of Bachelor of Science. In 1879 he began 
the study of law in the office of Yerby & Vance and was admitted to the bar 
in 1882 after a most thorough examination by Hon. John P. Strother, who 
was then judge of the circuit court of Saline county. 

Mr. ]\Iiller has been in the public eye ever since he entered the legal pro- 
fession, having held many positions of public trust. In 1880 he was elected 
justice of the peace of Marshall township and was re-elected to this office 
in 1882, 1886, 1890 and 1894, holding the office for a period of fourteen 
years continuously, and part of the time he was honored with two official 
positions contemporaneously. In 1884 he was elected mayor of ^Marshall and 
served two years while the water works system and the gas plant were lieing 
built. In 1892 he w-as elected alderman and served two years, during which 
time the electric light franchise was granted, and as chairman of the com- 
mittee of the whole board, to which this important matter was referred, Mr. 
Miller took a very active part in protecting the interests of the city in the 
rate schedule and other important particulars. 

On January i, 1895, he resigned the office of justice of the peace, to 
which he had just be re-elected for another four-year term, to accept 
the position as assistant prosecuting attorney of Saline county and he formed 
a partnership with R. M. Reynolds, who was then prosecuting attorney, in 
the practice of law. under the firm name of Reynolds & ^filler. 

In 1896 Mr. Miller was again elected mayor of Marshall and re-cicciccl 
in 1898, serving a period of four years. These were the most important 



382 PAST AND PRESENT 

\car.s of his life. He devoted his entire time and his best efforts towards 
im])ro\ing the cit\- of Marshall That he sncceeded is attested by the splen- 
did improvements that are today the ])ride of tlie city. Immediately after 
being installed in office in 1896, he recommended that competent engineers 
Ije employed to make a survey of the city, establish a sN'stem of grades and 
design a ciMiiplete sewer system. The expense of such work was considered 
bv the board of aldermen too great for the city to bear and ^Ir. Miller's i)rop- 
osition was not endorsed. He appealed to the Commercial Clul) of the cit}', 
and, backed bv that body, five hundred dollars was raised by ])rivate sub- 
scription for the |)urpose of paying half the exi)ense for the sur\e}-, the board 
of aldermen agreeing to vote in favor of the city paying the other half. The 
sm-\e\- was made, a uniform system of street grades was established, a 
sewer s}-stem co\'ering the whole town was designed during the year 1896 
and the work of ])uilding the sewer system was begun the following year, 
and all the business portion and one-half of the residence portion of the 
town ^vas covered by a well built and suljstantial system of sewers. The 
work of macadamizing the principal streets of the city was then begun, con- 
tracts for im]iro\-ing eight streets were let and the work completed. The 
impro^■ement of the jjublic square was then taken up, all the old sidewalks 
around the public S(|uare were condemned and remo\-e(l and were replaced 
by granitoid walks, fifteen feet in width, substantial and uniform. The four 
streets adjacent to the court house square were paved ^\•ith asphalt of the best 
(juality and many yards of granitoid walks were Ijuilt in the residence por- 
tion of the city. Notwithstanding the fact that Marshall had spent four 
busy years in general improvements and the A'arious ex])enses were hea\}', 
at the end of ^layor Miller's administration he left the city entirely free 
from debt, all its obligations paid in full and no debt, bonded or otherwise, 
e.xisting against the town for futiu'e generations to paw His record during 
those four }-ears is one of which he can be justh' proud, and one that the 
l)eo])le of Marshall should, and we belie^■e do, greatlx' ajipreciate. 

In 1900 Mv. Miller mo\-ed to his uncle's farm and s]:)ent two years car- 
ing for his in\-alid father who. in his declining \ears, needed his son's at- 
tention. In T902 he returned to ^larshall and jjurchased an interest in the 
J)cmocraf-Xc7^'S, with which he is still associated as editor. 

In Xovember, 1906, Mr. Miller was elected as re])resentati\e from Sa- 
line county in the forty-fourth General Assembly of Missouri without o])po- 
sition in his own i)artv. He was made chairman of the committee on en- 
grossed bills, ranking member of the committee on municipal corporations 
and a member of the committee on roads and highways. He wrote the law^ 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI ' 383 

known as the "Connty Highway Act," which was i)assed by l)oth houses al- 
most unanimously. So faithfully did he perform his duties as representative 
that he was re-elected in 190S, again without opposition in the Democratic 
party, and while a member of the forty-fifth General Assembly, he was made 
secretar}- of the Democratic joint caucus of the house and senate, which was 
an important i)osition pending the election of United States senator. Dur- 
ing this session he was the author of many bills that became laws, and as 
chairman of a special committee he revised the county highway engineer act 
and his w^rk A\as appro\-ed by the roads and highways committees of both 
house and senate and his revision was adopted and passed bv both houses 
with.out material change or alteration and is now a law of Missouri. Dur- 
ing his second term he served as the ranking Democratic member of the 
committee of roads and highwa}-s and was also a member of the committee 
on railroads and internal improvements. 

Thus it will be seen that Mr. Miller was signally honored by the peo- 
ple of his native county and city. His official record is an open book to 
which he may point with pride as evidence that the honors have been w^orth- 
ily bestowed. 

December 31, 1885, Mr. Miller married Annie, daughter of Judge J. 
H. Burkholder, of Moberly, Missouri, who died April 22, 1889, without 
issue. October 12, 1896, Mr. Miller married Pauline, daughter of the late 
John G. Russell, of Springfield, Missouri, formerly of St. Louis. Of this 
union two children were born, John G., Jr.. born September 23, 1897, and 
Rachel, l)orn in 1899. the latter dying in infancv. 

Mr. and Airs. Miller and their son, John G., Jr., are members of the 
First Presbyterian church of Marshall. Air. Miller has been a member of 
the Knights of Pythias since 1887, and he has represented his lodge in the 
grand lodge several times. In 1887 he was chosen captain of Alyrtle Di- 
vision, Xo. 27,, of Missouri, Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias, composed 
of meml)ers of the order from Marshall and Slater, and he served in this 
capacity for seven years or until he was promoted to the position of colonel 
of the iMiurth Regiment (^f the Missouri Brigade, in which i:)osition he served 
for four years. He has been a Mason since 1892 and is a ])ast master. 
He has also been a member of the Maccabees and Court of Hon.n- for manv 
years. 

Mr. Miller comes from sterling pioneer stock, his ancestors having been 
prominent in the afi'airs of Saline county from a very earlv da\-. His grand- 
father. Gen. A\'illiam Miller, came to Saline countv in 1837. His father, 
William !>. Miller, was born in Danville. Kentuck\-. where the latter's father 



384 PAST AND PRESENT 

had lived since 1807, having moved there in that year from Virginia. Mr. 
Miller is justly proud of the fact that his ancestors served their country in 
important and honorahle positions. Two of them, Richard Gaines, Sr., and 
Richard Gaines, Jr., father and son, inscribed their names on the honor roll 
of their country. Both were captains in the Revolutionary war, both being 
in command of companies at Valley Forge, enduring the hardships there, 
so graphically described by the historians. Mr. Miller's maternal grand- 
father. Dr. Abraham Wayland, was a surgeon in the United States army in 
the war of 18 12. The sturdy ancestors of the subject have left an honora- 
ble record of their lives in the halls of Congress, in the judicial departments, 
as soldiers in the various wars of their country, in the records of the old- 
school Presbyterian church, of wdiich they were all members without excep- 
tion as far as their descendants are able to trace, and all were true and faith- 
ful to their God, their home and their native land. 



ERASMUS DARWIN SAPPINGTON. 

Few men of Saline county w'ere as wndely and favorably knowni as the 
late Erasmus D. Sappington. He was one of the strong and influential citi- 
zens whose lives have become an essential part of the history of this section 
of the state and for years his name was synonymous for all that constituted 
honorable and upright manhood. Tireless energy, keen perception and hon- 
esty of purpose, combined with everyday common sense, were among his 
chief characteristics and while advancing individual success he also largely 
promoted the moral and material w^elfare of the community. 

Erasmus Darwin Sappington was born August 5, 1857, in Saline county, 
Missouri, and w^as the fourth in order of birth of the five children born to 
William B. and Mary M. (Breathitt) Sappington. His paternal grandpar- 
ents were Dr. John and Jane (Breathitt) Sappington, while the paternal 
great-grandfather was Mark Sappington. The Sappingtons are descended 
from English ancestry and members of this family w^ere among the earliest 
settlers of this continent. Mark Sappington, whose home was in Virginia, 
was a physician by profession and emigrated from his native state to Tennes- 
see, locating where is now situated the beautiful city of Nashville, but which 
at that time was but a canebrake. In that sparsely settled country he continued 
the practice of his profession, but met with but indifferent success. He died 
at an advanced age, having been preceded to the silent land by his wife, whose 



f 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 385 

maiden name was Boyce. They were the parents of eight children, namely : 
Roger, Frank, John, Thomas, Rebecca, Eleanor, Fannie and Mary. Roger, 
John and Thomas became physicians, while Frank turned his attention to 
mercantile pursuits. 

Dr. John Sappington was born on May 15. 1776, at Havre de Grace, 
Maryland. During his early boyhood the family removed to Tennessee. 
Because of the straitened financial circumstances of the family, John was not 
afforded much opportunity for the securing of such an education as he aspired 
to, the major part of his time being given to day labor in the fields. Fired 
with an unquenchable ambition to acquire knowledge, however, the young 
man availed himself of every opportunity to increase his mental store and 
was often found during the long evenings of the winter season, by the aid 
of burning pine knots, perusing such books as he could secure. \Miile with 
his father, and under the latter's direction, he gave serious study to the science 
of medicine. His naturally keen and analytical mind readily grasped the 
underlying principles of materia medica and he soon entered upon the active 
practice as the associate of his father. The country was at that time but 
thinly settled and the medical profession afforded an unpromising and un- 
satisfactoiy living. In 1804 Dr. John Sappington was united in marriage to 
Jane Breathitt, the marriage taking place at Russellville, Logan county, Ken- 
tucky. Mrs. Sappington was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Breath- 
itt and was the eldest of eight children, five of whom were boys. John was 
afterwards governor of Kentucky and died while filling the gubernatorial 
chair; Edward, a physician who studied under the tutelage of Dr. John Sap- 
pington, practiced his profession at Franklin, Tennessee ; James was a success- 
ful attorney-at-law at Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Cardwell was a farmer and 
merchant at Russellville, Kentucky; George was a private secretary to Presi- 
dent Andrew Jackson and died while holding that position. Doctor Sapping- 
ton moved to Franklin, Tennessee, and continued the practice of his pro- 
fession there for a number of years. It has been stated that it was he who 
laid off the town of Franklin, and records seem to bear out the statement. 
While living there, during the years 18 14 and 181 5, he attended a course of 
medical lectures at Philadelphia, and soon afterwards he moved to a farm 
near Elkton, Todd county, Kentucky, where for a time he combined the prac- 
tice of medicine with agriculture. A little more than a year later, however, 
he returned to Franklin, Tennessee, having decided to confine his attention 
exclusively to the practice of medicine, being now the possessor of a regularly 
granted diploma as Doctor of Medicine. In 181 7, in the hope of bettering his 
fortunes. Doctor Sappington started overland for Missouri, then the mecca 

25 



^Sf) PAST AND PRESENT 

()f SO many settlers throughout the Mississippi vahev. 'i'hey first settled on 
an island at about the present site of Jefferson City, hut in 1819 remnved 
to the west side of the Missouri river and located upon sections 8 and 9. 
township 49. rang-e 19. Here a home was built, consisting of a two-story log 
structure, two rooms on each floor, with a hall and porch. The walls were 
hewn logs and at one end was a wide-mouthed fireplace, surmounted by a 
stone chimney. This w'as one of the three settlements which were at that 
time made in Saline county. Soon other log houses were raised around this 
one and in 1819 Dr. John Sappington, Alexander Gilbraith, Asa Finley, 
Sanders Townsend, Richard Marshall and I\e\'. Peyton Nowdin began the 
third white settlement in Saline county, it being known as the Sappington 
settlement. Doctor Sappington. in the midst of these strenuous days, did not 
lose sight of his profession and as the settlement of the country increased, 
his practice also grew, covering practically all the territory between Lexing- 
ton and Jefferson City. He was a careful and successful practitioner, being 
l^articularly successful in the treatment of malarial fever, at that time so com- 
mon in the new settleinents, and he acquired a reputation that extended far 
bevond the confines of his field of work. Always of an in(|uiring and ex- 
perimental make-up, he was led to conclusions regarding certain phases of the 
practice of medicine which were radically different from the long established 
rules laid down by the schools and followed almost universally in the practice. 
The course he mapped out for himself and the ra]Md strides he made along- 
that way. created somewhat of a stir in the medical world, but, disregarding 
criticism and calumny, he maintained his position and had the satisfaction 
in his later days of seeing his theory approved by many of the most advanced 
medical thinkers of the country. The teachings of his youth and the theory 
of medicine at that time was that the treatment of fevers consisted partly, 
if not wholly, in depletion, i. e.. in vomiting, purging and bleeding, but Doctor 
Sai)])ington boldly declared this an erroneous practice and that the treatment 
of fevers consisted not in depletion, but in tonics and their auxiliaries. He 
introduced to medica science the use of Peruvian bark and quinine in the 
treatment of malaria, the efficacy of which he had fully demonstrated, at 
least to his own satisfaction. A writer in a history of Saline count}' has 
pertinentlv said: "There is a niche in the temple for the bust of someone 
who has wrought the great revolution which had transpired during the pres- 
ent nineteenth century in this branch of medicine, and if it does not belong- 
to Doctor Sappington 1 challenge criticism to incjuire to whom it does be- 
long." Tn 1844 he published "Sappington on Fevers," which clearly outlined 
his l)ehefs and disbeliefs regarding the treatment of that form of disease, the 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 387 

original manuscript of this treatise being now in the possession of his de- 
scendants, a much prized heirloom. 

Dr. Sappington enjoyed a large practice and. with wise forethought, 
he carefully invested his savings so that at length he found himself in very 
comfortable financial circumstances. Accordingly, in 1832. finding himself 
worn out because of the years of continuous practice. Doctor Sappington re- 
tired from the active practice of his profession to a large measure, taking 
into partnership Dr. George Penn. who assumed the major part of the work. 
He then commenced the manufacture of what were known as "Dr. Sapping- 
ton's Anti-Fever Pills," which acquired a widespread fame throughout the 
country. In this connection, one incident illustrates forciblv the character of 
the man. In 1844, when his medicine was enjoying a wonderful popularitv 
and his wealth was increasing by bounds, an overflow of the rivers in Mis- 
souri left in their wake conditions conducive to disease. — conditions which 
would cause an increased demand for his pills, — at that time he published 
his treatise on fevers, containing the formula for preparing his medicine. 
When expostulated with by relatives, he replied that he and thev had enough 
to support them comfortably and that mankind had claims on him as well 
as his family. 

Dr. John Sappington was the father of eight children, namely: Eliza, 
who became the third wife of Gov. C. F. Jackson: Lavenia, the wife of Gov. 
M. M. Marmaduke; Erasmus Darwin: William B. : Jane, the second wife 
of Governor Jackson: Susan Catherine, wife of Capt. L. S. Eddine : Sarah 
Margaret, who died at the age of thirteen years ; Mary E, wife of Dr. AMlliam 
Price. Eliza was the wife of a Mr. Pearson before she became the wife of 
Governor Jackson. On December 14, 1852, the Doctor was bereaved bv the 
deatli of his wife, and on the 7th of September, 1856, he too passed over the 
silent river. 

Politically, the Doctor was a Democrat of the old Jeffersonian school. 
He was not an orthodox Christian, but was liberal in his views and extremely 
charitable in his attitude toward those who held views different from his 
own. One of the last and perhaps the greatest act of charity and love which 
he performed was the setting aside, in the distribution of his estate, of twenty 
thousand dollars, which he placed in the hands of trustees, and the interest 
of which was to be used for the education of indigent children of Saline 
county. Su1)scription schools were the only means of education in ^Missouri 
at that time and many of the early settlers were not in a position to send 
their children to these schools and probably no act of philanthropv had so 
wide spread and beneficent an influence over the vouno- of that and sue- 



^88 PAST AND PRESENT 

ceeding generations in this state as this act of Doctor Sappington. As an 
evidence of the practical work done through this fund, it may be stated that 
in 1870 two hundred and seventy-eight children were sent to the subscription 
schools through its agency, and in the following year there were three liun- 
drcd and thirty-eight beneficiaries. The original fund was carefully invested 
and has been safeguarded during the subsequent years, so that in 1903 — fifty 
years after its establishment, — it amounted to over fifty-three thousand dol- 
lars. Now, that the free public school system has been established by the 
state, the interest on this sum is being used for the higher education of worthy 
young men and women of Saline county. 

\\'illiam B. Sappington, father of the subject of this sketch, was born 
in Franklin, Tennessee, January 4, 181 1, and was about six years old when he 
accompanied his father on his removal to a farm near Glasgow, Howard 
county, Missouri. In 1819 they located on a farm in Saline county, this 
state, where the subject was reared on a farm, and secured his education in 
the subscription schools of the neighborhood. At the age of seventeen years 
he entered Cumberland College, a manual labor school located near Princeton, 
Kentucky, where he remained four years. Returning home, he commenced 
the study of law, but, because of failing eyesight, he was compelled to cease 
his studies. He then took up the pursuit of agriculture, which he continued, 
in connection with the banking business at Arrow Rock, until a Avnt time 
before his death, which occurred on August 16, 1888. 

On September 3, 1844, Mr. Sappington married Mary Mildred Breath- 
itt, of Russellville, Kentucky, a daughter of Governor John Breathitt, of that 
state. She was born at Russellville on August 7, 1827, and her death oc- 
curred August 13, 1880. To William and Mary Sappington were born six 
children, namely : John Cardwell, of Boonville, Missouri ; William Breathitt, 
deceased; Mildren Jane, deceased; Erasmus D., the immediate subject of this 
sketch; Stella P., who married a Mr. Gephart and now lives at Missoula, Mon- 
tana, and Price, deceased. 

Of these children, }6hn Cardwell Sappington was born in Saline county, 
Missouri, February 4/ 1849, ^''^^ was reared on the paternal farmstead, 
called "Prairie Park," near Arrow Rock. He attended the schools of the 
neighborhood until seventeen years of age, when he entered Cumberland 
University, at Lebanon, Tennessee, and subsequently was a student in the 
State University. At Boonville, Missouri, on October 22, 1873, he was 
united in marriage to Pauline W. Nelson, a daughter of Dr. George and 
Pauline (Wyan) Nelson, and to this union were born three children, namely: 
G. W., of Syracuse, Kansas; C. W., of Nelson, Missouri; and Lina M. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 389 

Erasmus Darwin Sappington secured his elementary education in the 
common schools of Arrow Rock township, which he attended to the age of 
sixteen years. He then entered Kemper's Military Academy, at Boonville, 
Missouri, where he remained about three years, leaving there to enter Chris- 
tian Brothers College, at St. Louis. After two years attendance at that well 
known institution, he spent a year in the William Jewell College, at Liberty, 
Missouri. He was thus well equipped mentally for the duties of life. His 
first active employment was as bookkeeper and clerk in the Wood & Huston 
Bank at Marshall, where he remained about eighteen months. He then 
eng'aged in the general mercantile business in partnership with William 
McMahan. In 1880 he sold his interest in this business to his partner and 
went to live on the home farm with his father, but in the fall of the following 
year he removed to the Wallace farm in Cooper county, this state, where 
he remained two years. Returning again to his father's farm, he remained 
there until 1890, when he removed to Nelson, this county, where he built 
an attractive home in which he resided until 1893. He then built a 
residence in section 17, township 49, range 19, Arrow Rock township, 
about one and a half miles north of Nelson. He there owned a fine 
and fertile fami of two hundred and forty acres, Avhich has been splen- 
didly improved, and there the family homestead has been maintained to 
the present time. Mr. Sappington was also the owner of three hundred 
and fifty-seven acres in Linn county, Kansas. He was an enterprising and 
progressive man and was numbered among the leading men of the county. 
Practical in his methods and sound in his business judgment, he was pros- 
pered in his business dealings and stood high among- his fellow men. His 
death occurred on November 24, 1908, and in his passing- away the commu- 
uity felt that it had suffered a distinct loss. 

On April 25, 1883, Mr. Sappington married Mary V. Miller who was 
born March 9, 1867, in Georgetown, Pettis county, Missouri, the daughter 
of Henry C. and Anna E. (Wing) Miller. Henry C. Miller was born near 
\\'hite Sulphur Springs, Virginia, and his w'ife was a native of Cooper 
county, Missouri, the daughter of John F. Wing, the head of one of Cooper 
county's oldest and wealthiest families. Mr. and Mrs. Miller were the par- 
ents of four children, of whom INIrs. Sappington is the second in the order 
of birth. Capt. H. C. Miller was a merchant and in young manhood came 
from Virginia to Arrow Rock and entered the store of Governor Jackson. 
He remained thus occupied for some time and then engaged in business for 
himself in Arrow Rock, during which time he had at difYerent times as part- 
ners T. C. Rainey and Beverly Thompson. For half a centuiy he was an 



390 PAST AND PRESENT 

honored niciiil)or of the Alasonic lodge at Arrow Rock. Mr. MiHer was a 
relative of the noted Daniel Boone and on the maternal side was a descend- 
ant of the (irattans of Ireland. He died at the home of his son, H. C. Mil- 
ler, jr., at Arrow Rock, on February, 1889. To Mr. and Airs. Sappington 
wei-e horn two children, namely: Erie Cameron, born April 6, 1884, and 
William Breathitt, born January 7, 1886, both of whom are living at home 
with their mother. Mrs. Sappington is a lady of culture and refinement 
and is jDOpular in the social circles in which she moves. She now owns the 
original oil portraits of Dr. John Sappington and his wife, painted in 1834 
bv Bingham. 



M. T. CHASTATN, M. D. 



Probablv no resident of Saline county, Missouri, enjoys a wider ac- 
quaintance or a greater number of warm personal friends than does the 
subject of this sketch. An honorable record as a soldier in the Civil war, a 
long and successful professioiial career as a successful physician, an emi- 
nently .satisfactory administration as postmaster of Marshall, a public-spir- 
ited and broad-minded citizen in private life, a faithful friend and genial 
companion — in every avenue of life's activities in which he has engaged he 
has stood "four square to every wind that blows" and today is rightfully 
numbered among the representative men of the county. 

M. T. Chastain was born in Logan county, Kentucky, May 13, 1839, 
and was reared on a farm. His education was commenced in a private 
school, after which he attended the Warsaw (Missouri) Academy. Re- 
turning to Kentucky, he became a student in the Locust Grove Academy 
and on the completion of his studies there, he, in 1859. went to Calhoun, 
Missouri, and began the study of medicine in the office and under the direc- 
tion of Doctor Holland, visiting with his preceptor in the latter's profes- 
sional visits and in this way gaining much valual)le information in a prac- 
tical way in the diagnosing of diseases. He took a regular course of lec- 
tures in 1860-61 and immediately entered upon the practice of his profes- 
sion. Scarcely had he begun his career, however, before his plans were in- 
terrupted by the outbreak of the conflict between the North and the South. 
He decided to stand by the Union and at once volunteered his services, be- 
coming a private in the Seventh Missouri Cavalry, his company being raised 
in Calhoun, Missouri, and was commanded by Colonel Phillips and Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Crittenden. Doctor Chastain was at once made orderly sergeant 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 39 1 

and served as a non-commissioned officer until his jjromotion to the rank of 
serg"eant-major and later to that of assistant surgeon of the regiment, in 
which capacit}- he continued to serve until the close of the war. The Seventh 
saw much active service in Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas, taking part in 
a number of hotly contested battles and skirmishes and being suldect to much 
exposure and severe marches. Dr. Chastain was always in the line of duty 
and escaped with no further injury than slig'ht tlesh wounds. His military 
career was an honorable one and he was mustered out at St. Louis in ]\Iarch, 
1865. 

On the conclusit)n of his military experience. Doctor Chastain located 
at Georgetown, Pettis county, this state, and again took up the active prac- 
tice of his profession, also being appointed examining surgeon for pensions. 
In October. 1865, feeling the need of further technical training, the Doctor 
entered the Uni\'ersity Medical College. New York City, where he was 
graduated in March. 1866. He then located at Marshall. Missouri, where 
he devoted himself exclusively to the practice of medicine. He met with 
gratifying success from the start and commanded the confidence of the peo- 
ple throughout the surrounding country. 1 le built up a large and lucrative 
practice, in which he remained actively engaged until March, 1904. when he 
received from President Roosevelt the appointment as postmaster of Mar- 
shall, in which office he remained until 1909, his administration of the postal 
affairs meeting- with the universal endorsement and appro \al of the patrons 
of the office. During his official incuml;)enc\- he raised the efficienc}' of the 
office to a high standard and made a marked increase in the rural free de- 
liverv service. During his residence here Doctor Chastain has from time to 
time invested in real estate and owns a fine large farm located two miles 
southwest of Marshall, to which he removed after retiring from the post- 
mastership. He is now devoting his attention to the impro\-ement and culti- 
vation of this farm and the raising of live stock, in which he has a deep 
interest. 

During his acti^•e practice Doctor Chastain maintained close and pleas- 
ant relations with his professional brethren and at one time served as presi- 
dent of the Saline County Medical Society. Reared and educated politically 
in the old Whig party, his first vote was for Abraham Lincoln fc^r President 
in 1864 and he afterwards consistently affiliated with the Re])ul)lican part}. 
Still he is conservative and somewhat independent in his attitude, ha\"ing- 
later affiliated with the Democratic party and voted for (irover Clex'eland 
once for President and others outside of his own party in local elections, 
voting for the men whom he considers best fitted for the offices the}' seek. 
Being a ]M-otectionist. he has voted with the Republican party since 1888. 



392 PAST AND PRESENT 

He has himself i'llled sexeral offices, such as mayor of Marshall, alderman 
aiul memher of the school hoard, and in these positions he stood at all times 
for the highest interests of all the people, helieving- firmly in the adage that 
"public office is a public trust." In religion Doctor Chastain is a member 
of the Christian church, to which he gives an earnest and liberal support. 
He served man}- years as an elder of his church and after the Civil war he 
assisted materially in the reorganization of the church and its subsequent 
growth, it being now numbered among the strong and influential religious 
bodies of the community. He is a member of the time-honored order of 
Freemasonry, in which he has made considerable advancement, and is also 
alftliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in the subordinate 
lodge of which he has filled all the chairs. 

Doctor Chastain has been married three times. His first union was 
with Louise Sandige, of Saline county, this state, a lady of culture and 
refinement, and a daughter of Capt. John Sandige, a nati\'e of Kentucky 
and an early and well known settler of Saline county. He was a prominent 
farmer and large slaveholder and died in this county prior to the Civil war. 
He was a Whig in politics, but never aspired to office. Airs. Louise Chas- 
tain died February 22, 1867, there having been no issue. In October, 1870, 
Doctor Chastain married Fratie Holland, who was l)orn in Calhoun, Mis- 
souri, the daughter of Dr. \\'. S. Holland, a prominent and popular physi- 
cian and who was Doctor Chastain's first preceptor in the study of medicine. 
Originally he was a prominent Democrat and later a Republican and filled 
the office of state senator, Ijeing also a member of the state constitutional 
convention. He was widely known throughout the county and state and 
was influential and highly respected. He came to Saline county in 1874 
and remained successfull}- engaged in the practice until his death in 1903. 
He became a strong prohibitionist and advocated his sentiments in no un- 
certain terms. To Doctor M. T. and Fratie Chastain w'ere born two chil- 
dren, namely: Julia, who became the wife of O. E. Grecian, a prominent 
banker at Stroud, Oklahoma, and Willis A., a printer. Mrs. Chastain died 
in August, 1893. and in May, 1905, the Doctor married Dora Cartwright. a 
native of Pettis county, Missouri, and a daughter of Doctor Cartwright, 
who was for many years a resident of Pettis county, where his death oc- 
curred. Mrs. Chastain is a member of the Christian church and takes a help- 
ful interest in the various activities of the church. 

Reverting to the ancestral historv of the subject, it may be stated that 
he is a son of Willis W. and Mary E. (Tandy) Chastain, both natives of 
Kentuckv, where thev were married. The sul)iect"s mother was of Scotch- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 393 

Irish descent and his paternal ancestors were of honored French Hugnenot 
stock, being- compelled to leave France because of their religious beliefs, 
locating" in the American colonies in an early day. After his marriage. 
Willis W. Chastain settled dn\\n to agricultural pursuits, in which he was 
successful and which he continued until 1848, when he brought his family 
and slaves to Alissouri, locating in Benton county, where he again engaged 
in farming'. A number of years later he moved to Pettis county and engaged 
in farming until 1867, ^^"hen death claimed him. He was a consistent and 
worthy member of the Christian church, and in each community where he 
had resided he was highly respected and was iniiuential in the support of 
all worth}- movements for the best interests of the people. His life was 
characterized by sterling- integrity and an honesty of motive that gained for 
him the unbounded confidence of all who knew him. He was a constitu- 
tional Union man and took no part in the secession movement during the 
Civil war. In his political afifiliations he was a \\'hig- and later a Democrat 
and took an active interest in local public events, though he never aspired 
to office. He was, however, induced to fill the office of justice of the peace 
for a number of years. His children were as follows : M. T., the immediate 
subject of this sketch ; Alice, wife of R. S. Sandidge ; Belle, who died in 
1884, was the wife of Major G. W. Lankford ; Charles E., who is a success- 
ful and popular physician of Plattsburg, Missouri. 



JOHN SAPPINGTON MARMADUKE. 

No citizen of the state of Missouri occupied more exalted political or 
military position or bore himself with more signal honor and uprightness 
than John S. Marmaduke. For a quarter of a century he was conspicuous 
in the histor}- of the state and he ever bore an unblemished reputation by 
reason of his capability and unquestioned honesty in the administration of 
the duties devolving upon him in the various important positions in which 
he was placed. 

John S. Marmaduke was born in Saline count}-. Missouri, in 1833, and 
was a son of ex-Governor Meredith M. and Lavinia ( Sappington ) Mar- 
maduke. (A sketch of the former will be found elsewhere in this work.) 
He was reared on his father's farm and received his elementary education 
in the district schools of the neighborhood. He then attended studies one 
year in the Masonic College, at Lexington. Alissouri, after which he was 



394 PAST AND PRESENT 

Student in Yale College two years and in Harwird College a short time, his 
attendance at the last-named institution being cut short Ijy his ajjpointment 
to a cadetshi]) at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He 
graduated from that institution in 1856 and recei\'ed his commission as a 
second lieutenant. He was assigned to the command of General .Vlbert 
Sydney Johnston and saw active service in the frontier difficulties known as 
the Mormon war. He remained with Johnston's army until icS^o. when he 
returned home on a furlough. At this time threats of Southern secession 
were materializing into a certainty, and it appeared to be ec|uall\' certain 
that there would l)e a clash at arms between the North and the South. Lieu- 
tenant Marmaduke hesitated as to what course he should pursue in the mat- 
ter, and in his dilemma he came home and consulted wath his father and 
relatives. His father advised him earnestly to remain with the Union, but 
John replied that he felt his duty lay with the South. The father's reply was 
that he hoped his son would never violate a service of duty. 

When the conflict was finally precipitated, Lieutenant Marmaduke en- 
tered the service of the Missouri state government, becoming a member of 
what was known as the State Guard. Eventually, becoming convinced that 
there was more i)olitics than war in this state, he resigned his position as 
colonel, in which rank he had been commissioned. Prior to this he had 
commanded the troops at the engagement at Boon\'ille, in which he met with 
defeat. He had strongly opposed this battle, for the reason that the troops 
under his command were inadequately equipped and were to be opposed 
by United States regular troops. He was o^■erruled by his superior officers 
and the result was as he had foretold, though he did the best he could under 
the circumstances to avert the defeat. On his resignation from the state 
military service. Colonel Marmaduke went to Richmond, Virginia, and of- 
fered his services to the Confederate government. His offer was promptly 
accepted and he was commissioned as colonel of the Third Confederate Regi- 
ment. He again joined his old commander, Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, 
and at the battle of Shiloh he led the advance and rendered brilliant serxice 
on that battlefield until he received a wound which disabled him tempor- 
arily. For his conspicuous gallantry on the field of battle he was made a 
brigadier-general and was transferred west of the Mississippi river and 
served in Arkansas during the greater part of the remainder of his militar\- 
service. He was put in command of the united cavalrv branch of the arm}-, 
with the rank of major-general, and participated in a number of severe en- 
gagements, in all of W'hich he was noted for his military ability and his per- 
sonal courage. A\'hile commanding the troops in Arkansas. General Marnia- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 395 

duke became involved in a quarrel with General Walker, a superior officer, 
who challenged him to a duel. General Marmaduke had no desire to engage 
in such an affair, hut under the circumstances he could not evade it. In the 
encounter, General Walker was killed. During Price's celebrated raid, Gen- 
eral Marmaduke, who commanded the rear guard on the march from 
Kansas Cit}' southward, was, with other officers, captured and taken to John- 
son's Island, Lake Erie, where he was held a prisoner for some time and 
then transferred to Fort \Varren, near Boston, where he remained until 
the close of the war, his period of imprisonment amounting to about one 
year. At the close of hostilities he was released and at once went to Europe, 
where he remained for about six months. He then returned to Saline 
county, Missouri, and entered into a business partnership with his brother, 
D. W. Marmaduke, and Wyatt M. Brown, the ccMumercial house then es- 
tablished being known as Marmaduke & Brown. At the end of a year, the 
subject retired from the co-partnership and recei\ed from Governor Har- 
din the appointment as railroad commissioner of the state of Missouri. At 
the expiration of his appointive term he was elected to the position by pop- 
ular ballot and rendered efficient service in this capacit}'. At this time, upon 
the invitation of Bowls Brothers, American bankers of London, England. 
General Marmaduke and his brother, D. W., went to England and condi- 
tionally arranged to take charge of the firm's ])anking business in the L'nited 
States. Eventually, however, Mr. Bowls failed to comply with the condi- 
tions of the agreement and the deal was not consummated. During the fol- 
lowing six or seven years General Marmaduke was engaged in several en- 
terprises in Missouri, in all of which he met with fair success. In 1880 he 
was induced to enter the race for the Democratic nomination for governor, 
but in the convention he was defeated by Crittenden, who later was elected. 
In 1884 General Marmaduke was unanimously nominated for the govern- 
orship and in the ensuing election he was chosen to the chief magistracy by 
a handsome plurality. He entered upon the discharge of the duties of the 
position just forty years subsequent to the administration of his father and 
gave the state honest and faithful service up to the time of his lamented death, 
which occurred on December 2/, 1887, after serving about three years of his 
term. He was buried at Jefferson Cit}\ Missouri, under the auspices of the 
state officials and military. The state of Missouri has erected a beautiful 
and impressive monument to his memory. Fraternally he was a member of 
the time-honored order of Masonry. There now hangs in the court house 
at Marshall a splendid full-length oil painting of Governor Marmaduke. given 
to the people of Saline county by his family. Governor Marmaduke never 
married. 



396 PAST AND PRESENT 

A stalwai'l specimen of American manhood, John S. MarmacKike im- 
pressed all who met him w itii the absolute poise and dignity of his make-np. 
Modest and nnostentations In- nature, yet his presence could not but be felt 
in an\- compan\- of which he was a member. His forceful character and 
natural abilit\- made him a leader among' his fellow men and he exerted 
a potential influence among those who came in contact with him. (jcnial 
in disposition and courteous in manner, he easily won friends and all who 
knew him held him in the highest regard. 



FR. FRANCIS J. O'NEILL. 

E'verybod}' around Marshall knows the pastor of St. Peter's Catholic 
church, and to know him is to love him. Recognized as a gentleman of 
education and culture, earnest and energetic in his pastoral duties, progres- 
si\e and liberal as a citizen, being' to public affairs intelligent and consider- 
ate, and to social life bringing the genial charm and kindly manner char- 
acteristic of his race. Father O'Neill is a welcome guest in e\'ery household 
and gladly received in every circle. The famih- is L'ish (_)f the Irish, gen- 
uine sons of the "auld sod" and patriots of the Emmet type as far back as 
the genealogy can be traced. Neill O'Neill, the paternal grandfather, was 
born in a house made famous by the Irish rebellion. Francis and Catherine 
(Sweeney) O'Neill, parents of the pastor of St. Peter's, were lifelong res- 
idents of the Emerald Isle, where the former culti^■ate(l a farm for many 
years with the industry and close management made necessary hx the ag- 
ricultural conditions pre^■ailing in those davs and finalh' ended his life there 
when \\orn out by these arduous labors. His wdfe had reached a ver}- ad- 
x'anced age, well up in the nineties, before her kindiv eves Avere closed on 
this world. Francis J. O'Neill, their son, was born in count\- Tyrone, Ire- 
land, the sixth in order of birth of se\'en children. Me was well grounded 
in the primary studies at an early age and learned ( u'eek and Latin in a 
classical school preparatory to entering All Hallow College in Dublin. He 
became a student in that institution of learning in i<~^73 and remained there 
for two years. Having long since determined to make .\merica his future 
home, he bade his native land farewell, and in iJ^/cj made a swift and pleas- 
ant voyage across the Atlantic. He embarked at Londonderry on the steam- 
er "Etn-()]Ma." which came over without mishai) and landed the future priest 
safely at New ^'ork after ten days upon the ocean. He entered the Theo 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 397 

l(jgical Seminary of St. Bonaventnra at Cattaraugus, Xew York, where he 
studied three years. He received numerous orders and sub-deaconship in 
the Buffalo Cathohc church. A deaconship in the College Seminaiy of Our 
Ladv of Angels, Canada, was conferred upon him. He was ordained priest 
June 21, 1882, by Bishop Ryan of the Buffalo diocese. He was assigned 
to the diocese of Kansas City and, after spending some time in Philadel- 
phia, he went to Springfield, Missouri, in August, 1882. At that place he 
was made assistant priest under Father S. K. Kussman for about seven 
weeks, after which he took charge of the church of the Sacred Heart in 
Springfield. He was thus engaged until the following November, when the 
church was destroyed by a cyclone. \\'ithout delay the energetic Father 
set about making good the great loss the parish had sustained, and his mag- 
netic manner soon enlisted powerful support. His efforts met with a ready 
response from other congregations which sympathized with the parish of 
the Sacred Heart and he also received encouragement from the general pul> 
lic, who appreciated his energy, courage and determination. Almost en- 
tirely owing to the work of Father O'Neill, the church was rebuilt the same 
vear of its destruction, the new edifice being e\"en more substantial than its 
predecessor, besides being unincuml^ered \\ith debt. 

Father O'Neill continued in this pastorate until February 6, 1887, when 
he came to Marshall to take charge of St. Peter's diocese, succeeding Father 
M. J. O'Dwyer. This church was built by Father Hammill, who gathered 
together the people in the parish and labored earnestly to establish a church 
in their midst. The first priest of St. Peter's was Father ^lurphy. Father 
O'Neill has accomplished much good since he took charge of his present 
parish and the congregation appreciates his constant efforts in their spir- 
itual behalf. No matter what the weather or the time of day or night this 
pious and unselfish man is always ready to attend the sick and suffering and 
dying of his flock. He is ever advising them for the good, whether regard 
be had to their earthly or spiritual welfare, and he is ever ready with acts 
of self-sacrifice and words of cheer for those cast down and in afliiction. 
Tn return he receives the esteem and confidence of all who know him. It 
mav 1)e said of him that he is liberal in sentiment, generous in expression 
and just in judgment. In common with all good citizens, he is in full sym- 
pathv with refonu and progress, being in every sense a true and loyal Amer- 
ican. Aside from the other valuable work he has accomplished in Bishop 
Hogen's diocese, he has improved the pastorate by an extensive additicm 
and is noted for the vigilance he displays in the care of the church pos- 
sessions. 



398 PAST AND PRESENT 

HON. ASBURY FLETCHER BROWX. 

In presciuiiii;- in brief uulline to the readers of this work no formal in- 
troduction need be made of the name introducing these paragraphs and no 
extravagant laudation of his work and character, for Judge Brown has for 
a long flight of ^-ears been one of Saline county's most prominent and pro- 
gressive citizens and his dealings wdth his fellow men have been of such a 
nature as to inspire the utmost confidence and esteem, for, while achancing 
his i)wn interests and those of his family, he has ever been solicitous' of the 
general good of this localit}-, fostering- every movement having for its ob- 
ject the betterment of the same. He is a connecting link between the opu- 
lent present and the ])rimiti\e pioneer period when this country was a wild 
stretch of prairie and primeval forest, overrun by red men and wild beasts, 
and it is indeed interesting to hear the Judge recall reminiscences of the 
earlv days. He is a scion of an excellent Southern family of the Old Do- 
minion and combined in his nature are those c|ualities that never fail t(j win, 
both in the social and the business world — keen i)erception, clear analysis, 
persistence and a desire to be fair in all the relations of life. 

Judge Asbury h'letcher Brown, president of the Malta Bend Bank, of 
Malta Bend, Missouri, and ex-judge of the Saline county court and one of 
the leading agriculturists of Grand Pass tow^nshij), was born in Bucking- 
ham county, Virginia, August 11, 1829, the son of James and Polly ( Cald- 
\vell) Brown, both natives of Buckingham county, Virginia, where they grew 
to maturity and were married. As early as 183 1 they came to Saline coun- 
ty, Missouri, settling near ^lalta Bend, in Grand Pass township, on thirteen 
hundred acres of land, then entirely unimproved. James Brown was born in 
Virginia. March 19, 1783, and after a successful and honoralile life his death 
occurred in Saline county, Missouri, in 1875 at an advanced age. He mar- 
ried in the Old Dominion and for a time lived in Cumberland county, later 
moving to Buckingham count}-. Virginia, and, as already stated, made the 
tri]) o^•erlan(l in 1831 to Saline county, Alissouri, bringing his slaves along 
with him, and while the latter had opportunities to secure their freedom, 
they did not wish to do so. The long journe\- from beyond the Appalach- 
ian mountains, across unbridged streams and over unfre(|uented roads, was 
not without peril, but this hardy jMoneer enjoved such hardships and took 
them as a matter of course and he became prosperous after reaching his des- 
tination. Mr. and Mrs. James Brown were members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church .Sdulli. Their ten children, born in \'irginia. were named as 
follows: Charles died in childhood: W'eslev, Sarah Ann. T^lizabeth Jane. 
William J., Mary, Royal F., Spencer, Addison, Asbury P., of this re\iew. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 399 

Addison P. was a physician at Malta Bend, this county; \\'ilham J. was a 
minister in Missouri for a period of fifty years: Spencer Brown was also 
a practicing physician and now resides near \A'a\"erly, Lafayette county. The 
father of these children was a Democrat. Imt he never sought puhlic office, 
being, like his father, William Brown, a plain, honest citizen. His wife died 
in 1866. She was an excellent woman and of a fine old family. 

Asburv F. Brown was reared on the farm and he assisted in the work 
of de\'eloping the home place when he became of ])roper age. attending the 
common schools during the winter months. His father finally turned his 
farm over to him and he conducted the same judiciously for some time. 

Judge Brown married Elizabeth Bennett in 1855. She was born in 
Buckingham county. Virginia, the daughter of Rev. John R. and Elizabeth 
(Langhorne) Bennett, the father a prominent minister in the Methodist Epis- 
copal church South, and her maternal grandfather was also a Methodist 
minister in Virginia. After preaching in this section of Missouri for some 
time, Reverend Brown moved to Morris county, Kansas. He and his fam- 
ily were natives of Virginia and were early settlers in Missouri. Ann Eliz- 
abeth Bennett was born in Buckingham count}-, Virginia. December 8. 1837. 
Her mother dving wdien she was an infant, she was reared by her grand- 
mother Langhorne. When six years old she was brought to Missouri by 
the Bennett family and li\ed in Lidependence and later to Lexington. She 
attended the Pritchett Institute at Glasgow, Misscxiri. Her married life ex- 
tended over a period of fifty-four years, nearly fifty years of which were 
spent on the farm from which she was called to her reward on September 
I, 1909. When only nine years of age she joined the Methodist church 
and she was a charter member and one of the most ardent workers in the 
congregation at Malta Bend. Her strong intellect, genial disposition and 
broad sympathy won for her a host of friends and she did a great deal of 
good in promoting Christianity, being truly "a mother in Israel." To Judge 
Brown and wife twelve children were born, named as follows: J. .R., a lead- 
ing phvsician at Malta Bend. Missouri, married Nina Myers : Mary and Eliz- 
abeth, twins, the latter deceased; Laura is deceased; Sarah is the wife of 
Charles Fulton; Addison married Floyd A. Cox; A. F. is a physician at 
Malta Bend. Missouri; W'esley lives at home; Royal is a dentist at Malta 
Bend; the three youngest children died in childhood. 

Politicallv Judge Brown is a Democrat and has long been active in the 
local ranks. He has been school director for twenty years, during whicli 
time the cause of education has been carefully fostered and built u]^. in 
1874 he was elected countv judge and for one term he served with fidch'ty 



400 PAST AND PRESENT 

ami elticiencv, very ably looking after the interests of the county and win- 
ning the commendation of all concerned irrespective of party affiliations. 
Religiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South, and 
(or a period of twenty years has been steward of the local congregation and 
a liberal supporter of the same. He is a Master Mason. 

Judge Brown has very faithfully and ably discharged the duties of pres- 
ident of the Malta Bend Bank since its organization, and has so well managed 
its affairs that it is regarded as one of the safest and most popular of the 
smaller banks of this locality. The Judge has a beautiful and attractively 
located home in the suburbs of Malta Bend, his fine farm l}ing just be- 
yond the limits of the town. His home is one of the commodious old types 
that evidences ease, thrift and hospitality, and his farm is one of the most 
desirable in the township, having been well tilled and highly improved. 
The Judge is one of the prominent men of the county and his family has 
long ranked as one of the distinguished ones of this section of the state, 
meriting in every respect the high esteem in Avhich they are held. Person- 
ally the Judge is cordial, amiable, learned, entertaining, but reserved and un- 
ostentatious. His long career is without the shadow of w'rong or the sus- 
picion of evil and he is trusted and admired by all classes. 



HON. SAMUEL DAVIS. 

It is not an easy task to describe adequately the character of a man 
who has led an eminently active and busy life in connection wdth the great 
profession of the law and wdio has stamped his individuality on the plane of 
definite accomplishment in one of the most exacting fields of human en- 
deavor; and yet there is always a full measure of satisfaction in advert- 
ing, in even a casual w^ay, tO' the career of an able and conscientious lawyer. 
Judge Davis merits consideration for what he has accomplished as a mem- 
ber of the bar of his native state and his native county, and also for the 
inflexible integrity wdiich has characterized him as a man among men. He 
is recognized as a man of high intellectual gifts and of thorough and com- 
prehensive knowledge of the science of jurisprudence, while the prestige 
wdiich he has acquired has come as the result of his owai efforts and abil- 
ities. 

Samuel Davis w^as born April 17, 1847, two miles southwest of Mar- 
shall, Saline county, Missouri, and is the son of Jesse and Lavinia (Jarboe) 




HON. SAMUEL DAVIS. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 4OI 

Davis. His father, a native of Virginia, was l}()rn August 14. 1823, and 
about 1835 came to .Missouri with his father, who also was named Jesse 
and who became one of the earHest pioneers of Sahne count}-. The farm 
which he purchased and imprcned became the homestead on which the sub- 
ject of this sketch was born. Jesse Davis, Sr., was a man of great force of 
character and in Virginia spent some time in pul:)hc life. His Welsh ances- 
tors were in Virginia in the colonial period and the family was represented 
in the war of the Revolution. Judge Davis's father taught school several 
years and also served in many public ot^ces in Saline county. Prior to the 
Civil war he occupied the offices of school commissioner, assessor and dep- 
uty collector. At the outbreak of the Civil war he was filling the office of 
county clerk, but was alienated from this office by reason of his sympathy 
with the South. He died November 7, 1867, His wife Lavinia, a native of 
Kentucky, was a daughter of John W. Jarboe. whose ancestors came from 
France and settled in Maryland. Her maternal grandfather Crouch, a Vir- 
ginian, fought under General Washington in the w^ar of the Revolution. 
She came to Missouri on a visit in 1844, here met Jesse Davis, and in 1846 
they were married. 

Samuel Davis was reared on the homestead and, after a preparatory 
course in the common schools, he entered the Kemper school at Boonville. 
Until 1868 he remained on the home farm, teaching one term of school in 
the meantime. After a course of study in the law office of John P. Strother, 
of Marshall, he was admitted to the bar of Saline county in August, 1869, 
and at once opened an office in Marshall. A stanch Democrat, he early took 
an interest in politics. For awhile he served as a justice of the peace in Mar- 
shall. In 1872 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Saline county, and 
was re-elected to this office in 1874. In 1876 his manifest capabilities led 
to his nomination and election to the state Legislature and his re-election in 
1878. During his latter term, the thirtieth General Assembly, he filled the 
important position of chairman of the ways and means committee, and 
throughout his entire legislative career he was recognized as one of the most 
useful members and most brilliant and forceful debaters in that body. Upon 
his retirement from the Legislature, Mr. Davis resumed his law practice, in 
which he was eminently successful. He was made the candidate of his par- 
ty for judge of the fifteenth judicial circuit in 1898 and was elected without 
opposition, succeeding Judge Richard Field, of Lexington. From 1894 to 
1896 he acted as chairman of the Saline county Democratic central com- 
mittee. Early in his career he was attorney for the Chicago & Alton Rail- 
road Company for four years. During his entire legal practice, but one 
26 



4CJ PAST AND PRESENT 

murder case was Iried in Saline county in which lie (Hd uni appear as coun- 
sel. usuall\- for the defense wliile not acting as puhh'c ])rosecut()r. 

On Noveml)er 19, 1872. Judge Davis was married to Julia S. Newton, 
a natixe of Louisville, Kentucky, and a daughter of George B. and Louise 
( Ha\en) Newton, who reniox'ed from Kentuck}- to Missouri before the Ci\il 
war. Iler father was for many years a noted educator in this state, con- 
ducting a private institution at Longwood. afterward at (ieorgetown. and 
tinallv at Marshall, where he located in 1870. He died in 1892. Judge 
and Airs. Da\is ha\e one son, (jeorge Newton Davis, who was born No- 
vember 26, 187^). After completing his common school education, he read 
law with his father, was later graduated in the classical department of the 
Missouri V^alley College at Marshall, and in 1900 was admitted to the bar, 
ha\ing previousl}- graduated from the law department of the L^niversit}- of 
^Michigan. 

Those fellow practitioners of Judge Da\'is who know him l)est place a 
high estimate on his ability and his sterling integrity and sterling worth. 
He belongs to that conser\-ati\'e and unostentatious type of men whose ca- 
reers are always referred to with pride, by the community in which they 
live His qualifications for the ofiice of judge are uncjuestioned. He pos- 
sesses the natural abilit\' and essential requirements, the acumen of the ju- 
dicial temperament. He is able to divest himself of prejudice or favoritism 
and consider only the legal aspects of a question submitted. No labor is too 
great, howe\er onerous; no application too exacting, however severe, if nec- 
essary to the complete understanding- and correct determination of a (|ues- 
tion. As a practitioner he employs none of the arts and tricks of oratory, 
but his speeches are elo(|uent in the clearness of statement, the broad com- 
mon sense of reasoning, the force of logic, earnestness and pow-er. Fault- 
less in honor and fearless in conduct, his career reflects credit on the ju- 
diciary and he enjo}s the unbounded confidence and high regard of all who 
know him. 



MEREDITH MILES MARMADUKE. 

True biography has a more noble i)ur|)ose than mere fulsome eulog}'. 
The historic spirit, faithful to the record ; the discerning judgment, unmoved 
by prejudice, and uncolored bv enthusiasm, are as essential in giving the life 
of the individual as in writing the history of a pveople. Indeed, the ingen- 
uousness of the former jjicture is e\cn more \ital, because the indi\i(lual is 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 403 

the national unit, and if the nnit is jnstl)- estimated the complex organism 
will hecome correspondingly intelligible. The world today is what the lead- 
ing men of the last generation have made it, and this rule must ever hold 
good. From the past comes the legacy of the present. Art, science, states- 
manship and government are accumulations. They constitute an inherit- 
ance upon wdiich the present generation have entered, and the advantages 
secured from so vast a bequeathment depend entirely upon the fidelity with 
which is conducted the study of the lives of the principal actors who have 
transmitted and are still transmitting the legacy. This is especially true of 
those whose influence has passed beyond the confines of locality and perme- 
ated the state or national life. To such a careful study are the life, char- 
acter and services of the late Governor Meredith Miles Marmaduke pre-emi- 
nently entitled, not only on the part of the student of biography but also of 
every citizen who, guided by example, would in the present wisely build for 
the future. 

Meredith M. Marmaduke was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, 
in 1 79 1, and was a son of Vincent and Sarah (Porter) Marmaduke. These 
parents were both born in England, !and in an early day came to America. 
Politically they were pronounced Tories and received at the hands of the 
Crown the grant of the entire county of Westmoreland. Virginia. They 
thus became the owners of a great estate and incidentally became the own- 
ers of many slaves. They became the parents of three children, Vincent, 
Sarah and Meredith. Subsequently, however, misfortune overtook Vincent 
Marmaduke and he became comparatively poor. Meredith was thus left 
largely upon his own resources. Nevertheless he secured a good sound ed- 
ucation, though he suffered many personal sacrifices and privations in order 
to secure it. He served as deputy United States marshal and recorder of 
Westmoreland county until he was enabled to attend private school, where 
he applied himself assiduously to his books. In 1811, at the age of twenty 
years. Mr. Marmaduke raised a regiment of soldiers for the second war with 
England, and was elected colonel of this command and rendered \'aliant and 
courageous service in that struggle. His old flintlock musket is now in 
the possession of his son. D. W. Marmaduke. of Sweet Springs. Missouri, 
and is highly prized as an heirloom. At the close of the war of 18 12, Mr. 
Mannaduke. with a personal letter from President Monroe, came to ^Nlis- 
souri and settled at what at that time was known as Franklin, in Howard 
county, opposite Boonville. At that time Missouri was yet a territory and 
the countrv was l)Ut sparselv settled. There he resided until his marriage, 
at which time he located in Saline countv and took \\\-> the i)ursuit of agri- 



404 PAST AND PRESENT 

cullurc in Arrow Rock township. He lliere took up a tract of wild and 
unimproved government land, which he proceeded to improve and developed 
it into a good farm and on which he continued to reside until his death. 
About the time he settled on this farm, he became a member of a company 
of traders, the western branch of their business being at Santa Fe, New 
■Mexico, and in connection with this business he made several trips across 
the plains. Later he entered into partnership with his brother-in-law, Eras- 
mus D. Sappington, and started a store at Jonesborough, now known as 
Naptonville, which was conducted with considerable success for several 
years. During the meantime he also continued to carry on his agricultural 
operations on the home farm. About this time he was elected surveyor 
of Saline count}-, in which capacity he served several years, and during this 
time he laid off and platted the city of Marshall. Later he was elected 
judge of the courts of Saline county and served several years with distinc- 
tion. He possessed in a large degree what is known as a judicial mind and 
his course on the bench was marked l)y an evident desire at all times to be 
just to litigants as well as to conserve the dignity of the law. He retired 
from the bench with an enviable record as a jurist. In 1840 Mr. Marma- 
duke was elected lieutenant-governor of the state of Missouri, and about 
three years later, when the gubernatorial office became vacant through the 
suicide of Governor Reynolds, he became the chief magistrate of the com- 
monwealth and occupied the governor's chair for about one and a half 
years. While no events of great importance transpired during his incum- 
bency, yet his administration was notably strong and he was recognized 
throughout the state as an able and efficient servant of the people. 

At the expiration of his official term. Governor Marmaduke returned 
to his farm and family, and remained there until his death, which occurred 
in 1864, at which time he was seventy-three years old. At the outbreak 
of the Civil war, Governor Marmaduke, who was reared in the South and 
whose interests w-ere Southern, took a firm stand against secession and there- 
after was a strong Union man. He opposed the war, believing that such 
a conflict meant ruin for the South and its institutions, mostly because of 
the strength of the North in men and resources. 

Meredith M. Marmaduke married Lavinia Sappington, a daughter of 
Dr. John Sappington, one of the most prominent men who have lived in 
Missouri. Dr. Sappington was born in Maryland May 15, 1776, and later 
removed to Tennessee, where, under the direction of his father. Dr. Mark 
Sappington, a pioneer physician, he studied medicine and entered upon its 
practice there. He went to Philadelphia and after taking a complete course 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 4O5 

in medicine he gained his degree of Doctor of Medicine and then, in 1817, 
he came t(j Missouri, setthng in Howard county. In 18 19 he came to Ar- 
row Rock, Sahne county, where he Hved the remainder of his Hfe. He was 
a successful physician, being particularly successful in his treatment of ma- 
larial fever, which at that time was so prevalent here, and became cjuite 
wealthy, owning several thousand acres of land. He manufactured what 
were called "Sappington's Anti-Fever Pills," which possessed recognized 
merit and through their sale he also prospered. However, when an over- 
flow of the rivers in Missouri had left the country in a fearful condition 
and fever was becoming prevalent everywdiere, — conditions which ordinar- 
ily would have meant thousands of dollars for Dr. Sappington, — he, heed- 
less of the protest of his relatives, published the formula of his pills, thus 
putting the fever remedy within the reach of all. This one act illustrates 
the broad and unselfish character of the man. At the time of his death he 
provided a fund of twenty thousand dollars, to be a perpetual fund, the 
interest of which should be applied to the education of indigent boys and 
girls of Saline county, Missouri. This fund has already helped thousands 
to seciu'e an education and at the same time has been so wisely managed 
that the principal has increased to nearly sixty thousand dollars. To Mer- 
edith and Lavinia Marmaduke were born ten children, namely : Jane be- 
came the w^ife of L. B. Harwood and both are now deceased ; Sarah was 
the wife of Thomas J. Yerby and they also are deceased ; Vincent, de- 
ceased ; John S., deceased; Meredith M., who lives in the state of Flor- 
ida; Lavinia is the wife of William R. Bruce, of Fort Worth, Texas; Dar- 
win W., of Sweet Springs, this county; Henry H., of Washington, D. C. ; 
Layton, who died in infancy; Leslie lives in St. Louis. Governor Marma- 
duke, realizing full well the value of an education, and remembering the 
adverse conditions under which his own education was received, gave his 
children every opportunity in his pow-er to equip them mentally for their 
life careers. The Governor was a member of the Masonic fraternity and 
w^as buried wdth all the honors of that ancient order. 

Though many years have elapsed since the subject was removed from 
the scene of his activities, there are those yet living in this community wdio 
remember him well and to them his memory is sacred. A man of earnest 
and i)urposeful life, he was one to be trusted and his integrity was never 
impeached nor his character blemished. His life was characterized by a 
constant endeavor to do the right as he understood the right and in his 
death the communitv and the state suffered a distinct loss. 



4o6 PAST AND PRESENT 

WILLIAM CATRON GORDON. 

An enumeration of timse men of the ])resent i^eneration in Saline count}', 
who have succeeded by reason of properly and persistently applied principles 
is William Catron Gordon, who has sustained a very commendal)le reputa- 
tion in educational circles and today is givino- thouo-htful and intelli,<^ent direc- 
tion to the afYairs of the Farmers' Savings Bank of Marshall, of which he is 
cashier. Though comparatively yt^ung in years, he has achieved a spleidid 
record in banking circles and stands high among his business confreres. 

Mr. Gordon is the only child of Col. James A. and Margaret (Catron) 
Gordon, a complete history of whom is to be found on another page of this 
work. The son was born at Waverly, Missouri, August ii, 1878. He re- 
ceived his preliminary education in the public schools of Marshall, whither 
his parents moved when he was about one year old. He graduated from the 
high school in 1894 before he was sixteen years old. In the fall of the same 
year he entered Missouri Valley College at Marshall, from which institution 
he was graduated in the class of 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, 
but. being ambitious for still higher attainments in educational afTairs, he en- 
tered Harvard University in the fall of 1898, taking the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts there the following year; resuming his studies there the next year, 
he took the degree of Master of Arts. Thus splendidly equipped, Mr. Gor- 
don, in the fall of 1900, went to St. Paul, Minnesota, and taught Latin and 
Greek in the central high school for two years, and in the fall of 1902 he 
accepted a similar position in the central high school in Kansas City, Missouri, 
which he retained six years, during the last year of which he was chairman of 
the language department. On January i. 1908, he relinquished the pedagog- 
ical profession, although he had gained a splendid reputation as an edu- 
cator much more than local, resigning his position to accept that of cashier 
of the Farmers' Savings Bank of Marshall, in which responsible position he is 
now serving to the entire satisfaction of the directors and patrons of this 
popular institution. Mr. Gordon has demonstrated business qualifications of 
the highest order and from the first has shown his fitness for the position he 
now holds. 

On June 22, 1904, Mr. Gordon married Leonora Yeager, a native of 
Kansas City and the daughter of Robert L. Yeager, a prominent lawyer of 
that city. Mrs. Gordon is a woman of culture, education and refinement and 
popular with a wide circle of friends in Marshall and Kansas City. One child, 
William Catron. Jr., has graced this union, his birth occurring on March 31, 
1905. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 407 

Fraternally Air. Gordon is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted 
Masons, in which he has taken the degrees up to and including those of 
Knight Templar, and the Mystic Shrine, his membership in the latter being 
with Osnian Temple at St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a member of the executive 
committee of the Marshall Commercial Club, and president of the Alumni 
Association of Missouri Valley College. He is a Democrat in political faith, 
but does not take an active part in politics. Air. and Mrs. Gordon are mem- 
bers of the Christian church. Mr. Gordon being a deacon in the same. 

Mrs. Gordon takes an interest in the affairs of the church, education and 
art. She completed her education at the Universitv of Alichigan, at .\nn 
Arbor. Mr. Gordon's genial disposition and splendid personal qualities have 
gained for him a high position in the business and civic life of Saline comity 
and he numbers his friends only by the circle of his accjuaintance. He is a 
worthy son of a worthy sire. 



GEORGE P. SAHTH. 



George P. Smith, who resides at Experiment, the old homestead of the 
Smith family in Saline C(Uinty, is descended from ancestors who have jilayed 
an important part in our national history. His paternal grandfather was 
Brig.-Gen. Thomas .V. Smith, who was born August 12. 1781. a son of 
Francis and Lucy ( Wilkinson) Smith, of Essex county, Virginia, the latter's 
mother being a daughter of Governor James and Alary (Lawson) White, of 
Knoxville, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. White were natives of Tennessee, in 
which state they were married, and in that state he attained to prominence as 
a successful planter. Gen. Thomas A. Smith was born and reared in Essex 
' county. Virginia, where his family and that of Thomas Jefferson were inti- 
mate friends. He received his advanced education at W^illiam and Maiw's 
College, in which institution also Thomas Jefferson received his mental train- 
ing. After leaving that institution, Thomas A. Smith became a cadet in the 
National Military Academy at West Point. In 1803 President Jeft'erson 
effected the Louisiana Purchase and soon afterwards he appointed young- 
Smith a lieutenant and sent him south to the army which was ordered to 
occupv the newly acquired territorv^ From this time Lieutenant Smith's mili- 
tary record was a brilliant and successful one. In 18 13 it was he who gave the 
Seminole Indians such a severe chastisement as to almost exterminate the 
tribe. His brilliant services were recognized and he was steadily promoted 



408 PAST AND PRESENT 

until he held the rank of colonel. He then joined the army of Gen. William 
Henry Harrison in his campaign in the Northwest and rendered valiant ser- 
vice in the campaigns against the hostile tribes. It was he who personally com- 
manded the United States forces at the battle of the Thames, in Canada, in 
1814, and for his eminent sei'vices he was made a brigadier-general. Being- 
assigned to the command of the Department of the West, he established mili- 
tary forts at Rock Island. Illinois, Des Moines, Iowa, and Prairie du Chien, 
\\' isconsin. He also established Fort Smith, Arkansas, which was named in 
his honor. To General Smith is given credit for practically subduing the 
western Indians and putting the country in a safe condition for the settlement 
by the white race. In 18 18 General Smith resigned his military commission 
and accepted the position of receiver of the land office at Franklin, Missouri. 
He performed the responsible duties of this position in a satisfactory manner. 
He was himself among the first to enter land in Saline county, the tracts en- 
tered being large. On this land he placed a large number of slaves, under an 
overseer, built a good residence and other necessary structures, and named the 
place Experiment, from the fact that he had never farmed before. How- 
ever, he proved his versatile ability and in this line of effort he achieved a pro- 
nounced success. About 1830 he moved from Franklin to Experiment and 
thereafter lived the life of a private citizen up to the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1844. Gen. Thomas A. Smith married Cynthia White and to 
them were born six children, namely : Lucy A., who became the wife of 
Judge Tucker, of Williamsburg, Virginia, where they spent their lives and 
died; Cynthia became the wife of Major W. N. Berkeley, of Albemarle 
county, Virginia, a veteran of the Confederate army during the Civil war; 
James died at the Experiment homestead at the age of thirty-five years ; 
Troup died and was buried at sea ; Reuben died while a student at William 
and Mary's College and was buried there; Crawford, the father of the sub- 
ject. 

Crawford Smith was born at Franklin, Howard county, Missouri, where 
he was reared and attended the common schools and also attended William 
and Mary's College, Williamsburg, Virginia. He then entered Jeft'erson 
Medical College of Philadelphia, taking the full courses in medicine and 
surgery, graduating with the degree of Doctor of Medicine and was thus well 
equipped for the practice of his profession. He entered at once on the prac- 
tice, in which he gave promise of great success, but, because of the fact that 
other business interests demanded his attention, he was compelled to abandon 
the practice of medicine. Returning to the old homestead at Experiment 
after the death of his father, Doctor Smith remained with his mother, assist- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOIRI 4O9 

ing her in the management of the extensive plantation, one of the largest in 
the northern part of the state and including one hundred and fifty slaves. After 
the death of his brother James, who had had charge of his father's estate, 
Crawford Smith assumed charge of the estate, over which he retained super- 
vision until his mother's death. After the death of the parents the estate was 
divided among the heirs, Crawford retaining a large portion of the old home- 
stead. He also bought the slaves. At the opening of the Civil war Doctor 
Smith joined the Confederate army, and, with all the members of his com- 
pany, was captured at the Blackwater fight, in Saline county. The prisoners 
were taken to St. Louis and a short time afterwards to Alton. Illinois, where 
they were held for several months. They then took the oath of allegiance and 
were permitted to return to their homes. Prior to entering the army Doctor 
Smith had sent his family to his wife's relatives in St. Louis county, Missouri, 
for safety, and after his release he rejoined them there. He thereafter made 
frequent trips to his farm, which he had left in the charge of an overseer. 
Eventually he rented the farm until 1878. when he sold the old plantation, 
consisting of two thousand five hundred acres, though subsequentlv he was 
compelled to take the property back, the purchasers failing to pay the pur- 
chase price. He then continued to rent the farm and resided in St. Louis 
county during the remainder of his life. In politics he was a strong Democrat 
and took an active interest in public affairs, though he was never ambitious for 
public office. He was a man of broad mind and intelligent conceptions, and 
was at all times true to his honest convictions. 

Crawford E. Smith married Virginia Penn, wdio was born at Jonesboro, 
Saline county, Missouri, a daughter of Dr. George Penn, of Virginia, an emi- 
nent physician and surgeon and an early settler at Arrow Rock, where he 
practiced his profession and conducted a successful mercantile business. He 
owned a large plantation also, including a number of slaves. He later sold 
his interests there and moved to St. Louis county, where he again engaged in 
fanning and also practiced his profession. He at one time made a trip across 
the plains with Gen. Phil Kearney, serving in the capacity of chief surgeon. 
After his return from this trip, which was to New Mexico, Doctor Penn was 
appointed sub-treasurer at St. Louis, which position he held for a number of 
years. He took an active interest in politics and served two terms in the lower 
house of the state Legislature and later one term in the state Senate. Subse- 
quently, during the reorganization of the municipal government of St. Louis 
Doctor Penn was appointed as one of the commissioners in supeiwision of the 
change and in this capacity rendered important and appreciated service. He 
was a stanch Democrat in politics and was considered an unusually effective 



^lO PAST AND PRESENT 

public speaker and an influential leader of men. In religion he was a Pres- 
byterian. He died in St. Louis county at the advanced age of eighty-six 
years. His wife Sarabella was the daughter of Colonel Chambers, who had 
served with valor during the war of the Revolution. He was a native of the 
state of Pennsylvania, in which state the town of Chambersburg was named 
in his honor. Colonel Chambers at one time visited Missouri, remaining 
here a short time. Of his family of children, two daughters became resi- 
dents of Saline county, Mrs. Dr. Penn and Mrs. Pulliam. To Doctor and 
Mrs. Penn four children were born, Virginia, Lucy, James and George. 
Crawford and Virginia Smith became the parents of eight children, namely: 
Isabella and Mary B., both of whom remained unmarried; Thomas A., a 
phvsician and farmer at Napton, this county; George P., the immediate sub- 
ject of the sketch; William N. B., who died at the age of thirty years: Vir- 
ginia C. the wife of Dr. Thomas Hall; Philip M., a prominent farmer of 
this county, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Lucy L., the wife of 
L. T. Stouffer. 

George P. Smith was Ijorn on the 12th day of January. 1864. in Saline 
countv, Missouri. He received his education in the common schools of St. 
Louis county, subsequently attending the Missouri State University at Colum- 
bia. He also took a full course and graduated in medicine, his entire life 
having been mainly devoted to agricultural pursuits, m which he has achieved 
a definite success. He remained with his parents in St. Louis county until 
their deaths, when, in 1892. he returned to the old home farm in Saline county 
and took up active farming operations. Everything about the farm is kept 
up in good shape and the general appearance of the place is a credit to the 
owner. He is a lover of the country and thoroughly enjoys the quiet yet l)usy 
life of a farmer. 

A strong Democrat in his political proclivities, Mr. Smith takes a keen 
and intelligent interest in local public affairs, though he has never sought of- 
fice for himself. He has served as a member of the county central committee 
of his party. Religiously, he is a member of the Presbyterian church. 

George P. Smith married Lucy Vaughan, who was born at Lexington, 
Lafayette county, Missouri, in 1876, a daughter of George M. and Lucy 
(Hamm) Vaughan. Both of these parents were natives of Saline county, 
Missouri, the former having been a son of Gen. Richard C. Vaughan, of 
Virginia, who during the Civil war was connected with the L'nion army. He 
came to Missouri, locating in Saline county, and was a Democrat in his 
political views. However, he was opposed to secession and cast his influence 
on the side of the national government. During the war, he was influential 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 4II 

in saving much discomfort and annoyance to many of his friends of Southern 
s}-mpathies in this community, a fact that was widely recognized and appre- 
ciated. His death occurred at Lexington. He reared a family of eight chil- 
dren. h\e sons and three daughters, George M. Vaughan enlisted in the 
Union army during- the war, and was in the battle of Lexington. He was 
highly educated and was cashier of the Commercial Bank of Lexington a 
number of years. He is a strong prohibitionist in sentiment and in religion he 
is a member of the Presbyterian church at Lexington, where he yet resides. 
His wife is a daughter of Dr. Strougher Hamm, a native of Virginia, but 
who is numbered among- the early settlers of Howard county, Missouri, and 
who successfully practiced medicine for many years near Slater, this county. 
He was a strong Democrat in politics, but never held nor aspired to public 
office. During the Civil war he served as a surgeon in the Confederate army, 
and his death occurred at ^^'arrensburg, this state. He was the father of but 
one child, Lucy, the wife of George M. Vaug-han. To George M. and Lucy 
(Hamm) Vaughan were born seven children, namely: Margaret M., unmar- 
ried; Eliza B. (Mrs. Baker); Anna R. and Mary F. remain single; Lucy is 
the wife of the subject of this sketch; Christie (Mrs. Ewing), of Lexington; 
Richard M., of Portland, Oregon. To George P. and Lucy (Vaughan) Smith 
have been born five children, namely: George P., Jr., born in 1899; Lucy 
v., born in 1901 ; Isabella E., who died at the age of four years; Thomas A., 
who was born in 1906; Margaret M., born in 1908. The members of this 
family are affiliated with the Presbyterian church and take an active part in 
the work of that society. ^Ir. Smith is alert to the best interests of the com- 
munity and gives his support to every worthy movement. 



ACADEMY OF NOTRE DAME DE SION. 

Saline county, Missouri, is blessed with several splendid institutions of 
learning, and of these none occupies a more envial)le standing than the 
Academy of Notre Dame de Sion, formerly know'n as St. Savior's Acadeni}-. 
The institution, which is most eligibly located on English avenue and Jefferson 
street, in Marshall, was established mainly through the efforts of the Rev. M. 
J. O'Dwyer, the well known pioneer priest of the parish of St. Peter, at Mar- 
shall, with the co-operation and assistance of a number of prominent citizens 
of the city. The organization of the school entailed a vast amount (^f hard 
work, but the energetic and untiring Father persevered in his laudable efforts 



412 PAST AND PRESENT 

until, in September. 1884. the institution opened its doors for the reception of 
pupils, under the direction of the Sisters of Loretto. St. Savior's Academy 
from the first was accorded an excellent patronage, not only from Catholics, 
but from all. regardless of religious creed. One of the first and most positive 
rules of the institution has been that, as pupils are received without regard to 
their individual religious beliefs, no influence whatever will be used in the 
instituti(Mi to alter or chang-e their beliefs, a feature most commendable. 

The courses of study otTered in this school emliraced all the ordinary and 
higher branches incident to a thorough literary, musical and polite education, 
especial attention being paid to music, drawing and painting. The corps of 
teachers was a strong one. embracing talent (tf the highest order, and the 
maintenance of a high standard among- the instructors was one of the strong- 
est reasons for the wonderful success which attended the school from its in- 
ception. The buildings are spacious, convenient and well ventilated, the most 
advanced hvgienic and sanitary practice being observed, thus insuring the 
health and ccmrfort of the inmates. In 189 J a large and substantial addition 
was made to the main building, which, owing to the rapidly increasing 
patronage, was not large enough to accommodate the school. Further ad- 
ditions and improvements have been made from time to time as conditions 
demanded, until now the buildings, equipment and courses of study are con- 
sidered adequate and complete in every detail. Among the features of the 
buildings is a fine exhibition hall, which has a seating capacity of five hundred, 
and a large and well arranged stage, lighted by gas and electricity and with 
all the necessarv accessories. The grounds surrounding the buildings are 
well laid out and are kept in the best possible condition, contributing in meas- 
ure to the comfort and pleasure of the faculty and pupils. Many persons 
call at the school, ever\- \-isitor being" shown the greatest courtesy by the Sis- 
ters in charge. 

The first Sister Superior of St. Savior's Academy was Sister Dolores 
Jackson, who retained the supervision of the work for about two years, when 
her health failed and she was transferred to a position whose duties were less 
trving. This excellent Christian woman was a native of St. Louis, ^Missouri. 
and her death occurred in Kentucky. The faculty of instructors who took 
ttp the work in this institution comprised Sisters Mary Kevin, Annette, Mary 
Berchman, Alberta and Laura. They were devoted to their work and pos- 
sessed culture and pedagogical ability of a high order. 

Recently the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion. from Paris. France, well 
known in the French capital for their solid education, high culture and re- 
finement, have taken charsre of the school and are now conducting it. The in- 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 4I3 

stilution offers to young ladies all the advantages of a thorough American 
and European education combined. The French and English teachers hold 
diplomas from the Universities of Paris and Cambridge and the academy is 
in frequent communication with the Old ^^^orld. French is spoken in the in- 
stitution by all the teachers and pupils. On the completion of their studies, 
the young ladies can pass from the academy to others of the same order in 
Paris, London, Vienna, Rome, etc. 

This institution offers likewise a quiet country home, during vacation 
or any other time, to ladies who would be desirous of learning or perfecting 
French under native Parisian teachers and of having the advantage of con- 
stantly hearing" the language spoken. 

This sketch w-ould not be complete were there failure to make specific 
mention of the Very Rev. Father Marie-Theodore Ratisbonne, who was the 
founder of the Society of Priests and of the Congregation of Sisters of 
Notre Dame de Sion (or Our Lady of Sion). In reviewing the career of 
Father Theodore, liberty will be taken in quoting from his biographv which 
has been translated from the French in two volumes, a very comprehensive 
and valuable work. Father Theodore was of Israelitish birth, his maternal 
grandfather having been the Jew, Theodore Cerfbeer, surnamed bv the 
French lower classes, "Grandfather Cerfbeer," who died in 1793, leaving a 
name so generally esteemed that, during the Reign ol Terror, more than one 
churcli confided to his family the care of the sacred vessels exposed to prof- 
anation by the revolutionists. Li his house also, several priests and religious 
found refuge. Father Theodore, speaking of this ancestor, said, "* * * 
my grandfather, the only Jew who, under Louis XVI, obtained not only the 
right to possess property at Strasburg, but also a patent of nobility." Theo- 
dore himself was reared, as he sa3^s, "if not in the religion, at least according 
to Jewish traditions and customs," but as he grew to maturity he became 
uneasy as to his inability to believe the dogmas which had been taught him. 
He was hungering for the light of truth. He had lost faith in Judaism and 
at the same time he, through prejudice, looked upon Christianity as idolatry. 
He sought a satisfying solution for his trouble through various channels, be- 
coming first a stoic, then joining- and studying Freemason iw, and later apply- 
ing himself to philosophical and scientific studies. In 1823, through asso- 
ciation with M. Louis Bautain, he w^as led into the light of Christianity and at 
length embraced it with all his strength and soul. In due time he was baptized, 
and in Mayence, in 1827, he made his first communion. He decided now to 
enter the priesthood, in which his relatives tried to prevent him, but during 
the three years following he successively received holy orders, and in 183 1, 



414 FAST AND PRESENT 

at Strasbiiri;-. the Abbe Ratisbonne celebrated his first mass. The Bishop fit 
Strasbiirg had estabHshed in his country home a seminary for higher studies 
and in this institution Father Ratisbonne became an instructor and pastor of 
souls. Under his direction the standard of the studies was raised and the 
institution was patronized by the best families, who appreciated the splendid 
work being- done by these Priests of St. Louis, as they were called. Subse- 
quently enemies succeeded in having them separated from their school and in 
1840 they transported their little society to the College of Juilly. Shortlv 
afterwards he was transferred to the church of Our Lady of Victories at 
Paris, where he became chaplain to the Queen, the pious Marie-Amelie. Dur- 
ing these years he had earnestly prayed for the conversion of his familv to 
Christianity, and in 1842 his prayers were answered in the miraculous con- 
version of his brother Alphonsus at Rome. He now obtained great light on 
the question of the conversion of the Jews and became convinced that his 
future life work lay along that line, and that summer, in an audience with the 
Pope, he asked for the special mission of working' for the conversion of the 
Jews. In response, Gregory XVI placed his hands on him and blessed him in 
his new ajx>stleship. Amongst his first efforts was the education of several 
Jewish girls, which had providentially been placed in his care, and he secured 
the assistance of Madame Stouhlen and Melle. Louise W'eywada. the first 
fruits of his ministry. At length the house they used became too small and 
a larger house was secured. The new family l^egan to grow rapidly and 
placed itself under the patronage of Our Lady of Sion. In 1847 the Com- 
munitv (^f Our Lady of Sion was given its canonical existence and from that 
time its growth was rapid and widespread. Xuml)ers of \-ocations came trom 
all countries and foundations were made in dift'erent parts of the world. The 
Congregation received the solemn approbation of Rome in 1863 and the defi- 
nite sanction of the Rule in 1874. 

In 1852 the Archc(mfraternity of Christian ]^Iothers was convened and 
Father Theodore was made their director and maintained this relation for 
many years, with great benefit to all who came in contact with him. What 
characterized best his last days and moments was their calm, their simplicity 
and the care he had for his own who were in the world and whom he loved 
to the end. His death occurred on January 10, 1884. 

The aim of the work of Our Lady of Sion is to promote and hasten by 
praver. sacrifice and good works the entrance of the people of Israel into the 
great Christian family and the Congregation has houses in every ([uarter of 
the glolie. While pursuing its primary work, — the conversion of the Jews. — • 
the Congregation aspires to exercise an influence upon all classes of Christian 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 415 

societ^• l^y means of its boarding and day schools, poor schools, orphanages, 
work-rooms, catechism of perseverance and its widespread Archconfraternity 
of Christian Mothers. Anxious to make itself "all things to all," it educates 
Catholic girls of all ranks of societ}', and receives into its various institutions 
those of every sect and of every religion ; shunning' whatever savors of 
proselytism, but striving by the example of a Christian life to overcome preju- 
dice and break down barriers. By these means it hopes to hasten the realiza- 
tion of the divine prophecy, "There shall be one fold and one shepherd." 



HENRY HUNGERFORD MARMADUKE. 

Saline county, Missouri, was the home of Henry H. Marmaduke dur- 
ing his earlier years, and he is a rei)resentative of two of the honored 
pioneer families of this favored section of the state. He wrought out his 
own success through the persistent application of his energies and abilities, 
and to him is the distinction of being a \'eteran of the Civil war, in which 
he served with fidelity and patriotic ardor, taking part in many of the most 
hotly contested engagements of the long and sanguinary struggle. He was 
born in Saline county in 1842 and is a son of Meredith M. and Lavinia 
(Sappington) Marmaduke, being thus, as already stated, descended from two 
of the earliest and most prominent families of this section of the state. 
(Sketches of Dr. John Sappington and Governor Meredith Marmaduke ap- 
pear on other pages in this w'ork and contain detailed records of these fam- 
ilies.) 

Henry H. Marmaduke was reared on the parental homestead and se- 
cured his early education in the common schools of his home neighborhood, 
supplementing this training by attendance in the Uni\ersity of St. Louis. 
While attending at the latter institution he, in ^S-^y, received an appoint- 
ment as cadet in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. He had 
completed three years at that institution when the war between the states 
broke out and, feeling that his duty lav with the South, he resigned and 
went to Montgomery. Alabama, where he tendered his ser\-ices to Jefferson 
Davis, recjuesting" appointment to the navy. His request was promptly 
granted and he was assigned to duty on the Mississippi river, where he ren- 
dered effective service, giving especially valuable service in the ])rotection of 
Mobile bay against the Union fleet under Admiral Farragut. ■ He was then 
sent to France with orders to take command of a vessel that the Confed- 



4l6 PAST AND PRESENT 

ate g()\-cnimtMil had Ixiui^-ht from l*"i'ance. ])ul the \essel was ne\-er put into 
commission and the subject returned to the United States. He successfully 
ran the blockade and reix)rted to Admiral Buchanan, who assigned him to 
dut\- on the "Merrimac." \\'hile with this historic craft, all of the ves- 
sels of tlie Union fleet were destroyed except two and the "Monitor."' He 
participated in the notable battle with the Union "Monitor," and during- 
this engagement he was twice wounded but remained at his gun until the 
battle was finished. For his gallantry on this occasion he received special 
praise by Admiral Buchanan in his official report. The Confederate navy 
having now been practically destroyed, Mr. Marmaduke entered the army 
under Gen. Robert E. Lee, with whom he remainded until shortly before 
tile surrender of the army, when he was captured and imprisoned at Wash- 
ington, D. C, where he remained until the close of the war. 

During the first years of the present century Mr. Marmaduke entered 
the service of Colombia, South America, and was given complete command 
of the Colombian fleet with the rank of admiral. He fitted out, armed and 
manned the steamship ''Bogota," with which he pursued the rebel fleet, sink- 
ing several of the vessels and capturing the remaining one. He then re- 
ported to the government, and, the war there being over, he resigned from 
the service of that country and returned to his native land. 

During President Cleveland's administration, he accepted a position in 
tlie postoi^ce department at Washington. He is now retired from active 
life and is living quietly at Washington. D. C. He has never married. 
He is a man of many fine qualities of character and enjoys the unbounded 
confidence and esteem of all Avho know him. 



COL. JAMES A. GORDON. 

The name of Col. James A. (iordon, president of the Farmers' Sav- 
ings Bank of Marshall, Missouri, needs no introduction to the readers of 
this work, owing to the fact that he has figured conspicuously in the bank- 
ing circles and civic life of the state, especially Lafayette and Saline coun- 
ties since 1870, being a native of the former, his birth occurring at Lex- 
ington on August 26, 1841. He is the scion of a well established and prom- 
inent ancestry, descendants of which have been leaders in various walks of 
life where\'er thev ha\'e dispersed. James Gordon, the Colonel's paternal 
grandfather, was a farmer, of Scotch descent, who, about 1830, came to 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 417 

Jefferson City, Missouri, and entered a farm near there where he developed 
a splendid estate in the midst of primitive conditions. His son, the Colonel's 
father, was Judge William L. Gordon, wdio was born in Kentucky. He re- 
ceived a good education for those days, and, being actuated by a laudable 
ambition to succeed at some useful profession, jjegan the study of medicine 
in Jefferson City under the direction of Doctor Bolton, later attending lec- 
tures at Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, where he made a 
good record and received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Soon after- 
wards he came to Missouri and established an office in Cedar county, later 
practicing in Jackson county, being very successful in each. In 1853 Judge 
Gordon moved to Holt county, this state, where he devoted himself to his 
profession with his usual success until his death, which occurred in 1884. 
He became prominent in political aft'airs there and as a reward for his ser- 
vices for the general welfare of Holt county, he was made presiding judge 
of the county court, \vhich position he acceptabl}" and creditably filled for a 
period of six years, w^inning a reputation throughout the Missouri valley 
as a man of rare mental ec[uipment and probity of character. He married 
Sarah Smith, a native of Tennessee and the representative of an excellent 
old Southern family. This union resulted in the birth of four children. 
This wife was called to her rest in 1847 and Judge Gordon was married a 
second time, his last wife being Zilpha Ann Philpott, who bore him eight 
children. The mother of these children was a woman of gracious person- 
ality and reared her family in a wholesome atmosphere. 

Colonel Gordon was the eldest of four children born of the first mar- 
riage and grew to maturity on his father's farm where he learned the true 
dignity of labor, alternating farm work with schooling at the primitive school 
houses of those days, but being ambitious to delve into the higher subjects, 
he later attended high school at St. Joseph, Missouri, after which he became 
a student of the University of Missouri at Columbia. In 1862 he cast his 
fortunes with the Southern Confederacy, enlisting in Gordon's regiment, 
Shelby's brigade, and his military record is a brilliant one, he having par- 
ticipated in many of the most notable battles of the war. On June 24, 
1864, he was wounded by a pistol shot and spent six weeks in a hospital. 
Upon the completion of his military service. Colonel Gordon returned to 
Lafayette county, Missouri, and filled in a very creditable manner the po- 
sition of president of Shelby College from 1866 to 1869. In 1870 he 
turned his attention to business affairs and organized the Farmers' Savings 
Bank of Waverly, Lafayette county, and became cashier of that institution. 
It was well patronized from the first, but in 1879 it was moved to Mar- 

27 



4l8 PAST AND PRESENT 

shall, and on Tnne i. 1889. Colonel Gordon succeeded to the presidency of 
the institution, in which position he has ser\'ed to the present time in a 
manner that stamps him as a man of progressive ideas and unswerving in- 
tegrity. 

Decciulier 29, 1868, Mr. (lordon was united in marrige with Margaret 
E. Catron, of Lafayette count}-, where she was reared and ])arth- educated. 
She is the daughter of an excellent old family, her father. John Catron, 
Sr.. being a nati\'e of d^nnessee. though hrotight to Alissouri 1)\- his par- 
ents when a child. He married Mar\ I'letcher. who was born in Virginia, 
in 1815, and in childhood was brought b}' her father, James Fletcher, to 
Lafayette county. Missouri. Mrs. ( iordon was one of eight children, and 
she grew to be a woman of culture and refinement. She is a graduate of 
the Cdiristian College at Columbia, Missouri. 

in all the relations of life Colonel Ciordon has proxen true to the 
trusts reposed in him h\ his fellow men, and without ostentation or desire 
for the admiring plaudits of men he has endea\-ored to promote general in- 
terests wdiile laboring for his own ach'aucemeut. thereby winning the con- 
fidence and esteem of all classes. 



JOHX RANDOLPH HALL, M. I). 

A man ^^d'lo is too well known to the peo])le of Saline count}' to need 
any formal introduction here is Dr. John Randolph Hall, universally recog- 
nized as one of the leading ])h}sicians of the state of Missouri and one of 
Marshall's most influential citizens, bearing bis well earned honors mod- 
estly and ratlier avoiding than seeking the plaudits of his fellow men. He 
was born in Arrow Rock, this countv. August 28, 1849. the son of Mathew 
W. and .\gnes J. (Lester) LTall. a sketch of whom is to be found on an- 
other ])age of this work. Dr. Hall received his elementar}- education in the 
schools of his neighborhood. Later he attended Spaulding's Commercial 
College at Kansas City, also Westininster College, at Fulton, Missouri. 
After discontinuing his classical studies, he read medicine under the direc- 
tion of his father, .subsecjueritlv matriculating in the Missouri Medical Col- 
lege at St. Louis, which conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Medi- 
cine in ^f^yT,. His first location was in Salt b^)rk township. Saline county, 
where be ])racticcd in ])artnershii) with his father for se\Tn }-ears and was 
very successful from the first. On May 2y, 1880, seeking a broader field 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 419 

for the exercise of his talents, he moved to ^larshall and opened an office 
where he has since practiced continuously, his name having long ago be- 
come a household word throughout the county. Vov ten years he maintained 
an office alone, but since 1890 he has practiced in partnership with Dr. D. 
C. Gore. 

Doctor Hall has kept fully abreast of the times in advanced med- 
ical science, being a close observer and reader of all matters pertaining to 
his profession. In 1890 he took a post-graduate course in the New York 
Polyclinic School, and for a long time he has lieen actively identified with 
the more important medical societies, including the American, Missouri 
State, District and Saline County associations. He has served as corres- 
ponding secretarv and vice-president of the state society and was one of the 
organizers of the district society. For several years he acted as local sur- 
geon for the Missouri Pacific railway. Before the adoption of the law or- 
ganizing the board of examining surgeons under the pension bureau, he 
filled the part of local examiner, and during both administrations of Presi- 
dent Cleveland he served on the Saline county board. He has been a fre- 
quent contributor to the leading medical journals of the country. 

The city of Marshall is partly indebted to Doctor Hall for its present 
supply of pure drinking water. He, with others, proposed to dig to a 
depth sufficient to tap the underground river, which was known to flow near 
Marshall, and in September, 1883. was organized the Marshall \\'ater Works 
Company, of which his brother. Dr. C. Lester Hall, was elected president and 
of which Dr. J. R. Hall became president in 1890. This corporation at once 
dug a well thirty-five feet in diameter and forty-six feet in depth, penetrating- 
seven feet of gumbo found over thirty-five feet below the surface and enter- 
ing a strata of sand through which flows excellent pure water. 

On February 4. 1885, Doctor Hall married Marceline W. Thomas, a 
lady of culture and refinement and the daughter of the late Dr. Lawson C. 
Thomas, a native of Saline county and for many years a practicing physician 
at Waverly, Missouri. Mrs. Hall can lay claim to distinguished progenitors, 
her ancestors having come to IMaryland with Lord Baltimore, and one of 
them having been honored by appointment as lord surveyor of the colony, 
and who was descended from the Cecils, of England. 

The pleasant home of Doctor and Mrs. Hall has been graced by two 
children. Agnes Lester and John Randolph Hall. Jr.. the former being the 
wife of Lieut. J. H. Pelot. an instructor at West Point Military Academy. 

Two of Doctor Hall's brothers. Drs. C. Lester and Thomas B.. be- 
came successful physicians. Dr. John R. Hall has served as chairman of 



420 PAST AND PRESENT 

ihc county and congressional committees of the Democratic i)arty, but 
though much interested in local political affairs and in all other movements 
looking to the development and general welfare of Saline count}-, he has 
never sought office. For several years he has been an elder in the Presby- 
terian cliurch. Owing to his exemplary character, his public spirit and his 
genial manners the Doctor has won and retained the confidence and esteem 
of all classes in this locality. 



HON. ROBERT L. BROWN. 

Honored and esteemed by his fellow citizens of Saline county and holding 
worthy prestige among the leading public men of Missouri, the subject of this 
review has achieved distinctive success in the line of his calling and is en- 
titled to specific notice in a work designed to perpetuate the lives and deeds 
of representative men of his native county and state. Robert L. Brown, ex- 
member of the Missouri General Assembly, and an honorable representative 
of one of the old and prominent families of the central part of the state, was 
torn on a farm in Saline county, where he yet lives, May 3, 1841, being a 
son of William and Lucy A. (Guthrey) Brown, natives of Virginia and 
among the early pioneers of the county of Saline. Reared under excellent 
home influences, the subject early obtained ideas of life and its responsi- 
bilities, and while still a youth formulated plans for his future with the ob- 
ject in view of becoming more than a mere passive factor in the world. 
After attending the subscription schools of the neighborhood until acquir- 
ing a knowledge of the elementary branches, he entered the academy at 
Fairville, the training thus received being afterwards supplemented by a 
course at Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, where he was 
graduated from the law department in i860 with the honors of his class. Re- 
turning home in the fall of that year, Mr. Brown with his two half-brothers 
enlisted in the Missouri State Guards for the Confederate service and the 
following spring went into camp with the Second Cavalry State Troops, of 
which his company formed a part. Llis term of enlistment expiring at the 
end of six months, he returned home and from 1861 until 1864 performed 
no further military service on account of ill health. Recuperating in the 
meantime, however, he joined the latter year General Marmaduke's com- 
mand as an escort or body-guard, and took part in the noted campaign under 
that gallant leader, which was marked by daily fighting across Missouri to 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 421 

the Texas state line, including- the two-days battle at Westport near Kansas 
City, and a hotly contested action near Ft. Scott, and many other engage- 
ments besides almost continuous skirmishing, in all of which both sides suf- 
fered severe losses. They ct^ntinued southward across the Indian territory 
to Texas, thence to Shreveport, Louisiana, where the force finally sur- 
rendered and were parolled, the Federals furnishing transportation to all 
going down Red River, Mr. Brown being among the number. Ariving at 
Baton Rouge, he took a steamer to St. Louis, thence to Miami, from which 
place to his home, which was only a short distance and quickly traversed. 

Mr. Brown experienced many vicissitudes and hardships during- his 
military career and before leaving the army served in both the State Guards 
and the regulars and earned an honorable record as a brave and gallant 
soldier. On arriving at home he found his former slaves voters and himself 
disfranchised, the latter condition continuing until after the reconstruction 
period. During his collegiate course, he finished the study of the law and 
shortly after the war he opened an office at Miami and began the practice 
of the same. He made commendable advancement and built up a lucrative 
and growing business, but close confinement interfering with his health he 
was obliged to abandon the profession and retm-n to the farm where he 
has since lived and prospered. 

Mr. Brown has made agriculture the subject of careful and critical 
study and he ranks among the most enterprising- and successful farmers of 
Saline county. In addition to growing abundant crops of all grains, vegeta- 
bles and fruits raised in central Missouri, he devotes considerable attention 
to fine live stock, in the breeding and raising of which he has earned much 
more than local repute. Recently, however, he has turned his various in- 
terests over to his son, Frank L. Brown, who is carrying forward the work 
quite extensively and meeting with the success which is the invariable re- 
sult of well directed industry and efficient management. Mr. Brown owns 
and occupies the old family homestead and is in independent circumstances, 
with an ample competency to insure his comfort during the remainder of 
his earthly sojourn. A pronounced Democrat in politics and thoroughlv in- 
formed on the leading questions and issues of the times, he wields a strong- 
influence for his party and has long been recognized as one of its able and 
trusted leaders in Saline county. He has overcome all the disadvantages re- 
sulting- from his activity in behalf of the South and has no regrets for the 
course he pursued in upholding what he believed to be right, concerning 
questions upon which many of the ablest and best men of the country dif- 
fered. Of his three brothers who entered the Confederate service, John R. 



422 PAST AND PRESENT 

(lied ill a inilitarv prison, in St. Louis; Capt. E. J. Brown, who had served 
thnmo-h the Mexican war and organized the first cavah-y company in SaHne 
county for the Confederates, fell into the hands of the Federals who held 
him a prisoner until he took the oath recjuired of all who had l)orne arms 
ag-ainst the g-overnment. Returning peaceably to his home near Fairville, he 
was called uix)n one evening by a couple of soldiers for the purpose of making 
inquiries about certain matters with which he was presumed to be familiar. 
Xot suspecting anv treachery, he accompanied them a short distance from 
his dwelling, where, without an explanation or a moment's warning, they 
shot him down in his tracks, his murder being one of the most cowardly and 
brutal in the histcn^y of the county. 

Although an active and influential partisan, Robert L. Brown has never 
posed as an office seeker. Nevertheless, in 1888 he permitted his friends 
to present his name to the county convention as a candidate for the ot¥ice 
of representative. His nomination followed as a matter of course and at 
the ensuing election he defeated his opponent by an overwhelming majority 
and in due time entered upon his duties as a lawmaker. He- served his 
term creditably to himself and acceptably to his constituents, was placed on 
several important committees, including those on the state penitentiary and 
internal improvements and introduced quite a number of bills, the majority 
of which became laws, besides taking an active part in the general discus- 
sions and debates on the floor of the House. At the close of his term he re- 
fused to stand for renomination, having little taste for pul)lic life and the 
turmoils and vexations which it very naturally entails. 

In 1868, at the age of twenty-seven years, Mr. Brown was united in 
marriage with Anna M. Tucker, whose birth occured in Madison county, 
Virginia, in 1844, being the fifth of six children born to Thompson and 
Emily (Hume) Tucker, both natives of that state and descendants of old 
and highly esteemed families of Scotch lineage. Thompson Tucker was a 
merchant and one of the widely know'U and influential men of Madison 
county. After his death, which occurred in his native state, his wife kept 
the children together, reared them to respectable manhood and womanhood 
and in 1856 brought the family to Saline county, Missouri, settling on a farm 
which she managed successfully until her sons were old enough to relieve her 
of the responsibility. She was a worthy member of the Methodist E])iscopal 
church and went to her final reward in 1870, lamented by all who knew her. 
Her oldest son, John, remained in Virginia and died while defending the Con- 
federacy in the Civil war. David came to Missouri with his mother, entered 
the Confederate army at the breakng out of the war, and died from sickness 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 423 

contracted while in the service. Mrs. ]\Iary E. Carpenter, Sarah E.. wife of 
Doctor Elder, Airs. Ann M. Brown and Andrew P. Tucker, of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, are the surviving members of the family. 

The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Brown has been blessed with one child, 
a son by the name of Frank L., who was born on the old homestead March 
15, 1 87 1. He was reared to agricultural pursuits and, as stated in a pre- 
ceding paragraph, is now manager of tlie farm and one of the enterprising 
and progressive men of his calling in the county of Saline. He was educated 
at the Missouri Valley College at Marshall and at Central College, at Favette, 
Miss(uu-i. He is a married man and the father of three interesting children, 
Catherine. Virginia and Frances E., the wife and mother having been Willie 
Parrish, a lady of culture and refinement, who was born in Saline county 
in the year 1872. Frank L. Brown and wife are esteemed members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church South and move in the best social circles of the 
community. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, the order of Alaccabees, 
and politically votes with the Democratic party. 

William and Laura ( Gilliam ) Parrish, parents of Mrs. Frank Brown, 
were natives of Knox and Saline counties, Missouri, respectivelv, the latter 
a daugliter of F. H. Gilliam, of Virginia, who was an early pioneer and for 
many years a prominent citizen of Saline county. Mr. Gilliam did as much 
if not more than any other man for the material improvement and moral ad- 
vancement of the section of country in which he settled and his name will long 
be remembered as one of the influential and representative citizens of this 
part of the state. He is descended from one of the old aristocratic families of 
Virginia and is a son of a Revolutionary soldier who served during the se\en 
long years which were required to secure the inestimable blessing of free 
government for the colonies. Of his eight children, Mrs. Parrish is the fifth 
in order of birth. AL". Gilliam is yet living, having reached the ripe oUl age 
of ninety-five years and retaining to a marked degree his mental and bodilv 
powers. 

Mr. Parrish settled in Aliami township after his marriage and engaged 
in farming and stock raising, which he continued very successfully for a 
number of years. In 1884 he was elected treasurer of Saline county, which 
office he filled with credit for two terms, later removing to Marshall, where 
his death occurred on the 4th day of October, 1908. He was a worthy mem- 
ber of the Christian church and a man of unimpeachable integritv and a high 
sense of honor. His wife, who is still living, makes her home in Marshall, 
where she is deeply interested in church and charitable work, and where she 
is greatly esteemed for her beautiful character and many sterling qualities 



424 



PAST AND PRESENT 



of mind and heart. She is the motlier of nine children. Mrs. Brown being 
the third of the family. 

\\'illiam Brown, father of Hon. Robert L. Brown, was a son of Wil- 
liam Brown, whose antecedents came to America and settled in Virginia in 
colonial times. William Brown, Sr., served with distinction in the war of the 
Revolution, later became a prominent planter and slave holder and founder 
of one of the best known families of the Old Dominion state. For several 
generations the Browns have been Methodists and prominent in all lines of 
religious work. Wherever they have lived they have made their influence felt 
for good and all who bear the name are known for their upright conduct 
and high standard of citizenship. Two sons of William Brown, Sr., James 
and William, came to Missouri ; the others, whose names have been forgot- 
ten, spent their lives in Virginia. 

William Brown, Jr., married and settled in Virginia, where he con- 
tinued to reside until 1832, when he migrated to Missouri with his family 
and slaves, locating in Saline county, being the first man in this part of the 
state to reduce the prairie land to cultivation. He entered several tracts of 
land and in due time became one of the leading farmers of the county as 
well as one of its most enterprising and public spirited citizens. In addition 
to tilling the soil he erected a sawmill on Big Muddy creek which he operated 
a number of years and which proved to be of inestimable value to the people 
of that and other communities. His home was long a favorite stopping place 
for emigrants and travelers and he was never known to turn a needy way- 
farer emptvhanded from his door. When settlers arrived he dropped any 
work he might have had in progress to assist them in finding favorable loca- 
tions and in this way he rendered a service to scores of families, who never 
forgot his helpfulness and kindness. In many respects he was a remarkable 
man. In sickness his services were as eagerly sought as those of the physi- 
cian and in writing deeds, settling estates and arbitrating differences be- 
tween neighbors, he saved his friends hundreds of dollars and prevented much 
expensive litigation. 

The name of William Brown was ever above reproach and in all busi- 
ness transactions his word was as good as a written obligation. In brief, he 
stood four-square to every wind that blew, an upright, honorable man who 
scorned a mean action and whose friendship was sought far and wide. A 
Democrat of the old Jeffersonian school, he worked for the success of his 
party and was well posted on every question that came before the people. 
His sympathies were with the South during the Civil war, but being too old 
for military sendee he took no part in the struggle. He suffered much, how- 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOURI 425 

e\'er, from the Federals, who from time to time confiscated his stock, foraged 
from his crops and not infrequently left the family but little upon which to 
subsist. The. liberation of his slaves caused him great pecuniary loss, this, with 
the taking of his stock and the destruction of other property, leaving him in 
a crippled financial condition at the close of the war. By diligence and ex- 
cellent business ability, however, he soon regained his fortune and at the 
time of his death was in independent circumstances. For many years he 
was a pillar of the local Methodist Episcopal church South to which he be- 
longed and as steward and class leader rendered valuable services to the 
cause of religion and humanity. This excellent man, broad-minded citizen 
and typical Christian gentleman departed this life on the 25th day of De- 
cember, 1876, his death being greatly deplored by all who knew him. 

William Brown was twice married, the first time to a lady by the name 
of Palmore, who bore him seven children, viz: William S., who resides in 
California and is ninety years old; Mrs. Sarah P. Irvine; Capt. Edward J., 
whose cruel murder is noted in a preceding paragraph; Mrs. Martha J. 
Saufley ; Elizabeth, who died unmarried; Mrs. Mary Ruxton, and John R., 
wdio died in prison during the war. 

The mother of these children died in 1832, while the family were en 
route to Missouri, and about four years later Mr. Brown chose a second wife 
in the person of Lucy A. Guthrey, of Virginia, who bore him four children, 
of whom Henry J. and Robert L., of this review, grew to maturity, the 
other two dying in infancy. Henry J. Brown, a farmer and contractor, also 
a well known and highly esteemed citizen, died on the i8th day of July, 1896. 



HOX. MATHEU' WALTON HALL, M. D. 

Few men were more prominent in their da^• and generation in north- 
ern Missouri than the late Hon. Mathew W. Hall, M. D., one of the leading- 
pioneer physicians and public men of this locality, who descended from a line 
of distinguished professional men of Scotch ancestiT of title, handed down to 
succeeding generations, among whom were three practicing physicians. The 
Doctor's great-grandfather was at one time an Episcopal minister, and one 
of his sons became a Baptist minister. The subject's great-grandfather and 
grandfather, Nathan and Randall Hall, were Revolutionary soldiers and 
were with George Washington at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. 
Doctor Hall's parents, Rev. Nathan H. and Annie (Crawford) Hall were na- 



426 PAST AXD PRESENT 

tives of X'irgiiiia and Kentucky, respectively. The father preached at the 
First Presbyterian church at Lexinglon. Kentucky, for a period of twenty- 
seven consecutive vears. His family consisted of seven children, four sons 
being professit)nal men, anK)ng whom was Mathew \\'., of this review, who 
was born May 5. 1817, in \\'ashington county, Kentucky, and he was reared 
in h'avette count v, that state, receiving a liberal education for these early 
times. He took up the study of medicine when a N'oung man. in keeping 
with the tradition of his ancestors, follow-ing in their footsteps in a most 
worthy manner, pursuing a medicial course at the Transylvania Medical Col- 
lege at Lexington, from which he was graduated in 1837, under its first board 
of directors. Soon afterwards he located at Salem. Illinois, and there suc- 
cessfullv practiced his profession for eight years. He was the family physi- 
cian of the late Judge Silas L. Bryan, father of Hon. W. J. Bryan. While a 
resident of Salem, the Doctor married Agnes Lester, a native of X'irginia 
and a member of an old and prominent Southern famil}'. 

Doctor Hall came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1845 and located at 
Arrow Rock, where he continued successfully in the practice of his profession 
for a period of twelve vears, becoming one of the best known plu'sicians in 
the county. In 1857 he located on a farm of three hundred and sixty acres 
he had purchased in Salt ln)rk township and wdiich he developed to a high 
state of productiveness, making- it one of the model farms of the count}'. He 
continued the practice of his profession in connecticin with his farming opera- 
tions for several years until advanced age made it necessary for him to retire, 
spending the twilight of his age serenely, being surrounded by all the com- 
forts of life as a result of his years of well directed effort and honorable deal- 
ings W'ith his fellow men. He was called to his rest November 19, 1894, his 
faithful life companion having preceded him to the silent land on September 
17, 1883. They Avere the parents of eight children as follows: Dr. C. Les- 
ter, a prominent physician of Kansas City; William E., deceased, was for- 
merly a banker of the .same city; Louisa F. is the wife of \X'illiam W. Trigg, 
of Boonville, Missouri; John R., a practicing physician of Alarshall ; Florida 
L. is the wife of Dorsey W. Shackleford, of Boonville, Missouri ; Thomas B., 
a practicing physician residing upon the old homestead; Mathew W., a farmer 
living in Saline county ; Effie B. is the wife of Fred B. Glover, of Kansas 
City. 

Dr Mathew A\'. Flail was prominently identified with the ])rogress of 
Saline county for many years and one of its foremost citizens in various 
w'alks of life. Politically he was a staunch Democrat and active in the party 
for a number of years. Tn 1861, and again in 1875, he represented Saline 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 427 

county in the state Legislature where his influence was felt and his a1)ilit\' 
recognized, having heen a member of important committees and ranking' 
among- the foremost members. During the Civil war his sympathies were 
naturally with the South, two of his sons having served in the Confederate 
army. He also served as surgeon in Colonel Robertson's regiment until he 
was taken prisoner at Blackwater river and sent to McDowell's College in 
St. Louis, which was then used as a Federal prison ; later he was transferred 
to Alton, Illinois, where, after three or four months, he was paroled and re- 
turned home. His eldest son, C. Lester, was also taken prisoner at the same 
time and place. 

Li relig'ious affiliations the Doctor was a member of the Alt. Olive Pres- 
byterian church, in which he took an active part, serving several years as elder 
and contributing- liberally to its support. He was a good and useful man and 
his many noble acts among- his fellow men will always cause his memory to be 
revered by the citizens of Saline countv which he honored so long bv his 
residence. 



\MLLL'\M N. WILSON. 



The- name of A\'illiam X. Wilson needs no formal introduction to the 
citizens of Saline county and no verbose encomium in setting forth his life 
record to local readers of history, for he has been prominently in the public 
eye for many years, having formerly won distinction as a member of the Mis- 
souri Legislature and is at present the efficient superintendent of the Saline 
county infirmary. He is a native of the Hoosier state, having been born in 
Pulaski county, Indiana, November lo, 1866, and there he was reared to hon- 
est toil on the old homestead and there received a very serviceable elementary 
education, which was rounded out after coming to Missouri where the major 
part of his useful life has been passed, having spent some time i'n the common 
schools here, later three years in Central College at Fayette. He is the son 
of John and Celia (Vickers) Wilson, the latter a native of Maryland and the 
former born, reared and educated in Ohio, in which state he began w«^rking 
on his father's farm. Later he came to Indiana and bought land, which he 
improved and on which he remained until 1877, when he located in Saline 
county. Missouri, where he purchased a farm. He, however, resided on and 
operated the George Standard farm and became prosperous. He took an 
interest in all public affairs and was well informed on current events. 
Although an active Democrat, he never aspired to office or public notoriety. 



428 PAST AND PRESENT 

He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South, and he belonged 
to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He passed to his rest in 1900, 
having- gained the undivided admiration of all who knew him as a result of 
his devotion to honorable principles. His wife preceded him to the spirit 
land in September. 1897. She also was a Methodist and a consecrated Chris- 
tian ladv. She. and her husband were the parents of five children, namely: 
V. A!., a physician in Canvon City, Texas; Molly has remained single; Eliza- 
beth is living in Afarsliall : William N., of tliis review; John S., ex-c()unt_\- 
treasurer of Saline county, resides on a farm. 

\\'illiam N. Wilson was ten years old when he was brought to !\lissouri 
by his parents, and, as already stated, received most of his education in Sa- 
line countv schools and he has made this his home ever since. He keeps well 
informed on all political matters and current topics of the day, always taking 
an active interest in the affairs of this county. He remained under the paren- 
tal rooftree until his marriage, in October, 1894, then followed farming, 
at which he engaged very successfully until March, 1907. Then he was ap- 
pointed superintendent of the county infirmary, which position he still holds 
to his credit and to the satisfaction of all concerned, regardless of party ties. 
He seems to be qualified in every respect for this position, being a good 
manager and looks to the interests of the inmates as well as to those of the 
count}'. There were twenty-six inmates when he took charge of the infirm- . 
ar^^ now there are thirty. Most of them are almost helpless and with the 
old, inconvenient buildings it was diflicult to make the inmates comfortable. 
The farm contains two hundred and sixty acres, with about one hundred 
acres in cultivation, the remainder in grass meadow and pasture. Mr. A\'il- 
son has built and repaired all the fences, the farm now being in excellent 
condition in every respect. He has increased the work horses and also the 
number of milch cows, needing no outside dairy products for the maintenance 
of the infirmarv ; he also keeps an excellent herd of hogs, supplying the meat 
and lard used here, also keeps plenty of poultry, and the farm is well stocked 
with growing live stock of all kinds. He has purchased considerable modern 
farm machinery to facilitate the work and so far he has reaped abundant 
harvests. During 1909 he gathered a very large corn crop and sold 
six liundred dollars' worth of wheat, and has stored for the coming 
year plenty of flour, hay and provisions and feed of all kinds, and 
contemplates increasing the acreage of cultivation and make the farm self- 
sustaining in the near future. He has clearly demonstrated that he is a prac- 
tical farmer and up-to-date in all matters pertaining to agriculture. The 
peiiple of Saline county voted a bonded indebtedness of thirty-five thousand 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 429 

dollars for the construction of modern buildings which are now in course of 
construction. The buildings will be of brick, two stories high, commodious, 
convenient and substantial, everything modern, heat, light and drainage, and 
]\Ir. Wilson is looking forward to the time when he can render his wards 
more comfortable with less care and worry on his part and less expense to 
the county. He is always busy himself and carries on the work with as 
h'ttle assistance as possible and, according to those in position to know, he 
is a very valuable man for the position. He gives his exclusive time to the 
work and makes every effort to properly provide for the inmates, the vener- 
able and helpless wards of the farm. 

Mr. \\^ilson has adhered to his rearing in respect to allegiance to Demo- 
cratic principles, and from early manhood he has advocated and used his in- 
fluence in support of the party and while still a young man, in 1892, he was 
elected to the Legislature and served w'ith honor and distinction, being next 
to the youngest man in the Assembly. He made his influence felt in the house 
and served on several important committees, among which was the ways and 
means committee, and he was chairman of the committee on engrossed bills, 
being active in all legislation and he acquitted himself in a very creditable 
manner, rendering the most satisfactory services to his constituents. Later, 
through the influence of friends, he made the race for nomination for clerk of 
Saline county, wnth three in the field and strong opposition, and he was de- 
feated by a very few votes. He served in no other public capacity until re- 
ceiving the superintendency of the infirmary. Air. A\'ilson is a man t)f ex- 
emplary character and a member of the Christian church. 

The domestic life of Mr. Wilson began in 1894, when he married Willie 
E. Moore, who was born in Saline county, Missouri, in 1867, the daughter of 
\Mlliam and Elizabeth C. (Chappell) Moore. The Chappell family were 
among the early settlers of Saline county and they endured all the hardships 
and deprivations incident to a pioneer life in a new country, assisting in inaug- 
urating the agricultural development of the county. William Moore was a 
native of Virginia, who, however, spent most of his manhood years in Sa- 
line county, Missouri, as a farmer. He was a Democrat, but never a public 
man. He was a worthy member of the Christian church and was known as 
a man of sterling- honesty. He passed to his reward in 1867, his widow sur- 
viving, rearing the children and keeping the family together, and remaining 
on the old home farm until her death, in 1907, at an advanced age. She was 
an excellent woman and a member of the Christian church. The following 
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. William Moore : Fanny, who married 
a Mr. Thompson, of Kansas City ; Philip, on the old homestead farm ; Jane, 



43" 



PAST AND PRESENT 



who married a Mr. Scripture; Anna, who married a Mr. Finnell : Mary, now 
Mrs. r)enton : WiUie. now Mrs. W'iUiam N. Wilson, wife of the sul)ject and 
the mother of two interesting children, Frances, born in 1896, and Wilma, 
born in 1899. 



THOMAS J. ROBERTSON. 

A man who has long been prominently identified with the large agricul- 
tural and stock raising industries of Saline county and wdio has kept fully 
abreast of the times in all business and civic affairs is Thomas J. Robertson, 
a native of Knox coimty, Missouri, where he was born December 8, 1864, 
but the major part of his successful and useful life has been spent in Saline 
county, Missouri, wbere he was brought by bis parents wdien a boy and where 
he was reared and educated in the district schools; he also spent two terms at 
St. Benedict's College, Atchison, Kansas, being therefore a well educated 
man. He is the son of Albert G. and Mary (Black) Robertson, both natives 
of Ohio, the former born in Wyandot county, February 20, 182 1, the son of 
Josiah and Elizal)eth (Terry) Robertson, both natives of Virginia. Josiah, 
Jr.. was the son of Josiah, Sr., of Scotch descent, who served through the 
Revolutionary war, his brother being a captain in the patriot army and was 
killed at Norfolk, Virginia. Josiah, Sr., lived and died in Virginia, was 
among the F. F. V.'s of the Old Dominion. Eliza Terrv was the daughter 
of Thomas Terry, of Virginia, and about 1800 he moved to Flighland county, 
Ohio. He was a highly educated, a successful and popular school teacher. 
Josiah Robertson, Jr., the paternal grandfather of Thomas J. Robertson of 
this review, met and married Eliza Terry in Ohio, and about 1837 moved to 
Marion county. Missouri, where he entered and improved a large tract of 
land, which he finally sold and moved to Knox county. Missouri, and again 
engaged in farming until his death in 1864. He .served through the Mexi- 
can war. The children born to him and his wife were. Minnie, decea.sed : 
John M., a teacher in the Bai)tist College for many years, later a farmer in 
Grand Pass townshij). Saline county, Missouri ; he eventually moved to Kan- 
sas City and engaged in the practice of law and the real estate business, dying 
in 1908; Caroline is deceased; Isabella, now Mrs. Moreland. who resides on 
the old homestead in Marion county, Missouri; Albert G., father of Thomas 
J. Robertson of this review. 

Albert G. Robertson was about fifteen years of age when he came from 
Ohio to Missouri with his parents; he was reared on a farm and educated in 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 43 1 

the cniiimon schools. He moved with his parents to Alarion county, Mis- 
souri, later accompanied them to Knox county, where he married and where 
his father gave him three hundred acres of land; this was in 1849. He 
carrietl on general farming- and stock raising and took some interest in politi- 
cal affairs, became treasurer of Knox count}', where he remained until 1863, 
when he moved to Hancock county, Illinois, where he rented a farm for two 
vears, and in 1865 he returned to Missouri and resumed farming on the old 
homestead. In a short time he sold out and moved to Saline county where 
he bought a large tract of land and reared his family in Elmwood township, 
where thev have all prospered. It was then a new country and had been con- 
siderably "torn up" by the Civil war armies. Here the elder Robertson 
underwent manv deprivations and hardships, but he was "gritty" and pros- 
pered in time, still residing- at the old homestead at this writing. He has a 
line residence, good outbuildings and his farm is in a high state of cultiva- 
tion. He has gi^■en all his children a good start in life and they are doing 
Avell. As already indicated, Albert G. Robertson married Mary Black in 
1849. She was born in Perry county, Ohio, the daughter of Randal and 
Dorothy Black, pioneer settlers of the Buckeye state. This wife and mother 
of his children died in 1872. She was a member of the Catholic church. 
Albert G. Robertson's mother, after the death of her husband in Knox county, 
came to Saline county and spent her declining years with her son and died 
here. She was a member of the old Campbellite church. After settling in 
Saline county, Albert G. Robertson decided to worship with his wife and 
accordingly joined the Catholic church at Shackelford and his children were 
reared in that faith, from which they have never departed. The father 
has been very successful in his business life and has created a large estate. 
He is a broad-minded, public spirited and popular citizen of the western part 
of the county, well known and admired by all classes, his character being 
above reproach. His children are named as follows: Josiah J., a promi- 
nent farmer and stock man ; George remained single and died when thirtv- 
eight years of age; John M. is an extensive farmer; Daniel B.. who lives in 
Alarshall, is also identified with farming; Thomas J., of this review; Dollv. 
now ]\[rs. Baker; Minnie, a Sister of Charity, died in a convent at Florissant, 
near St. Louis, in ]\Iay. 1907. 

Thomas J. Robertson remained under his parental rooftree until he 
reached maturity, then purchasing a farm from his father and engaged in 
farming and stock raising for a few years, "batching" it in the meantime. 
In 1899 he married and settled on his farm, later sold out and bought again, 
selling a few farms, and continued successfullv his farming and stock raising. 



4:52 PAST AND PRESENT 

and he now owns two fine farms, well improved and under a high state of 
cultivation. He is an excellent judge of live stock and no small part of his in- 
come was derived from his feeding and shipping stock to the markets and in 
general stock trading, which he continued until 1909, when he moved to Mar- 
shall. However, he still continues his farming, successfully carrying on the 
work inaugurated by his worthy father. Politically he is a strong Democrat, 
but has not had time to mingle much in political affairs. He was reared a 
Catholic, from which faith he has never digressed. 

Thomas J. Robertson w^as married to Lydia Sheppers, who was born in 
Osage county, Missouri, the daughter of William and Bertha (Flute) Shep- 
pers, both natives of Missouri who moved to Saline county in 1893 and en- 
gaged in farming. He formerly engaged in merchandising at Chamois, 
Osage county. He is a Republican, but not an office seeker, and he took 
no part in the Civil war. In 1905 he retired from the farm and moved to 
Marshall. Both he and his wife are members of the Catholic church. Their 
children are, Emma, who married J. M. McLaughlin ; Lydia is the wife of 
Thomas J. Robertson, of this review; Louisa married J. Horigan; Clara 
married Doctor Utz; Jerry is a farmer; Christina has remained single; Wil- 
liam is a school boy and lives at home. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Robertson three interesting children have 
been born, Thomas G.. born October i, 1900; Bertha M., born December 23, 
1903; William, born July 21, 1909. 



JUDGE JOHN PETER FOREE. 

The readers of this histnr}' need scarcely be reminded that Judge John 
P. Force, pioneer farmer and judge of the county court of Saline county, 
has long occupied a prominent niche in the civic, political and business life 
of this section of the great commonwealth of Missouri, therefore no ex- 
travagant laudation need be employed here, but merely an adherence to the 
facts of a noble character whicli has a worthy line of antecedents, for wher- 
ever the Forces have dispersed they have been leaders in the various walks 
of life. Like many of the prominent citizens of northern Missouri, the 
Judge is a Kentuckian, having been born in Henr}^ county, that state, June 
29, 185 1, but he was brought to Saline county, Missouri, when a boy and 
reared on a farm and educated here in the rural district schools. He is the 
son of Asa T. and Sarah J. (Major) Force, both natives of Kentucky, 




HON. JOHN P. FOREE. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 433 

where they were reared and married. The former is the son of Peter B. 
Foree, also of the Bkie Grass state. The parents of Peter Foree were na- 
ti\-es of France and pioneers in Kentncky, Peter Foree becoming a promi- 
nent farmer and slave owner here, dying on his farm at the advanced age 
of ninety-six years. He was a strong Whig, but never sought pubHc office. 
He was a member of the Missionary Baptist church, a man of strict honesty 
and he became widely known in this locality. His wife died at the old 
homestead and he was married a second time, but no children were liorn to 
the last union. The following children were born of the first union: Asa 
T., father of Judge John P. Foree; Eunitia A., married twice, first t<) a Mv. 
Geohagen, who died leaving one son, Frank B. ; her second husband was 
Thomas Bain and three children resulted from this union. Martha E. Fo- 
ree married James L Bellwood, a farmer living in Saline county. Asa T. 
Foree was born and reared in Kentucky where he grew to manhood and 
married and began farming. In 1854 he moved to Missouri and first lo- 
cated in Clay county where he rented a farm which he conducted in connec- 
tion with school teaching; he prospered and was soon one of the leading- 
citizens of that county, assisting in organizing the county fair there, of which 
he was a director. He later moved to Carroll county, Missouri, where he 
continued farming and school teaching. In 1859 he moved to Saline county, 
locating in Liberty township and tw() years later removing to Black Water 
township, buying land there which he impro\-ed, teaching school also during 
a part of the year. He was a slave owner. He received a college educa- 
tion and was graduated from a military school ; he was a veiT competent 
teacher in various branches and a natural leader of men. He was enter- 
prising and influential, always active in promoting public interests. Physic- 
ally he was a man of imposing appearance, tall, strong, athletic. He met 
with misfortune and lost an arm, but was able to transact all forms of busi- 
ness and he was a good financier and Avas making rapid progress when 
the Civil war began. Seeing that war was inevita1)le, Mr. Foree assisted 
in raising a company, of which he was made captain and also drillmaster, 
the company becoming well drilled before war was declared. He was a 
Southern sympathizer and continued active in assisting the Confederate 
cause. Saline county was in the raids following the opening of hostilities, 
and in 1863 there was a re-organization of the Saline county forces and 
.Mr. Foree joined a cavalry regiment and went into camp at Black W ater, 
this county, and soon afterwards they were engaged in a fight with the 
Federals and all were compelled to surrender, being made prisoners of war, 
most of the resfiment beino- taken first to McDowell's College, St. Louis, 



434 



PAST AND PRESENT 



then used as a prison, and later lo Alton, Illinois, where they were held 
several months when thev took an oath of allegiance to the government and 
Avere released. Mr. h^jree then returned home. Being a fearless man and 
an independent thinker and talker, he hecame the enemy of the J^'ederals. 
The excitement ran high at that time and rather than violate his oath l)y 
going into the armv again, he returned to his nati\e home in Kentucky, 
fearing assassination if he remained in Saline county. He remained in Ken- 
tuckv until his death, on July 5, 1865. never rejoining his family again, 
I'^deral troops having scattered his family and devastated his farm ; all of 
his iine Kentucky horses had heen conh.scated and e\erything of value taken 
and his slaves freed. The family was often com])elled to feed large l)odies 
of troops and all sorts of insults had to Ije home l)y them, e\'en food and 
raiment being taken from the children. .Asa T. J^'oree was an intiuential 
Democrat and a leader of his part}-, and while he was intiuential in placing 
his friends in ol^ce he ne\er sought public preferment. He was an active 
member of the Baptist church. He was also a prominent Mason and Odd 
Fellow, and was well known and highly respected in whatever community 
he lived, his integrity and honor having been above reproach. His wife, a 
w'oman of rare foresight and strength of character, remained on the Mis- 
souri homestead, keeping the children together and rearing them in credit 
and respectability as none but a good mother could. She was also a Bap- 
tist, and she was called to her reward in 1885. She was the daughter of 

B. F. Major, a native of Kentucky, a prominent farmer and slave owner, 
influential and highly respected. He had considerable influence in politics, 
but was not an office seeker liimself. He died in Kentucky, where his labors 
were confined to his farming, the jjolitical i)arty of his choice and to the 
Baptist church. He and his wife were the parents of these children : John 

C, wdio is still living in Kentucky: Sarah, mother of Judge John P. Fo- 
rce, of this re\-iew : Elizabeth married a Mr. l*arent; Susan married Samuel 
Miles. 

b'i\e children graced the home of Mr. and Mrs. Asa T. Force, namely : 
John P.. of this review; Mattie F. married twice, first to George B. Smith, 
secondly to F. W'itchcr; William lives in Sheridan countv, Alissouri : Eu- 
nitia married R. W. h'inley : Benjamin M. remained single and died in 1887. 

Judge John I', b'oree was reared to manhood in Saline county. The 
Ci\il war interrupted his education; the ravages of war, the loss of almost 
everything movable about the place and the death of his father left the fam- 
ily almost destitute. John P. became almost the sole support of his mother. 
He assisted in keeping the family together, becoming the head of affairs at 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 435 

home when only in his "teens," but he was a courageous and industrious 
lad and he and his mother succeeded in educating- the younger children. He 
conquered all the difficulties that beset his early life, working steadily to a 
definite goal and became a man of influence and worth in his community and 
achieved substantial success in many ways. He has always been a strong- 
advocate of Democratic principles and during many campaigns he has been 
of great influence in leading the party to success. For his services he has 
been honored with positions of honor and trust, all of which has been to 
his credit and to the betterment of the community at large. For a number 
of years he was justice of the peace. He became a candidate for nomina- 
tion as count}' judge of Saline county in 1904 and he was triumphantlv 
elected to this responsible position and so faithfull}- has he performed the 
duties of the same that he has been re-elected each election since then by 
an enthusiastic constituency, being at this writing a member of that hon- 
orable body, giving entire satisfaction to all regardless of party alignment, 
for he is fair in his decisions, quick and accurate in his analysis and unerr- 
ing in his interpretations of the law and unbiased in arriving at conclusions, 
He has been a competent and conser^•ative financier for Saline county, al- 
ways looking very carefully after the county's interests and he is now the 
oldest member of the board. When first elected he found the county finances 
in only fairly good condition. There was a small indebtedness, bridges and 
roads were in very bad shape, and one of the first things he did was to 
make a loan to meet the demands, managed by the judges, and substantial 
iron bridges were erected and concrete bridges of permanent constiiiction 
were placed over all small streams and crossings and the county is today 
in better condition than ever in its history. Judge Force has also done 
much for the county infirmary, and its tract of land of two hundred and 
sixty-eight acres, and which is not yet self-supporting. During the past 
year bonds to the amount of thirty-five thousand dollars were voted to be 
applied in the erection of more commodious buildings, now in course of con- 
struction. 

Judge Force was appointed in 1909 as one of the trustees of the Doc- 
tor Sappington estate, for educating- the needy children of Saline county. 
The Judge has discharged all positions entrusted to him with a fidelity of 
purpose that has won for him the confidence and esteem of all classes. He 
is a worthy member of the Baptist church, and fraternally he belongs to the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

The Judge remained with his mother until his marriage in 1885. when 
thirty-three years of age. After this event he bought a farm near his old 



,-.(, PAST AND PRESENT 

home and looked after both his own and the home farm, and after the death 
of his mother he bought the interests of the other heirs to the old home- 
stead. Having prospered by reason of good management, he has since added 
i(» Iiis original purchases until he now owns one of the finest farms in the 
county, consisting of four hundred and thirty-five acres, on which he car- 
ries on general farming, raises and feeds stock, principally cattle and hogs, 
for the market, being very successful in all his operations. In order to be 
accessible to better schools for his children, he lx)ught a beautiful residence 
in Marshall where the family lives during the school season, and during the 
summer months the family is to be found on the farm, which claims the 
major part of the Judge's attention. His place is highly improved and under 
an excellent state of cultivation. It is located ten miles south of Marshall. 
In her maidenhood the Judge's wife was known as Lavina Wilson, a 
nati\-e of Coo|)er county, Missouri, born in 1862. the daughter of Jonathan 
and Sarah Ann (Tharp) Wilson, natives of Maryland. The father of the 
former was Peter Wilson, a native of Maryland where he lived and (bed. 
being a prominent farmer and slave owner and member of the Methodist 
church. For a number of years Jonathan Wilson resided in the city of 
Baltimore where he was engaged in steamboating, owning and operating the 
"Marg"aret Ann," which boat was named for liis oldest daughter. He ran 
the steamer a number of years and kept well abreast of the times in ship- 
ping matters and he was well known at all steamboat points in eastern 
waters, continuing in this line of business until 1850. Then he closed out 
and mo\'ed to Missouri, locating in Cooper count}", where he bought a farm 
which he im]:)roved and managed successfull\- imtil 1865. when he sold out 
and moved to Saline county where he 1)ought a farm and grist-mill, con- 
ducting both very satisfactorily until his death in 1868. He did not take 
sides in the Civil war, though his sympathy was w'ith the South. He was 
threatened and harassed l>y the enemies of the South, until to save his life 
he went to Montana \\here he spent two \-ears, returning home after the 
war and resumed farming and milling. He was a Democrat, but ne\'er 
sought office, and religiously he belonged to the Alethodist Episcopal 
church and assisted in building church houses in Cooper county. He was 
a worthy member of the Masonic fraternitv and he bore an excellent repu- 
tation. His widow survived him two years, dying at the homestead in 1870. 
The following children were born to them: Margaret, Mrs. J. Carroll: Ar- 
thur, a farmer in Saline comity; I^mily married T. J. Claycomb ; Sally 
married George Fisher; Peter died when fourteen years of age; Lavina is 
the wife of Judge Force, of this review; she is a woman of intelligence 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 437 

and refinement and. like the Judge, is an active member of the Baptist 
church. 

Five cln'kh'en have blessed this union, named as follows : Ira AI. and 
]\Iartin, both engaged in farming; Grace. Alinnie and Hazel are attending 
school. 



D. FIELDING CALMES. 



Retired farmer, ex-soldier and a descendant of one of the sterling pio- 
neer families of central Missouri, the subject of this sketch is a native of Clark 
county, this state, where his birth occurred on April 22, 1834, being a son of 
Fielding and Cassandre (Horton) Calmes. the father born in Virginia, the 
mother in Kentucky. Fielding Calmes. Sr.. was a son of William and Eliza- 
beth (Fisher) Calmes. the former a French Huguenot and the latter of Eng- 
lish descent. Elizabeth Fisher and her brother Alexander came to this coun- 
try in the time of the colonies and when the Revolutionarv war broke out 
the latter entered the American army and served with same until independ- 
ence was achieved. Subsequently, with the rest of the family, he settled in 
Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his life. William Fisher, father 
of Mrs. Calmes, was an early settler of Kentucky and a man of considerable 
local note. He reared a family of thirteen children, and all but one of whom 
lived to old age and achieved much more than ordinary success as tillers of 
the soil. 

\\'illiam and Elizabeth Calmes were the parents of three sons and daugh- 
ters, viz: Harry, a prominent farmer of Clark county, Kentucky; Thomas, a 
farmer and manufacturer of Lexington, that state : Fielding, father of the 
subject, and Ailcy. who married Doctor \\'alker and settled in Ohio. Field- 
ing Calmes. Sr., accompanied his parents to Kentucky when a mere lad and 
there grew to manhood and married, after which he engaged in agricultural 
pursuits. He left that state in 1832, on account of the cholera, and with a 
number of his neighbors and others came to Missouri, locating in Clark 
county. Five years later he returned to Kentucky, remaining there until 
1840. when he again moved to Missouri, settling in Saline county, where he 
rented land. He also rented land in the county of Cooper, and subsequentl}- 
purchased a farm on Fish creek, in the former county, which he sold five 
years later and bought six hundred and forty acres three miles west of Mar- 
shall. He was a successful agriculturist and stock raiser, but in 1849 ^i^ 
turned his place over to other hands and he went to California, where he 



^^S I'AST AND PRESENT 

spent the ensuing year prospecting and mining. Returning to Saline county 
in 1850, he traded his farm for nine hunch-ed and twenty acres on the Black- 
water, where he lived and prospered until 1854, when he disposed of his land 
and all his slaves except one colored boy and drove a large herd of cattle 
over the plains and established an extensive ranch in California, where he did 
a thriving business in raising and dealing in live stock. He also purchased 
several large tracts of land and carried on agriculture in connection with the 
stock business until his death, about the year 1892. 

Fielding Calmes. Sr., was an enterprising, far-seeing man, broad 
minded and public spirited, and succeeded in all of his undertakings. Dur- 
ing the early days in California he experienced many vicissitudes and dangers, 
at one time with two companions, while on a hunting trip, being attacked by 
Indians who killed one of their number and wounded Mr. Calmes, robbing 
the three of all they possessed. Later ]\Ir. Calmes raised a posse of men and, 
invading the Indian reservation, engaged the savages in a hard-fought bat- 
tle, killing three of the enemy with his own hands and carrying away their 
scalps as trophies of his victory. His wife survived him about four years, 
dying in 1896, both being buried on the homestead in California, which he 
had redeemed from the wilderness. Their nine children, all of whom ac- 
companied them to California, were, William, a sheep raiser, of that state, 
also a vintager; Walter, a farmer and stock man who died in California; 
Fisher, who was murdered in the West some years ago ; D. Fielding, the sub- 
ject of this sketch ; Ziska, engaged in the stock business ; Mrs. Sarah M. Greg- 
ory; Mrs. Ameha Worley; Mrs. Anna Williams, and Timothy, formerly a 
miner in the Yukon country, but now a resident of Nome, Alaska. 

D. Fielding Calmes, whose name introduces this review, went to Califor- 
nia with his parents in 1854 and during the ensuing four years assisted his 
father on the ranch. In i860 he returned to Saline county and resumed farm- 
ing, but the following year joined the Missouri State Guards, which, under 
the command of Captain Farmer, formed a part of Raines' division of General 
Price's army. After some skirmishing, the army moved south and formed a 
junction with other commands and fought a hotly contested battle in Vernon 
county on July 5, 1861, following which General Price, after various maneu- 
vers, marched to Fort Scott, Kansas, where he engaged in battle with the 
Federal force under Gen. "Jii^i" Lane. Later Mr. Calmes shared with his 
comrades the fortunes and vicissitudes of war in a number of engagements, 
including the fight at Lexington, Missouri, Pea Ridge, Arkansas, and the 
bloody battle at Wilson's Creek, where General Lyon, of the Federal forces, 
fell, and where the Federals were defeated. After this victorv he was sent 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 439 

with dispatches to Lexing-ton, a trip attended with many dangers, which he 
made in six days. Rejoining his command at Springfield, where the armv 
wintered, his next active service was in Tennessee, where he took part in a 
number of skirmishes, subsequently going further south where he remained 
with his command until returning to Saline county, which being in possession 
of the Federals, rendered his sojourn there not at all pleasant or safe. With 
a number of his companions he joined the force under Ouantrell and started 
for the south, but got no further than southern Missouri, where he was 
obliged to turn back and for some time thereafter he kept in the brush, being 
considered a bushwhacker, to kill whom every Federal considered a dutv. In 
a skirmish in Jackson county in 1863 he was captured and confined in the 
jail at Lexington for six weeks, but at the expiration of that time he, with 
nine others, effected an escape and started for the Rocky mountains. At 
Leavenworth, Kansas, he hired as a teamster tu dri\-e through to Fort Kear- 
ney, and after receiving his wages for the trip, amounting to sixteen dollars, he 
left afoot for Denver, where he worked a few months and then returned to 
Missouri, expecting to join Price's raid, but learned that he had arrived too 
late. 

It is impossible within the circumscribed limits of this sketch to narrate 
in detail all the experiences, adventures, battles and hair-breadth escapes 
through which Mr. Calmes passed during the troublous period of the war. 
Honestly sympathizing with the South, he did his duty faithfully and well, 
took part in many hardfought battles, but at the close of the war he 
accepted with philosophic fortitude the result and returned to his home again, 
settling down to farming, determined to be a worthy citizen and do all within 
his power to restore law and order in his county and state. He purchased 
land and in due time met with the success which industry and good manage- 
ment bring, and with a fine farm of two hundred acres he so conducted his 
affairs as to place himself in a position of financial independence and became 
one of the representative citizens of the community in which he lived. 

Mr. Calmes was married in the year 1866 to Margaret Ervin, who. was 
born in Saline county in 1844, the daughter of Elisha and Elizabeth (Griffith) 
Ervin, both parents natives of Virginia, but from 1836 until their respective 
deaths residents of the county of Saline, Airs. Calmes being the second in 
a family of nine children. Mr. and Mrs. Calmes are the parents of two 
daughters, Mattie, wife of John G. Legg, and Cassie, who is still single. In 
the year 1904 ^Nlr. Calmes purchased a commodious modern dwelling in Mar- 
shall, into which he moved that year to spend the remainder of his days in the 
enjoyment of the rest and quiet which he had so nobly earned during the long 



440 



PAST AND PRESENT 



and streiuious period of his active life. Blessed with a sufficiency of this 
world's ,o()ods to place him ahove the possibility of want, and surrounded by 
many warm and admiring friends, his lot is indeed a happy one and today the 
city of Marshall or the county of Saline can boast of no better or more worthy 
citizen. In politics he is uncompromisingly Democratic and an influential 
worker for the success of his party. He is also an active member of the 
Masonic fraternity, and all charitable and humanitarian moyements haye his 
encouragement and liberal support. 



JOHN H. VANWINKLE. 

The ])r()prietor of the townsite of Norton and a man who has long been 
identified in a very extensive manner with the agricultural interests of Saline 
county is John H. Vanwinkle, who was born in St. Clair county. Illinois, July 
28, 1857, where he was reared on a farm and received his education in the 
common schools; he also spent two years in the State Normal at Warrens- 
burg, Missouri. He is the son of Jesse and Lucinda (Padfield) Vanwinkle. 
both natives of St. Clair county, Illinois, where they grew to maturity and 
were married, the parents of both being natives of Kentucky and pioneers in 
Illinois. Jesse Vanwinkle was the son of Job Vanwinkle, and the father of Job 
and his brother John served throughout the Revolution. John's father was a 
Pennsylvanian and an early settler in Kentucky, where he died on his farm. 
Job was reared in Kentuck}- and was married there and some of his children 
were born in the Blue Grass state and they were pioneers in settling up 
Illinois. They located in St. Clair county, most of the first year there being 
spent in a fort, with many other families, but Mr. Vanwinkle, being short of 
means, was compelled to get out and seek work of some sort owing to his 
lack of means. After the Indians \yere driven back he entered land and 
engaged in farming, eventually becoming well-to-do and prominent in his 
community, where he remained until his death. There he reared ten children, 
who located around the old homestead. Jesse Vanwinkle, father of John H.. 
of this review, married and settled in Illinois where he remained until four of 
his children had been born; then he was the first to leave the place, St. 
Clair ci»unty. he having sold out in 1865. He came by wagon to St. Louis 
and there shipped his household effects to W'arrensburg, Missouri, where 
he came and for some time lived in Johnson county, renting a house for his 
family until he could find a suitable place. He purchased three hundred and 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 44I 

twenty acres in Miami township. Saline county, which had a house on it and a 
small acreage cleared. As he prospered he added more land to his original 
])urchase and at the time of his death owned five hundred and sixty acres. 
He placed a large tract of land under cultivation and made many substantial 
improvements, erecting at Norton a large two-story frame house and a com- 
modious barn. He carried on general farming and stock raising very suc- 
cessfullv. He was a Democrat and during the war he was a Southern sympa- 
thizer, but did not go to the front. After locating in Missouri he changed his 
politics and as he came here during the reconstruction days he was disfran- 
chised. l3Ut when he could vote he supported the Republican party. WHien the 
railroad question was being agitated he took stock amounting to five hundred 
dollars in order to assist in getting the road. The attorney for the Chicago & 
Alton railroad. John M. Woodson, of St. Louis, made a contract with him 
to secure a switch and plat the town of Norton from Mr. Vanwinkle's land. 
This was in 1877. The road was built and the town platted in 1878, Mr. 
Vanwinkle giving Mr. Woodson alternate blocks, and the railroad erected a 
good station. This place is now a great grain shipping point, having a large 
grain elevator, having also large stock pens to accommodate shippers, also 
a store, a church and a postofiice, having become an excellent trading point. 
Mr. Van Winkle continued farming very successfully in connection with his 
other business. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal 
ohurch South. His death occurred January 23, 1899, and his wife survived 
him until August. 1901. She was the daughter of James Padfield, a farm- 
er who moved from Illinois to Henry county. Missouri. He served in the 
war of 1812. also through the Black Hawk war of 1832. taking part in the 
Indian war in Illinois and Indiana. He was a farmer and a brave, good and 
useful mau. His death occurred in Henry county, this state. He and his 
wife were the parents of ten children, the mother of John H. Vanwinkle of 
this review being the sixth child in order of birth. One of the sons was a 
soldier in the Mexican war. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Jesse Vanwinkle as follows : John H., of this review : Nevada, now de- 
ceased, married C. A. King; Thomas J., deceased; Ella, who married William 
Long; May married D. B. Robinson; Florence, wife of Joseph Norton; 
Nora, wife of Robert Lyle. 

John H. Vanwinkle came with his father to Saline county. ^Missouri, 
when he was eight years old and he grew to manhood and was educated here, 
as already intimated, and when a small boy he began working on the home 
farm. Owing to the failing health of his father, he was the main stay of the 
family at the early age of fourteen years, and during the remainder of his 



44^ PAST AND PRESENT 

father's life he looked after the fanning-, remaining at home imtil he mar- 
ried antl then he settled on a farm which he purchased for himself. After 
remaining- on the same a few years he returned and took charge of the old 
home place, and in the division of his father's lands he got the homestead. 
He has been an excellent manager and has been very successful, now owning 
seven hundred and twenty acres in three fine farms, and he has purchased 
from Mr. Woodson his portion of the town plot of Norton, now owning all the 
vacant lots there. He has kept his surplus money invested in farming lands ; 
he has also made loans, ^[uch of his land is in grass and hay, but he carries 
on g-eneral farming and stock raising in a manner that stamps him as one 
of the leading agriculturists of this favored section of the great C(jmmon- 
wealth of Missouri. He has one hundred and fifty acres of corn and raises 
over two thousand bushels of wheat annually. He feeds cattle and hogs for 
the market and, being a good judge of live stock and knowing how to handle 
all grades of stock, no small part of his income is derived from this source. He 
is an excellent business man and makes few mistakes. He once engaged in 
the mercantile business at Norton for a short time, but not finding this line 
exactly to his tastes he abandoned the same and devoted his attention to farm- 
ing. During the eighties he was appointed postmaster at Norton, which 
position he filled for years, making his sister deputy postinaster. Early in 
life he was a Democrat but about 1884 he changed to the Republican party 
and while he has always manifested a lively interest in political affairs and ah 
matters looking to the development of Saline county and the general Avelfare 
of the same, he has never sought public office. 

November 24, 1886, Mr. Vanwinkle was married to Jennie Johnson, who 
was born in North Carolina and who came with her parents to Saline county, 
Missouri. She is the daughter of Alvin and Mary (Howard) Johnson, na- 
tives of North Carolina wdio came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1873, locat- 
ing on a farm. He was a Republican and was reared in the Quaker faith, 
from which he never departed. He died at his homestead here in 1904; his 
wife still survives, living at the old home. They reared six children, Mrs. 
John H. Vanwinkle being the fourth in order of birth. She was called to 
her rest on August 17, 1907. She was a member of the Presbyterian church 
and a good and kind-hearted woman wdiom everybody admired for her beauti- 
ful Christian life. To Air. and Mrs. Vanwinkle the following children were 
born : Dean and Dessic, both living at home; Vera is attending Hardin Col- 
lege at Mexico, Missouri; Jesse, Mary, Don, Nellie, Mabel and John are all 
living at home. Jennie, who was next to the youngest of the family, died in 
1906, at the age of four years. 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOIRI 443 

VIXYARD BARNES SWISHER. 

A worthy descendant of a prominent earl}- family of Saline county, mem- 
bers of which have played well their allotted parts in all walks of life, as will 
be shown by the records contained in the following paragraphs, is V. B. 
Swisher, a prominent farmer near Slater, who was born in Virginia, Septem- 
ber 21. 1840. and who, with his parents, came to Missouri when sixteen years 
of age. He was reared on the farm and completed his education in the local 
schools. He is the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Barnes) Swisher, the former 
the son of Henry Swisher, of Virginia, where he farmed and from which state 
he went as a soldier in the war of 1812. Later in life his family separated, 
some of them coming to Ohio and some to Missouri and Kansas. Finally in 
his loneliness the old soldier and pioneer came to his younger children in Kan- 
sas and there spent his declining years, dying in Leavenworth at the advanced 
age of ninety-two years. L^p to his last days he was active and his mind 
normal. He was a strong character all through life, a hard worker, honest, 
courageous, and politically he was a Democrat. His large family is repre- 
sented in many different states. 

Henry Swisher, father of V. B., of this review, grew to manhood and 
married in Virginia. Learning the carpenter's trade when young, he became 
an extensive builder and contractor, which line of business he followed suc- 
cessfullv in Virginia, in which state his children w^ere all born. He brought 
his entire family to ^lissouri in 1857 and located in Saline county, where, 
with what money he had saved, he bought land which he improved and soon 
had a good home here at which he remained and where he died in December, 
1875. He prospered after coming here and bought other lands, wdiich w^ere 
improved mostly by his five sons. He erected his own buildings and for a 
few years after coming here w^orked at his trade. In those early days most of 
the trading was done at Cambridge and the milling at Arrow Rock and 
Aliami, all of these places being c[uite a distance from the Sw^isher home. 
Game being plentiful, the elder Swisher was always prepared for emergen- 
cies, but he was not noted for his skill as a hunter. He led a cjuiet life and 
was successful in his worL-, becoming very much attached to his adopted 
country. He never had any law suits or controversies that recjuired a court 
to settle. He finally became the owner of five hundred acres of land. He 
was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and he held member- 
. ship W'ith the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and politically he was a 
Democrat, but did not aspire to office. He was admired by all for his ex- 
emplary habits, being strictly honest in all his relations with his fellow men. 






444 



PAST AND PRESENT 



He left no will and after the death of both parents the five sons, all of them 
of age, amicably divided all lands and settled the estate without the assist- 
ance of an attorney or the use of a court. The mother survived eleven years. 
d}ing- in i88C): she was a good and kind-hearted woman and a member of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church. She was the daughter of Michael Barnes, 
who was a native of the Old Dominion, where he engaged extensively in 
farming, and he was in the prime of life when death overtook him. leaving a 
widow and some small children. Idie mc^ther very heroically kept the chil- 
dren together, rearing them in respectability and comfort, remaining on the 
old homestead until her death in 1865. Two of her brothers and one sister 
came west. William and Adam Barnes came to Missouri in 1842 and were 
early settlers in Saline county; later Adam went to Mississippi and was acci- 
dentallv killed there prior to the Civil war. William remained in Saline 
countv and died here, rearing an excellent famih-. 

Five chilch-en were born to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Swisher, all sons, named 
as follows: A. T., now recorder of Saline county; Vinyard B.. of this re- 
view; M. S., Frank and Mathias, all prominent farmers in this county, the 
last named being now deceased, having died in igo6. leaving fi\e children. 
Three of the oldest sons served through the Civil war as Confederate soldiers. 

Vinyard B. Swisher came to Missouri with his parents and family in 
1857. then being about sixteen years of age, completing his education and 
growing to manhood in Saline county. He assisted in impro\-ing the home 
farm here and establishing a new home, remaining under his parental roof 
until the opening of the war between the states, when his patriotism and Vir- 
ginia blood were aroused and he endeavored to enlist, but being small of 
stature all the home companies rejected him. However, he persisted in trying 
to get into the Confederate army and his position became well known and the 
Federals were after his "scalp," so for protection he w'ent to St. Clair county. 
Missouri, where he was accepted as a recruit, odisting in Company K. 
Shank's regiment of cavalry, and was sworn in there in 1862 and was soon 
in the South attached to Marmaduke's division with Shelby in command, and 
e\ery day was a busy one. there being much skirmishing to do. The first 
real light in which Mr. Swisher was engaged was at Springfield. Missouri, 
after which the regiment marched on into Arkansas, after traversing the 
major portion of southern Missouri, and in 1863 Shelbv made a raid through 
northwestern Missouri. ])assing through Saline county, his regiment then 
containing nine hundred and thirty-six men and officers. At Marshall the 
I'Vderals with a much larger force engaged Shelby's men in battle and re- 
l)ulsc(l them, dividing the command, a part of which retreated east and a part 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 445 

to the west. Mr. Swisher being- in the division that retreated west, which was 
closely pursued by the Federals, a skirmish ensuing at every turn of the road. 
This division had the major part of the ammunition, and. fearing that it 
would be captured, it was ordered thrown into the river. Both divisions 
escaped capture and the two divisions accidentally came together at Berry- 
ville. Arkansas, where they re-organized. During the long ride thither the 
troops were often hungry and thirsty. This regiment later joined General 
Price in his last raid through this country and then continued south until 
June i6, 1865. when they surrendered at Shreveport, Louisiana. They were 
paroled and sent home by the Federals on a steamboat. Air. Swisher was 
alwavs friendly with the officers and spent no time in the guard house, but 
he saw some hard service and underwent many hardships. Returning home, 
he resumed farming, which he continued successfully until 1870. living under 
his parental roof in the meantime. In that year he married and soon there- 
after built a cozy and attractively located dwelling in which he still lives. 
This place belonged to his father and in the division of the estate, by agree- 
ment of his brothers, he kept the same, which he has greatly improved and 
which he has made yield a very comfortable living, he being one (^f the best 
general farmers and stock raisers in this locality. He has also built a large 
barn and substantial outbuildings, set out a fine orchard and made all neces- 
sary imprcn-ements. He has prospered by reason of good management and 
has added to his original estate another fine farm of two hundred and forty-six 
acres, all in a high state of cultivation. 

Mr. Swisher is a Democrat, but no office seeker, and he is known as a man 
of honest i)urpose and friendl}- disposition. He married Elvira Hedges, 
familiarly known in her maidenhood as "Mittie"' Hedges. She was born in 
T^latte county, Missouri, in 1845, and she has proved to be a worthy compan- 
ion and helpmeet. She is the daughter of Harvey and Catherine (^Miller) 
Hedges, both natives of Berkeley county, Virginia, where the}' grew to ma- 
turity and were married, having come to Missouri in 1845. settling in Platte 
count V where they improved a place which they later sold and in i860 came 
to Saline county, improving a farm here. Mr. Hedges lived here until his 
death, in 1869. He was a Democrat, a plain honest farmer who had the 
respect of all his neighbors. His widow survived him and died in 1879. 
Thev were Presbyterians and were the parents of eight children. Elvira, wife 
of Mr. Swisher, being the third child in order of l)irth. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Swisher four children have been born, namely : Early, 
born in 1871, died October 4, 1875; Sallie, born November 30, 1876. married 
L. H. Pemberton. a farmer, and they are the parents of two children : 



_|.46 PAST AND PRESENT 

Charles, born in 1878, located on a farm and married Xellie G. Wood, of St. 
Clair county, Missouri, and they have one daughter; Alma, born August 14, 
1 881. is still a member of the home circle. Both parents and children are 
meml)ers of the Presbyterian church. 



WHIPPLE SPAULDING NEWELL. 

A man who has long been prominently identified with ithe agricultural 
and live stock industries of Saline county is W. S. Newell, a native of the 
great Empire state, having been born in Dutchess county, New York, January 
17, 1839, and he has therefore more than rounded out his allotted three score 
and ten, the natural span of life according to the ancient Hebrew Psalmist; 
but Mr. Newell is still very active and hale and is successfully carrying on his 
business affairs. He w'as reared on a farm and educated in the common 
schools. He is the son of Whipple and Maphlet (Newman) Newell, both 
natives of the state of New^ York, where they grew to maturity and w-ere 
married, the father being the son of William New^ell, a New Englander. The 
first member of this family to make his advent in America, so far as records 
show, was Jacob Newell, who was born in Ipswick, England, in 1634. He 
landed at Plymouth Rock, w'here many years previously the "Mayflower" 
had rested from its historic voyage. He located at Roxbury, Massachusetts, 
where he married and reared his family and where he died. His grandson, 
William Newell, was born in Massachusetts, where he married and reared his 
children, who were named as follows: Jason, born in 1746; the latter's wife 
Sarah was born in 1754; Jabez is the son of Jason, born in 1772. and his wife 
Mary was born in 1773; William was born in 1775; Amy, born in 1780; 
Jacob, born in 1784; John, Ijorn in 1788; Spaulding, born in 1790; Nathaniel. 
born in 1795. Jason Newell was a Quaker. \\'il]iam Newell, the paternal 
grandfather of W. S. Newell, of this review, married Ruth Wilkinson, by 
whom the following were born: Whipple, father of W. S., of this review; 
Marv, Mrs. Sterling; Sarah, Mrs. Mosier; Abigail. Mrs. Hicks; William; 
Amy, Mrs. Valentine; Lydia, Mrs. Merrill; Johanna, Mrs. Weatherhead. 
William Newell later in life moved to the state of New York, where he died; 
he was a farmer by occupation and a very successful business man. AA'hipplc 
Newell was reared in the state of New York where he married and farmed 
and engaged in the milling business and all his children w^ith the exception of 
Amy and Maphlet, were born there. In 1839 he moved to Wisconsin, lo- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 447 

eating- near the city of Milwaukee, then merely a villag"e, where he Ixnight 
land, literally "hewing-" (uit a farm from the timbered ground he purchased, 
and there prospered, for he kept his place in a high state of cultivation, and 
he Ijecame popular and well known there. Politically he was a \\'hig and 
later a Republican. He tilled the office uf justice of the peace many years in 
Wisconsin. He was reared in the Society of Friends or Quakers and he 
never departed from that faith. He was known to all as an honest, plain 
man, never seeking- notoriety. His wife passed away in 1847 and he survived 
her until 1872. Their children were, Jason, who became a seafaring man, 
owning a vessel on the lakes, which was shipwrecked and he lost his life; he 
ne^•er married: Ruth, Mrs. Ashton ; Sarah, Mrs. Rice; William went to Cali- 
fornia in 1 85 1, returned to Wisconsin and bought a farm, entered the Union 
army and was killed, leaving- a wife and one son ; Neuman served through 
the Civil war, returned home, and died from exposure; Abigail, Mrs. Red- 
ford; Whipple S., of this review; Anna married a Mr. W'illiams; she came 
to Saline county and died here, leaving one daughter, Mrs. Duclose ; Maph- 
let married C. Orr. 

\Miipple S. Newell w-as reared in the state of New^ York and he moved 
to Wisconsin Avith his parents when young and assisted in clearing and im- 
proving- the home farm. He remained under the parental roof until he was 
about twenty years of age when he was lured to California in search of the 
new Eldorado, going by way of Pike's Peak in 1859. He engaged in min- 
ing in the Golden state until 1865, then went on horseback to Idaho, then to 
Montana, wdiere he discovered and located a claim and resumed mining. In 
1868 he returned home on a visit, then came from Wisconsin to Saline county, 
Missouri, and invested in a large tract of raw prairie land near Salt Springs, 
Grand Pass township, then returned to Montana and worked out his claim and 
was fairly successful. He came from a hardy New England stock that knew^ 
no such word as fail. Personally he was stout and athletic and for ten long 
years wielded the pick and shovel, scraping- bed rock for the precious metal. 
In 1870 he returned home, making a long visit and drove across the state of 
Illinois in a buggy to his Missouri purchase and took up the task of improv- 
ing- his farm, erecting substantial buildings and cultivating his land and en- 
gaged in the stock business in a small way, feeding the products of his farm 
to live stock of A-arious kinds. Later as he prospered at this he bought most 
of the corn croj:)s near him, becoming a regular and extensive feeder, han- 
dling- large herds of fat cattle, which he shipped to market, his Saline county 
farm Ijecoming a greater "gold mine" than any of his claims in the far ^^'est. 
Later he began investing his surplus in lands, his first purchase being four 



448 



PAST AND PRESENT 



linndred and sixty-eight acres, and he next bought a farm near Marshall, later 
added to that another farm, both containing six hundred and eighty acres, 
adjoining the corporation limits of Marshall, where he now resides in an 
attractively located and commodious house which he has remodeled and mod- 
ernized, there being a splendid basement under the entrance to the building 
and all e(|uipment for a comfortable home. His lands are all well improved 
and in a high state of cultivation, his two sons carrying on the work wliich 
he beo-an. His farm ranks with the best in the county and he also owns 
lands in Texas and Kansas. He has bought and sold property in Kansas 
City, still owning some good property there. He hung up the shoxel and hoe 
and has retired from active labor, now merely looking after his property 
interests and advising his sons in the management of the farms. He has 
been a man of keen discernment and good judgment and is deserving of a 
great deal of credit for what he has accomplished, for he is a purely self- 
made man. 

Mr. Newell was reared a Republican in principle, having cast his first 
vote for "Abe" Lincoln and he has never lost interest in the G. O. P.. 
although he has never aspired to political preferment or public notoriety of 
any kind, preferring to devote his attention exclusively to his Imsiness inter- 
ests. He is high in the sublime degrees of Masonry. 

Air. Xewell married in Saline county. Missouri, in 1872, Alice Houston, 
who was born in Schuyler county, Illinois; she is tlie daughter of John \\ and 
ILUen (McNeeley) Houston, of Illinois, who came to Saline county. Mis- 
souri, in 1868, bought land and engaged in farming and the cattle business 
in (irand Pass township, becoming fairly well-to-do. He was a Republican, 
but not a jniblic man; he was a member of the Methodist church. Ijecame well 
known and highly respected, for he was not only a successful business man 
but also a man of the highest honor and worth. His death occurred in 1895. 
His widow survives and lives at the old homestead ; she is also a Methodist. 
John V Houston was twice married, the following children having been born 
of the first union; Sarah, now Mrs. McNeeley; Hattie, now Mrs. Rankin, 
of Burlington, Iowa. Mr. Houston's first wnfe died in Illinois and he then 
married Ellen McNeeley. this union resulting in the birth of the following- 
children : Alice, wife of \V. S. Newell, of this review^ ; Florence, now Mrs. 
McClellan; Elizabeth married D. Bixler ; John is a farmer; Laurence is liv- 
ing on the old homestead ; Sherman ; Belle, now Mrs. Irvin ; Grace, now Mrs. 
AFcRoberts. 

Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Newell, namely; Alice 
married \\'. Strother. and she was called to her rest on June 7, 1901, at the 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 449 

age of twent3^-eig"ht years and six months, lea\-ing- a husband and two chil- 
dren ; Neuman married Nell Sparks and they are the parents of two children : 
Alvin married Neva Brown, and they also are the parents of two children. 
The mother of these children passed from earth on May 29, 1904. at the 
age of fifty-two years. She was a woman of admirable personal traits, a 
worthy member of the Methodist church. 



ROBERT SAMUEL HAYS. 

The history of Saline county is not a very old one. It is the record of 
the steady growth of a community planted in the wilderness within the last cen- 
tury and has reached its magnitude of today without other aids than those 
of industry. The people who redeemed its wilderness fastnesses were strong- 
armed, hardy pioneers who hesitated at no difficulty and for whom hardships 
had little to appall. The early pioneers, having blazed the path of civiliza- 
tion to this part of the state, finished their labors and passed from the scene, 
leaving the country to the possession of their descendants and to others who 
came at a later period and builded on the foundation which they laid so broad 
and deep. Among the latter class is the prominent business man and enter- 
prising citizen by whose name this article is introduced. While his appear- 
ance on the scene was not as early as some, yet he came in the formative 
period and has done much to develop and advertise to the world the wonder- 
ful resources of a county that now occupies a proud position among the most 
progressive and enlightened sections of Missouri. 

Robert Samuel Hays is a native son of Missouri, having been born in 
Lafayette county on December 21, 1866. He is a son of James and Sarah 
(Peters) Hays, the former of whom was a native of Tennessee and the latter 
of Ohio. James Hays came to Missouri in an early day and engaged in the 
business of general merchandising, in which he w^as fairly successful and wdiich 
he followed until his death. He was the proprietor of a store at Lexington, 
Lafayette county, and stood high in the community. Though not a member 
of any church, he was conscientious in his daily life and was a potent and 
definite influence for good in the community wdiere he lived. His wife was 
a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church South. They were 
the parents of thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy, the names of 
those who reached years of maturity being Mary A., Isaac, Annie, Belle, 
James, Lucy, R. Samuel, Bettie, Charles and Ernest. 

29 



4:^0 PAST AND PRESENT 

The sul)joct of this sketch was reared l)y his parents at l.exington, Mis- 
souri, and was given the ad\antag"e of a good common school echication. thus 
being- enal)led to start in life with good practical knowledge. On the com- 
pletion of his education he entered a grocery store at Lexington in the capacity 
of clerk, continuing there for four years, at the end of which time he entered 
the flouring mill in that city with the purpose of learning the milling business. 
He remained there until 1895 and during' the interim he gave to the milling 
business the most careful and painstaking attention, so that he became 
thoroughb' proficient in his knowledgx- of the business in all its details. In 
the vear mentioned Mr. Hays came to Sweet Springs. Saline county, and, in 
partnership with T. J. Johns, bought the flouring mill at this place, and have 
continued its operation to the present time, under the name of the Sweet 
Springs Milling Company. 

The mill at Sweet Springs was established in 1882 by the firm of Land 
& Swaggard, who commenced business in a modest way, but the enterprise 
from the beginning enjoyed a good patronage and made steady and substan- 
tial growth, employing se\'eral men constantly. Since Messrs. Hays and 
Johns ac(|uired ownership, the property has been thoroughly overhauled and 
the best up-to-date mill machinery has been installed so that today it is gen- 
eralh- recognized as one of the l)est mills in the West. It was the first roller 
mill in this section of the country and the prestige it gained at that time has 
grown with the years until now the Sweet Springs Milling Company is send- 
ing its products over a wide range of country, embracing several neighboring 
states. Idle mill is run night and day and has made the remarkable record 
of having lost but seventy-five minutes time since January i, 1909. l\venty- 
nine men are steadily employed and the mill has an annual output of one 
hundred and fifty thousand barrels of flour, besides other products and doing 
all kinds of mill grinding. The stockholders of the companv are Messrs. R. 
Samuel Hays and T. J. Johns, the firm being capitalized at one hundred 
thousand dollars, and besides the mill at Sweet Springs they also own another 
large mill at Charleston, Alississippi county, which is under the direct manage- 
ment of Mr. Johns. Mr. Hays managing the firm's interests at Sweet Springs. 
This is considered one of the leading business enterprises in this section of Sa- 
line county and the men who comprise the firm are numbered among the lead- 
ing citizens of this ])art of the state. They are men of acknowledged business 
ability and of the strictest integrity and honesty of purpose, which (|ualities 
have given them a standing among their fellow citizens which mere business 
success can not bring. 

Mr. Ilavs has twice been married. His first wife, who l)ore the maiden 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 45 1 

name of Madura Carson, was a native of this state, and their marriage oc- 
curred in 1898. She died leaving one child, Rohert S. For his second 
wife Mr. Hays married Mrs. Sarah B. Prigmore. Politically Mr. Hays is a 
Democrat and he has taken a deep and active interest in local public affairs, 
having several times sen-ed as a delegate to the state conventions of his party. 
He is not, however, a seeker after ofifice for himself, confining his efforts to 
the advancement of the interests of the party generally. Fraternally he is 
a member of the Masonic order, in which he has taken the degrees up to and 
including that of Knight Templar. He is also a member of the Knights of 
Pythias. His religious membership is with the Methodist Episcopal church 
South, to which and other benevolent objects he is a generous giver. Honor- 
able and upright in all the relations of life, with due regard for the ties of 
friendship and the duties of citizenship, Mr. Hays has commanded uniform 
confidence and respect, and the success which he is now enjoying- is well 
merited, coming as the reward of earnest and untiring effort and correct 
methods. 




ALBERT ^^^ dillon, 



The record of Mr. Dillon is that of a man who by his own unaided ef- 
forts has worked his way from a modest beginning to a place of comparative 
independence in the business world. His life has been of unceasing industry 
and perseverance and the honorable methods which he has followed have won 
him the confidence of his fellow citizens. 

Albert W. Dillon was born in Guilford county. North Carolina, Mav 28, 
1829. and is a son of John and Sarah (McPeak) Dillon. These parents were 
natives of Virginia, in which state they were reared, and in their vouth they 
emigrated to North Carolina, where they were married. They were there 
engaged in farming until 1859. when they emigrated to Missouri. The trip 
was made by wagon, a camp being established each night, and many dangers 
and hardships were endured on the long and wearisome journe}-. On reach- 
ing Missouri they first bought land in Pettis county, but remained there but a 
short time, removing to Saline county, where they located on a farm, which 
was their home during their remaining years, the mother dving in 1863 and 
the father six years later. In religion both were members of the Reformed 
Methodist church, and in politics John Dillon was an ardent Whig. They 
Avere the parents of eight children, namely: Eri, Lizzie, John Calvin. Wil- 
liam Cameron, Mary, Alson and Albert W., the subject of tliis review. The 



45-^ 



PAST AND PRESENT 



subject's paternal grandfather was Benjamin Dillon, who was a veteran of 
the war of the Revolution. 

Albert W. Dillon was reared to the life of a farmer, which in that early 
day meant hard work and plenty of it. He attended the pioneer schools of 
the neighborhood and received a fair education. He has always devoted him- 
self to the pursuit of agriculture and is now the owner of a fine little farm of 
twenty-five acres, situated about one and a half miles west of the town of 
Sweet Springs. He is practical and progressive in his methods and is en- 
abled to realize a nice income from the farm. Mr. Dillon makes a specialty 
of melons, of which he raises large crops every year and the quality of which 
cannot be excelled in this part of the country, they finding a ready market in 
season. 

Mr. Dillon has twice been married. His first wife, who bore the maiden 
name of Laura Armfield, was a native of North Carolina, and her death oc- 
curred in Saline county in 1862. To this union were born two children, 
namelv : Leroy, who lives in Enid, Oklahoma, married Ella Brown and they 
have six children. Pearl, Charles, Carrie, Victor, Ada and ]\Iamie ; Elizabeth, 
now deceased, was the wife of Azil Vickry, and they had eight children, Al- 
bert, Louisa, William, Francis, Ezra, Tina, Daisy and Lottie. For his sec- 
ond wife the subject married Mrs. Melvina (Manker) Long. She was born 
in Brown county, Ohio, in 1837, and was a daughter of John and Sarah 
(Wright) Manker, natives respectively of Ohio and Virginia, though their 
entire married life was spent in Brown county, Ohio. John Manker was a 
farmer by vocation and was also a local minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. He and his wife were the parents of the following children : Wil- 
liam \\'., deceased; Hannah; the third and fourth in order of birth died in in- 
fancy unnamed; Samuel; John; Melvina, wife of the subject; Cary and 
Louisa. Before her union with the subject, Mrs. Dillon had been the wife of 
William Long, who was a native of Ohio and a farmer by vocation. During 
the Civil war he was a member of the Fiftieth Regiment Ohio Volunteer In- 
fantiy, and lost his health during the army service, his death occurring soon 
after his return home. He was the father of four children, Sarah, the de- 
ceased wife of Joseph Whicker, by whom she had two children, Delmar and 
Maud; Mary, deceased; Ella is the wife of E. D. Webb, of Boulder, Colorado, 
and they have three children, Mabel, Bessie and Helen ; Cary, of Oklahoma, 
married Minnie Stevens and they have one child, Delmar. To the subject's 
present union have been born the following children: Manker, who lives in 
Oklahoma, is married and is the father of four children, Adelle, Lavere, Al- 
bert and Arthur; Tamson, deceased, was the wife of M. D. Jackson and had 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 453 

two children. Noreen and Louise; Daisy is the wife of William Hibbs. of 
Webb City, Missouri, and they have three children, Nadine. Dorothy and 
Isabelle; Lena is the wife of John Ratliff, of Oklahoma, and they have two 
children. Alberta and John; Dodo is the wife of O. H. Lawrence and lives in 
Amsterdam, Missouri. The subject gave each of his children a good educa- 
tion and all of the daughters were school teachers before they became wives. 
Mr. and Mrs. Dillon are members of the Methodist Episcopal church 
South at Sweet Springs and give to their society an earnest and generous 
support. In politics he is a stanch Republican, and takes a deep interest in 
the success of the ticket. During the Civil war he was a member of the state 
militia and was chosen captain of his company. He and his wife are pleas- 
ant and hospitable people and their pleasant home is the scene of many pleas- 
ant gatlierings of their friends. 



JAMES A. FISHER. 



The Fishers were an old Virginia family, settled in Fauquier county 
for many generations, and identified extensively with the agricultural inter- 
ests of that section of the Old Dominion. Among the older representatives 
was Samuel Fisher, who was born and lived and died in this famous old 
Virginia county. His son Thomas followed his father's footsteps bv be- 
coming a farmer and he spent his entire life in that occupation in his na- 
tive county. He died in April, 1854. when seventy-seven years old. He 
married Martha Ball, whose parents came from Westmoreland county and 
took up their abode in Fauquier, where their daughter was born. She passed 
away in 1878. when eighty-six years old, after becoming the mother of four 
children. 

James A. Fisher, the only survivor of this family, was born in Fauquier 
county, Virginia, October 6, 1829. At the outbreak of the Civil war he en- 
listed in the Seventeenth Regiment Virginia Infantry and served in the Con- 
federate army throughout the entire four years of hostilities. The Seven- 
teenth became part of Picket's division, which immortalized itself bv the 
celebrated charge at Gettysburg. It saw much hard campaigning and fight- 
ing, took part in innumerable engagements and ranked as one of the crack 
regiments of the Southern army. ]Mr. Fisher was wounded in the hip in a 
fight which occurred at Drury's Bluff, south of Richmond, on May i6, 1864. 
After the war he farmed awhile in his native state, but wisely decided that 



_|.54 PAST AXI) PRESENT 

tlic West offered niucli heller i ipixirUinilies in liis line than a stale whieli had 
been devastated and impoverished l)y four years of marching armies. So 
in [cS/f) Mr. Fisher turned his face toward the corn 1^elt. crossed the Mis- 
.sissippi into Missouri, and picked out a farm in the rich county of Sahne 
and lias ever since been closely identified with its development. Jn 1880 he 
removed to Marshall, where he was elected city collector, then mayor, and 
then city collector again. Since 1882 he has served as school clerk, and al- 
together has been highl}- and continuousl}- honored by the i)e(^ple, though 
ne\er active in seeking office. 

In 1861 Mr. Fisher married Helen Kelly, who was born in Xew Or- 
leans, but reared in Baltimore. She died over twent}- years ago after be- 
coming the mother of seven children: James 1\, member of the real estate 
firm of VanDyke & Company, at Marshall; Mary \\\, a teacher in the Mar- 
shall high school; Thomas H., a leading druggist and one of the progres- 
sive and i^opular young business men of Marshall ; Wilson, manager for the 
Pierce Oil Company, in Yucatan; Elizabeth J., wife of Louis L. Snoddy, 
of Bonnot's Mill, Missouri ; Helen F., wife of Allen B. Snoddy, of Fort 
W^orth, Texas, and Emma, who married New^ton Parsons, of Shelbina, Mis- 
souri. 



MITCHELL D. KERR. 



This prominent citizen of Cambridge township and in point of contin- 
uous residence the oldest business man in the town of Gilliam, is a native 
of Saline county, Missouri, and one of four children whose parents were 
John and Frances Kerr, both bc^rn and reared in Pocahontas county. \\\^st 
Virginia. John Kerr remained in his native state until reaching the years of 
maturity, when he came to Saline county, Missouri, and engaged in the manu- 
facture of lumber. Soon after his arrival, he married Frances Gault, wdiose 
parents moved to this part of the state in an' early day and located near 
Miami. Mr. Kerr continued in the lumber business in connection with farm- 
ing until the breaking out of the late Civil war. when he mo\ed back to \\' est 
Virginia, where they remained until the close of the struggle. Returning 
to Missouri at the time indicated, he secured an interest in a large saw- 
mill, to the operation of which he devoted his attention for a number (^f 
years with success and financial profit. After a long and useful career he 
rested from his labors, him.self and wife both dying at their home in the 
above township, leaving to their descendants the memorv of well spent lives, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOl'RI 455 

which the latter prize as a grateful legacy and priceless heritage. Of the 
four children l)orn to this estimable couple, two sons survive: Frank G. 
Kerr, who for the past fifteen years has been engaged in the drug business 
at Van Buren, Arkansas, i)rior to which time he was connected with the 
same line of business in Marshall, Missouri, and Mitchell T). of this review, 
the second in order of birth. James K., the third, departed his life in \^an 
Buren, Arkansas, about the year 1899, and the youngest of the family, a 
daughter, died in infancy. 

Mitchell D. Kerr was born August 30, ]86i. spent his boyhood in 
Cambridge and was about twelve years old when his parents died. Prior 
to the death of his mother he had spent several summers on a farm belong- 
ing to Thomas Duggins, Jr., and on being left an orphan and obliged to 
rely entirely upon his own resources f(^r a livelihood he entered the hard- 
ware store of Mr. Xawerth at Cambridge anrl for about one year applied 
himself very closely to the business. Leaving the employ of that gentleman 
at the expiration of the period indicated, he accepted a clerkship in the 
grocery house of S. M. Cheatham and a little later took an interest in the 
establishment, the firm thus constituted remaining at Cambridge until 1880, 
when they moved their stock to Slater. After six months in the latter place 
Mr. Kerr disposed of his interest in the store and in 1881 engaged in tlie 
same line of business at Gilliam, where he has continued ever since, being, 
as already stated, the oldest merchant in the' town as well as one of the 
most enterprising and successful. In connection with a full line of groceries, 
he carries a large stock of hardware, implements, etc.. and his business, 
which from the beginning has been Cjuite extensive, is steadily growing in 
magnitude and importance and the establishment of which he is the head is 
now one of the largest and best known of the kind in the county. 

Mr. Kerr is a careful and methodical business man, whose relations with 
the public have ever been of the most pleasant and agreeable nature, and by 
studying the demands of the trade and sparing no pains to please his cus- 
tomers he has built up a large and lucrative patronage and placed himself 
in independent circumstances. He is a -Democrat in politics and has served 
on the township central committee, this being the only public position he has 
e\'er held. Fraternally he is identified with the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, and religiously belongs to the Methodist F.piscopal church of Gilliam, 
in which for a period of ten years he has been honored with the oftice of 
steward, besides serving four years as superintendent of the Sunday school. 

1die domestic life of Mr. Kerr dates from May 18, 1889, at which time 
he was united in marriage with Mamie 1'hompson ,of Arrow Rock, daughter 



4=^6 PAST AND PRESENT 

of T- C. and Susan Thompson, who i)rior to movino- to Saline county Hved 
for a number of vears in California. Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Kerr have 
one child, Golden F., who was born on the 6th day of June, 1900. Few 
men in Gilliam are as well known as Mr. Kerr, and none are held in higher 
esteem by the general public. He is interested in everything that makes for 
the improvement of his town and county, stands for law and order and a 
higher standard of citizenship and as a courteous Christian gentleman uses 
his influence for the right as he sees and understands the right. 



JOHN PETER STOLBERG. 

The history of John Peter Stolberg has for many years been entwined 
with that of Elmwood township. Saline county, in which he lives, where he 
has ahvays been regarded as a valuable and influential citizen and one who 
possesses all the higher qualities of the successful farmer. He was born in 
St. Clair county, Illinois, February 12, 1859, the son of John Michael and 
Elizabeth (Kramer) Stolberg, both natives of Germany, where they were 
educated, grew to maturity and from whence they came to America in 
1844. The former was the son of John Martin Stolberg, who also came 
to this country in 1844, settling in St. Clair county, Illinois, where he lived 
until his death. He was a member of the Evangelical church and a man 
of high principles. Elizabeth Kramer was born ^lay 27, 1828. She was 
single when she came to this country, having married John Michael Stol- 
berg in St. Clair county, Illinois, in 185 1. The former was first a cooper 
by trade, but he devoted the last years of his life to farming. Both were 
members of the Evangelical church and were honest and industrious. John 
Michael Stolberg was first a Republican, later a Democrat; he is still liv- 
ing in Belleville. Illinois, with his son, having reached an advanced age. 
He and his wife became the parents of ten children, namely: Martin, Lena, 
Henry; Lizzie, decased ; John Peter, of this review; Andrew, living in Belle- 
ville. Illinois; George, also living in Illinois; Edward, deceased; Doro- 
thea and Michael, the two youngest also being deceased. 

John P. Stolberg was reared on a farm and educated in the German 
and public schools, assisting with the farm work during the summer from 
early boyhood until he reached maturity and began life for himself. On 
Juiy I, 1886, he married Louisa Mary Trautmann, a native of St. Clair county, 
Illin.ois, the daughter of Fred and Dorothv (Deck) Trautmann, both natives 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 457 

of Germany, but who came to America when young and settled in St. Clair 
county, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Trautmann married there in 1850; they are 
both now deceased. Eight children were born to them, namely: Fred \\'.. 
deceased: Emma E. ; Louisa M., wife of John P. Stolberg of this re- 
view ; Philip ; William died in infancy, as did also Edward ; Caroline E., 
William E. This entire family belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran church. 

After his marriage John P. Stolberg came to Saline county, Missouri, 
in 1886, and rented a farm for a short time, later buying his present fine 
farm of two hundred acres in Elmwood township, five miles south of Mt. 
Leonard, which he has greatly improved and placed in a high state of 
cultivation. He has remodeled the house that was on the place when he took 
possession and made it modern and comfortable. He also has a substantial 
barn and other buildings and he keeps everything in first class condition about 
the place, being a man of good taste and sound judgment. His attractive 
dwelling is located in the midst of beautiful surroundings. He carries on 
general farming and also handles some good stock. 

Mr. Stolberg and family are members of the Evangelical Lutheran 
church, Mr. Stolberg being independent politically, always voting for whom 
he considers the best man for the position sought. 

Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stolberg, named as fol- 
lows : ^^"alter Frederick is living at home and assists in running the farm ; 
he married Katherine Mackler. Ella Elizabeth also lives with her parents. 
Edna Dorothea died March 13, 1895. This family is known for its hospi- 
tality, honesty and genial dispositions. 



SAMUEL V. DANIEL 



Honesty and fair dealing have been the watchwords of Samuel V. Daniel, 
one of the best known and most successful agriculturists of Cambridge town- 
ship, Saline county, and these twin virtues have been personified in his active 
life, winning for him not only material success but also the universal con- 
fidence and esteem of those whom he has occasion to meet, but this fact is 
not at all strange when we learn that he is a scion of a fine old Southern fam- 
ily and he himself a Virginian, born near Lynchburg, in Campbell county, 
Virginia, January 5, 1848. He was educated in the common schools, both 
in his native state and in Saline county, Missouri, and he attended high 
school at Cambridge, this countv. He is the son of Eli T- and Susan R. 



45' 



PAST AND PRESENT 



( Turpin ) Daniel, botli liorn in l\()ckl)ri(lg"c count}'. Viro-inia. the fatlier Ijorn 
in icSji and the mother in 1828. They ^rew to maturity, were educated and 
married in tlieir native county. Imt in their youth this couple moved to Camp- 
l)en countv. Virginia, and in 1858 to Sahne county. Missouri, locating in 
Canihridge township where Mr. Daniel bought about four hundred acres of 
land near Cambridge in sections 2 and 3. township 51. His ])rincipal crops 
were tobacco, corn and wheat, in the growing of which he has been very 
successful. He was a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church for many years, taking an active interest in the affairs of the church 
at Cambridge. He was a successful and honorable man whom everybody 
liked. His death occurred Xoveml)er 13. i86g. He was survived by a widow 
and se\'en children, one of which, J. \\\. was for four years judge of the 
Saline county court ; he is now deceased ; Mrs. S. E. Hill resides in Cam- 
bridge township, she being the oldest child; Samuel V.. of this review, w^s 
the tliird child in order of birth; M. L. lives in Cambridge township; Mrs. 
Mary E. Lesley lives in Salisbury. Missouri; Mrs. Jennie Lucas lives in Cal- 
ifornia; J. R. lives near Gilliam, this county. 

Samuel V. Daniel lived on the home farm until after the death of his 
father. In March, 1874. he moved to Carroll county. Missouri, where he 
remained until in ALirch. 1879. when he returned to Saline county and since 
then he has lived continuously on his part of the old home place which he 
inherited, in section 3. township 51, owning altogether at present three hun- 
dred and twenty acres in Cambridge townshij). wliich he has greath- improved 
and wliich ranks with the model farms of the county, for he is a skillful 
farmer and stock raiser, and he has been very successful at both. He also 
owns some good land in Alberta. Canada. He has an elegant and substan- 
tial dwelling large and con^'enient outbuildings and everything- about the 
place shows thrift and good management. He is a director and stockholder 
of the Gilliam Exchange Bank, of Gilliam. Saline county, which is one of 
the safe and popular banking institutions of northern Missouri. Mr. Dan- 
iel is a man of keen discernment, seeming" to ]K)Ssess the al)ility to foresee 
with clearness the outcome of a present transaction. 

Politically ]\Ir. Daniel is a Democrat, and he belongs to the Independent 
Order of Odd h^lk^ws at Slater and holds membershi]) in the Methodist Epis- 
copal church South at Gilliam. 

Mr. Daniel was married, on |anuar\' 23, 1874. to Leona Mc Kinney, a 
native of Saline county, Missouri, the accomplished daughter of J. E. and 
Jennie (Haney) McKinney. of Saline county. .^^rs. Daniel was called 
to her rest on Jul\- 10, 1884. leaxing four children, nameh' ; America G. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 459 

married T<»li" Kai)pel1er, of Xorman, Oklahoma: C. Roland lives at Leth- 
bridge. Alberta, Canada; Birdie is the wife of J. Robert Moore, of Salis- 
bury, Missouri; Elizabeth is the widow of Carrol Percy, and she Hves with 
her father, who married again on September 14. 1887, his last wife being- 
Julia T. Dow, who was born in Cambridge, Saline county, Missouri, July 
10, 1862, the daughter of 11iomas M. and Mary (Duggins) Dow\ an in- 
fluential family of Cambridge. Mrs. Thomas Dow was the daughter of John 
Duggins, Sr., living in Saline county. Two children have been born of this 
second union. Miss Vincent Daniel, born September ly, 1888, and Dixie D. 
Daniel, born June 10, 1890, both living at home. Mrs. Eli J. Daniel, mother 
of Samuel V., of this review, is making her home with her children; she 
is a woman of beautiful Christian character and she makes life as pleasant 
as possible for those whom she meets. 

All of Mr. Daniel's children received a college education and they are 
well equipped for life's varied duties. C. Roland graduated from Central 
College at Fayette, Missouri, in 1899, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
Miss Vincent graduated in 1907 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from 
the Central Female College at Lexington, Missouri. Miss Dixie will grad- 
uate with the degree of Master of Arts from the same institution in 1910. 
The other children did not graduate, but they are not inferior in text-book 
training to the other members of the family. 

No more representative or progressive farmer than ^Nlr. Daniel is to be 
found in Saline county, and personally he is gentlemanly, agreeable, hon- 
orable and public-spirited. 



HENRY C. DEIS, Sr. 



The Deis family has been a well known one in what geographers are 
pleased to call "North Missouri" for many generations, one of the best 
known members being Henry C. Deis, Senior, living at Gilliam, Saline coun- 
ty. He was born in Palmyra, Marion county, this state, August 31, 1846, 
the son of John M. and Barbara (Smith) Deis, both born in German}-, in 
which country they grew to maturity and married. They came to America 
about 1839 and located in I'almyra, }*Iissouri. Mr. Deis was a stone-mason 
by trade, following this for a number of years. Later he bought eighty acres 
of land near Palmyra where he lived until his death, in 1863, at the age of 
sixty-three years. His wife died in 1874, when sixty-five years of age. They 
were the parents of six children, the two oldest of whom were biirn in Ger- 



460 PAST AND PRESENT 

many: Iheir names are Adelia. George, Katlierine, John M., Elizalieth, Henry 
C. (subject). Georg-e and John M. reside in Tahnyra. 

Henry C. Deis was educated in the pubHc schools of Pahnyra and when 
sixteen years of age he went to work on the farm and two years later be- 
gan work in the pottery business, learning the trade, at which he worked the 
major part of the time until 1882. when he moved to Gilliam, Saline county, 
where he built a pottery kiln, working at the trade here about a year, haying' 
built the kiln for another man. He then took charge of the Gilliam Hotel, 
which he conducted successfully for nine years. In 1893 he went to work 
in the Gilliam Flour Mill, where he worked until about 1899. since which 
time he has retired from active work. 

]\rr. Deis was married in 1868 to Mary Elizabeth Goetze, who w-as 
born in Palmyra, Missouri, in 1849. the daughter of Henry C. and Annie D. 
(Fulrath) (loetze, both natives of Germany. They came to America about 
1840 and located at Palmyra, this state, wdiere they lived the remaining years 
of their lives. Mr. Goetze died March 8, 1888. his widow surviving until 
December 3. 1893. They ^vere the parents of fourteen children, of wdiich 
number Mrs. Henry C. Deis was the sixth in order of birth. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Deis ten children have been born, all living at this 
writing, namely: Catherine H.. who married a Mr. Eichstadt. of Gilliam, 
was torn March 29. 1869: Albert E., of Marshall, this county, was born 
April 9. 1871 ; Andrew ^^^. of Gilliam, was born April 23. 1873: Henry 
C.. Jr., was born May 7, 1875 ; Annie O.. who married a Mr. Crumbaugh. 
li\-ing in Cambridg'e township. Saline county, was born November 4. 1877; 
Edward J., born August 30. 1883; William F.. born December 22, 1885; 
Robert S., born November 4. 1888; Charles E.. born December 16, 1890; 
Clarence M.. born October 19. 1894. All these children live in Gilliam but 
two. 



^^TLLIAM J. CHANDLER. 

This farmer and representative citizen of Cambridge township is a na- 
tive of Saline county, Missouri, the son of Thomas and Mahala ( Wilson) 
Chandler, the father born in Howard county, this state, in 1819. the mother 
about the year 1833 in the county of Saline. Thomas Chandler came to 
Salin.e county when a young man and jnirchased a farm in the northeasten 
part of Arrow Rock township, to wdiich he soon afterwards brought his bride 
and began the pursuit of agriculture upon his own responsibility. In the 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 461 

fall of 1859 he sold this place and moved to Howard county, purchasing 
eig-hty acres about eight miles south of Glasgow, where he lived until 1865, 
when he disposed of his real estate and rented a farm, on which his death 
occurred two years later. The two older children of Thomas and Mahala 
Chandler died in infancy, those living at the time of the father's death in 1867 
being William J., of this review, Thomas M.. who departed this life in 1884, 
and Mrs. Lena Elder, of Nelson, Missouri. Mrs. Chandler, in 1874, married 
G. H. Burton, with whom she is still living in Clay township. Saline county, 
where both husband and wife are widely known and highly esteemed. 

William J. Chandler, the subject of this sketch, w-as born March 2, 
1859, in Arrow Rock township, and the same year was taken to Howard 
county by his parents where he spent his childhood and youth and received 
his educational training. He was about eight years old when his father died 
and from that time until his mother's second marriage he remained with her 
and contributed to her interests. Upon the advent of a step-father, how- 
ever, he left home and at the age of fifteen began the struggle of life for 
rented land and entered upon his career as a successful tiller of the soil, 
himself as a farm-hand, in which capacity he continued until 1888, when he 
From 1 88 1 until 1884 he was overseer of the farm, which he rented the 
latter year, and he resided on that place until 1902, when he purchased one 
hundred and thirty-two acres in sections 26 and ij, Cambridge township. 
Saline county, where he has since lived and prospered, being at this time one 
of the leading agriculturists in his part of the county and a citizen who en- 
joys to a marked degree the confidence and esteem of the community. 

]\'Ir. Chandler is essentially a self-made man and as such his example 
is worthy of imitation by the youth whose career is yet to be achieved. He 
began life with no assistance, save that of willing hands and a determina- 
tion to WMU, and by well directed industry and thrift has succeeded in accu- 
mulating a sufficiency of this world's goods to place him in independent cir- 
cumstances. In addition to this home farm he purchased in the year 1900 
ninety-five acres of fine land in section 3, Cambridge township, wdiich he sold 
two years later at a handsome profit, thus adding materially to his means 
and enabling him to make a number of necessary improvements. In his 
political views he is a Democrat and an earnest worker for his party, and in 
religion he subscribes to the Methodist Episcopal faith, with which church his 
wife and daughter also affiliate. Fraternally he holds membership with the 
]\Iasonic brotherhood, belonging to the lodg'e at Slater, where he has been 
honored at various times with positions of responsibility and trust. 

Mr. Chandler, on July 19, 1885, was united in marriage with Eva Tug- 



462 PAST AND PRESENT 

ole \vh«) \\a^ l)()rii in Howard countv, Missouri, ()clol)er 16. icSOo. beino- the 
daugiiter of Heiirv and Ann 'riiggle, Ijoth representatives of old and well 
known families of that part of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Chandler have one 
child. Alice K., whose birth occurred on May 31. 1<S86. and who is now the 
wife of Henrv Deis, of Gilliam, Missouri. 



JOSEPH LINEBERRY. 



One of the progressive and wide-awake farmers and stock raisers of 
Cambridge township who has w^m success in life because he has worked for 
it along legitimate lines rather than been the favored child of fortune, is 
Joseph Lineberry, who, like many of his neighbors, is a Virginian, having 
been born in Carroll county, October 3, 1865. However, the major part of 
his life has been spent in Macon and Saline counties, Missouri, wdiere he re- 
ceived his education in the public schools. He is the son of Joseph and Arena 
(Harmon) Lineberry, both natives of Carroll county, Virginia, the mother 
born about 1844. The father died in Virginia, wdien Joseph, of this review, 
was quite young. He was a lumber and sawmill man, did an extensive busi- 
ness and he was a man of honest principles. His wife was the daughter of 
James and Elizabeth ( Burnett) Harmon, both natives of Carroll county, Vir- 
ginia, wdiere they resided on a farm, and they were the parents of ten children, 
of which number Mrs. Lineberry w^as the oldest. Li 1870 they left their na- 
tive country and came to Missouri, locating on the county line between Linn 
and Macon counties wdiere Air. Harmon bought a farm, which he successfully 
managed until his death in 1881. Several years later Mrs. Harmon sold the 
farm and moved to Howard county, Missouri, buying a farm near Glasgow 
where she still lives. The mother of Joseph Lineberry, of this review, and 
Mrs. Victoria Bradley now reside in Kansas City. They came to Missouri 
with Mr. Harmon and family and made their home wnth them until Mrs. 
Lineberry married again. This was about 1872 or 1873, her second husband 
being Martin Colson, wdio was born in West Virginia about 1834. He was 
renting a farm of his father at the time of this marriage and he continued to 
rent land for some time afterwards, but about 1899 they moved to Kansas 
City where they still live. 

Joseph Lineberry, of this review, remained with his mother until he was 
about fifteen years of age wdien he left home and worked out as a farm hand. 
At the age of sixteen he came to Saline countv, Aliss(nuM, and began working 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 463 

as a farm hand for J. R. Lucas, near Ayres, Canil)ri(lge township. When 
nineteen years of ag"e he bougiit forty acres of land in section i, to\vnshi[) 53, 
range 20, and lie rented a house and went to "batching." He improved his 
place and made money and about 1886 he bought fifty acres near his first 
purchase and moved to it, making his home there until about 1891. At various 
times he bought more land and in 1891 he owned two hundred and forty acres 
of excellent land. Idie following- year he sold out and bought one hundred 
and twent}' acres in section 26, township 52. range 20. Cambridge township, 
where he moxed in October, 1892. He has greatly improved the place, built 
an addition onto the house, erected large barns and outbuildings and now has 
one of the choice farms of the township. In 1900 he bought eig'hty acres in 
section 2t,, and later added eig'hty acres to this. About 1903 he bought eighty 
acres more, forty lying in section 26 and the remainder in section 27. In 1909 
he bought the first forty he owned in the north part of the township. He is 
now the owner of four hundred acres of as fine land as Saline county can boast, 
being well improved and highly productive. He also owns some valuable 
property in Slater, Missouri. He carries on g'eneral farming and feeds cattle 
extensively for the market, and he is regarded as one of the leading agricul- 
turists and stock men of the county, and, considering his humble start in life, 
he is deserving of great credit for what he has accomplished. 

Politically Mr. Lineberry is a Democrat and he is a member of the ]\Ietho- 
dist Episcopal clnuxh, in which he is a pillar, a liberal supporter, a steward and 
a trustee in the Slater church. 

On March 20, 1888, Mr. Lineberry married Elizabeth Rieder. a native 
of New Erankfort, Cambridge township. Saline county, where she was born 
August 10, 1868, the daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Wolford) Rieder, 
natives of Germany who came to Milwaukee, \\'isconsin, when children, later 
moving to New Erankfort, Saline county, Missouri, where Mr. and ]\Irs. 
Rieder married after the close of the Civil war. Mrs. Lineberry was the 
second child in order of birth in their family. She recei\e(l a good common 
school education and has pro^•en a faithful and worthy helpmeet to her in- 
dustrious husliand. 

Mr. and ^Irs. Lineberry are the parents of the following children, eight 
ha\ ing been l)orn to them, all but one now living: Rosa AU'erda, born July 
26, 1889; Wilbur J. and William V. (twins), born October i, 189 1 : Joseph 
J., born A])ril 21, 1894; Leander Pumroy. born December 16. 1897; Rogers 
Earl, born Eebruary 8, 1900; Arena E., born November 12, 1903, died January 
28, 1904; Ruth G., born August 11, 1907. No family in this part of Saline 
ccHinty is more i)rominent than this. 



464 PAST AND PRESENT 

JOHN CHARLES PATTERSON. 

I. C. Patterson, deceased, who was president and luisiness manager of 
the Democrat-News Printing Company at the time of his death, which oc- 
curred October 21, 1909, was the founder of the Daily and IVcckly Demo- 
crat-News and had been connected with the paper for more than thirty years. 
He was not only the moving spirit in the management of the paper and its 
large business, but was closely identified with the newspaper interests of the 
state and with everything that tended to the welfare of Marshall and Sa- 
line countv. Mr. Patterson \vas descended from a family of printers and 
newspaper men. His paternal grandfather, Charles Patterson, for whom he 
was named, after serving an apprenticeship in Washington, D. C, in the 
last century, learning the printing trade, came west in 1838 and started a 
paper at Lexington, Missouri, giving it the name of Harry of the JJ^est. 
It was among the first established west of the Mississippi, and was later 
merged into the Lexington Express, and is now the Lexington Intelligencer, 
He continued the ])ublication of the Express until about 185^^, when he sold 
it to Smallwood & Julian. His next and last newspaper \enture was the 
IVaverly Visitor, established at Waverly, Missouri, a few years before the 
civil strife, which he continued to publish until the disturbed condition of 
the count rv interfered with the success of country newspapers. This vet- 
eran printer and newspaj)er man died at his home in Waverly at the age of 
sixt}-one years. 

J. M. Patterson, the father of the subject, who is seventy-two years 
old and still retains a position on the Democrat-News, with which he has 
been connected since its establishment by his son, learned the printing trade 
with his father in the office of the old Lexington Express. He was after- 
wards connected w'ith papers at Warrensburg and Sedalia, until 1876, \vhen 
he, with his family, moved to Marshall. He was foreman of the Saline 
County Democrat until the establishment of the Democrat-Nezi's, when he 
entered upon the position he now holds. 

J. C. Patterson was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, in 1858. His 
mother was Sarah F. Rogers, the daughter of John L. Rogers and the 
granddaughter of Jesse Roundtree, both of whom were pioneer citizens of 
Warrensburg, having moved from Kentucky, where they were large slave 
owners, in 1848. During the Civil war the father of the subject and his 
family moved to Sedalia, which was then only a military post. A few- 
years later, following the bent of his father and grandfather, when only a 
small boy, J. C. Patterson entered upon his career as a newspaper man, as 




TOHX CHARLES PATTERSON. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 4O5 

a newsboy on the old Scdalia Times, of which his father was the foreman 
for a nnml^er of years, and also the Srdalia Bazoo. His work as newsboy 
was pursued while he attended the Sedalia public schools, and later he took 
a course at the Warrensburg Normal. While still in his teens, deciding that 
the newspaper business was to be his life work, he entered one of the Se- 
dalia offices to learn the trade, knowing that a practical knowledge of the 
Imsiness was necessary to success. He had not finished his trade when the 
family moved to Marshall in 1876. He, however, completed his appren- 
ticeship in the office of the Saline County Progress, under the direction of 
its present editor and proprietor, R. M. Sandidge. In 1878, when only 
twenty years old, J. C. Patterson founded the Daily N'ezvs, and for thirty- 
one years the paper has never missed an issue only on holidays. 

Almost without capital, it seemed a hopeless enterprise starting a daily 
newspaper in a town of little less than three thousand inhabitants. Young as 
he was, however, he brought to his aid the most unflagging energy, perse- 
verance and self-assertion and succeeded. 

In 1889 the Ah^zvs and the Saline County Democrat were consolidated, 
and it has since been the Deniocrat-Nez^'s. 

As the original owner and senior member, Mr. Patterson had been for 
a number of years the president and business manager of the Democrat- 
News Printing Company. Through his indomitable energy and indefatig- 
able industry the paper and printing company has gained more than a state- 
wide reputation, especially in the matter of printing for high-grade-stock 
growers. As a solicitor Mr. Patterson had few equals and no superior, and, 
as has been said by a contemporary : 

'Tn this business, which is a memento of his life work, there is not a 
stone of any strength that he did not put there, and the large business of 
the paper is the product, singly, of his business genius." /Xnother has said 
of him, "As the moving spirit of an influential paper, he left an impress 
upon the business and social life of the community in which he lived, and 
was an influential factor in local and state politics. It has been truly said 
of him, as an editor he was fearless in the expression of opinion, intensely 
practical, to think was to act, and he spared not the use of his paper or 
himself to foster the best interests of Marshall and Saline county. No en- 
terprise that he thought would build up the city and county failed to receive 
his loyal support. His nobility of character, warm, generous nature, en- 
thusiasm and zeal, rendered him not only a public spirited and valuable man, 
but a devoted and helpful member of the church to which he belonged, the 

30 



466 PAST AND PRESENT 

Trinity Episcupal, and last, but not least, he was a dexoted husband, father 
and son. 

Mr. Patterson was married to Elizabeth King, daughter of Mrs. Mary 
E. and the late Will R. King, of Saline county. October 13, 1886. who, with 
two interesting daughters, Elorence and Katherine. survive. The wife, who 
is a superior woman, was a true helpmeet in tlie fullest sense, and was an 
inspiration always in the business, social and religious life of the husband. 
whose crowning virtues were loyalty, fidelity and unselfish devotion to his 
home and family. Mr. Patterson was a member of several fraternal organ- 
izations, including the Knights of the Maccabees, Ijene\()lent and Protective 
Order of Elks and Modern Woodmen of America. 



CROMWELL C. KPrCHEN. 

A man who has won success as an agriculturist because he has worked for 
it along legitimate lines and has managed well is deserving of much credit ; 
but he Avho inherits a vast estate and does nothing to enhance its value should 
not come in for any share of the plaudits of his fellow men. A type of the 
former class of Saline county citizens is Cromwell C. Kitchen, of Cambridge 
township, who was born in Eranklin county, Missouri. January 14, 1865. and 
there he was reared and received his education. He is the son of James M. 
and Ellsinore (Barnes) Kitchen, both natives of Berkeley county, Virginia, 
the father born in 1819. They grew to maturity and were married in their 
native state, and moved to Franklin county, Missouri, about 1855 and rented 
land. Airs. James M. Kitchen died about 1870. aged about forty years. Mr. 
Kitchen continued to live in Eranklin county until 1888, when he moved to 
Saline countv, this state, and made his home with his son. C. C. Kitchen, until 
his death, which occurred on December 11, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen 
were the parents of eleven children, one dying in infancy. Cromwell C. of 
this review, being the youngest of the number. He lived with his father until 
eleven years of age. when he went to make his home with an older brother. 
with whom he remained until he was nineteen years old. He then worked 
out as a farm hand. In 1885 he came to Saline county, Missouri, and con- 
tinued to work as a farm hand until 1888, when he rented land and farmed on 
his own account. He saved his money and in 1891 he was enabled to buy a 
good farm of one hundred and sixtv acres, in ])artnership with his brother, 
Lee Kitchen, the farm l\ing in section 33. townshi]) 33, range 20. Cambridge 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 467 

township. About 1893 he bought his brother's interest and has since made 
this farm his home. He has greatly improved it and he reaps abundant har- 
vest from his fields year by year, being well versed in all the details of agri- 
culture. He handles some good stock of varions kinds and he has a veiy 
comfortable dwelling and good outbuildings. 

Politically Mr. Kitchen is a Democrat and a member of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian church. He was married on October 3, 1894, to Ida Smith, who 
was born in Miami township, Saline county, Missouri, August 26, 1875, the 
daughter of Thomas and Catherine (Sullivan) Smith, both natives of Missouri. 
Mr. Smith died in January, 1879. ^"^^ i" December. 1881, Mrs. Smith followed 
her husband to the silent land. 

Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kitchen, named as follows : 
Ruby C, born September 24, 1895; Rufus C, born February 2. 1897; Susie 
W.. born October 19, 1898; Katherine B., born October 20, 1900: Wallace 
H.. born December 8, 1902; Robert McClellen, born August 29, 1909. 

The Kitchen family has long been well and most favorably knowai in this 
section of Saline county, being people of honorable standing and industrious. 



LOUIS K. WOOD. 



Manv of the most progressive citizens of Saline county are natives of 
the old Blue Grass state or their ancestors were Kentuckians, and, useless to 
add here, that no better, more energetic or loyal people are to be found than 
they and it is to the credit of this locality that such a large number of this 
splendid type of the old South have cast their lot here. Of this praiseworthy 
class the name of Louis K. Wood, a w^ell known farmer of Cambridge town- 
ship, should not be omitted from the history of this county. He was born in 
Barren county, Kentucky, December 7, 1852, the son of Joseph and Eliza 
(Tisdell) ^^'ood, the former a native of Virginia. They came to Saline 
county, Missouri, about 1856 and located at Arrow Rock. About 1868 they 
bought one hundred and sixty acres three miles east of Gilliam in Cambridge 
township and there they made their home until 1866, when they moved to the 
northwest part of Cambridge towmship, where they bought one hundred and 
sixty acres on the river and there they spent the remainder of their lives. ^Ir. 
Wood died in 1879, at the age of sixty-five, his widow surviving until 1889. 
dying at the age of sixty-three. They were successful fanners and highly 
respected people owing to their honorable lives. To them fourteen children 



468 PAST AND PRESENT 

were bom, two of whom died in infancy ; the others grew up and were married; 
they are: AIoss, wife of Wright Norvell, resides in Slater, Missouri; John W. 
Hvcs in Cambridge township; Samuel D. also lives in Cambridge township, as 
does also Airs. Joe Walker McAmers; Louis K., of this review; Mrs. Margaret 
Norvell, of Slater; Clifford lives in Cambridge township; Mrs. Fannie Mc- 
Amers, now deceased, lived in Cambridge township; Watson lives at Ayers, 
Cambridge township; Mrs. Nannie Woolridge lives in Sheridan county, Mis- 
souri ; Henrv lives in Bozeman, Montana, and Robert, of Cambridge township. 

Louis K. Wood, of this review, made his home with his mother until her 
death, after which he rented the home farm for a year or two, then he bought 
the interests of the other heirs and he still occupies the old homestead, to which 
he has added one hundred and seventy-eight acres, having been very success- 
ful through his close application to his individual affairs and his good man- 
agement, now owning in all a splendid and valuable farm of three hundred and 
forty-eight acres. He carries on general farming and cattle raising in a man- 
ner that stamps him well abreast of the times in both. He has an attractively 
located and cozy home and substantial outbuildings. Politically he is a Demo- 
crat, but is too busy with his business affairs to do much work in the party or 
to run for office himself. 

Mr. W'ood was married on December 6, 1883, to Susie Frances Worrell, 
who was bom in Madison county, Kentucky, October 3, 1861, daughter of 
Jefferson and Jane (Baker) Worrell, natives of Kentucky. About 1863 they 
came to Pike county, Missouri, later moved to Vernon county, and finally, 
in 1874, to Saline county, locating near Cambridge. In 1878 they moved 
north of Ayers, in the same tow^nship, where they bought about seventy acres 
on which Mrs. Worrell still makes her home, Mr. Worrell having died in May, 
1904, at the age of seventy- four years. They were the parents of eight chil- 
dren, five of whom are still living; Mrs. Wood was the second child in order 
of birth. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Louis K. Wood eight children have been born, seven of 
whom are living at this writing, namely ; Beulah is the wife of Ernest Brumitt : 
they live on Mr. Wood's farm; she was born February 4, 1885, and she has 
two daughters, Jewell and Velma V. George Wood, who was born March 26, 
1887, lives on Mrs. Worrell's farm; Claude Wood, born March 20, 1889; 
Fannie and he are twins, the latter dying April 7, 1894; Russell W^ood was 
born September 11, 1892; Estell L. Wood was born May 27, 1894; Carl, born 
June 9, 1896; Garnett, born April 23, 1898. The last five children above 
enumerated are living at home. The mother of these children is a member of 
the New Prospect Baptist church. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 469 

EDMOND J. DUNLAP. 

A progressive and representative business man of the eastern part of 
Saline county is Edmond J. Dunlap, who has a neat and modern drug store at 
Gilham. He is a native of Miami, this county, where his birth occurred on 
January 28, 1854, and there be grew to maturity and received his primary 
education in the common schools. He is the son of Dr. John N. and Sarah 
M. (Brown) Dunlap. The former, long one of the prominent physicians of the 
northern part of Saline county, was born in Staunton county, Virginia, July 
29, 1822, and he was the son of John and Isabella A. Dunlap. Doctor Dunlap 
was educated in the public schools and then Staunton Academy, and he gradu- 
ated in medicine from the University of Virginia. He commenced the practice 
of his profession in 1843 in Greenbrier county, Virginia, but, joining the tide 
of emigration then setting in strongly to the west, in October, 1844, he came 
to Saline county, Missouri, and located in the village of Miami where he spent 
the major portion of his life and built up a very lucrative practice ; he also con- 
ducted a drug store in Miami for a number of years. He did much toward the 
general development of that vicinity, being a public-spirited man and well ad- 
vised on current events. He showed his patriotism when the Mexican war 
began in 1846 by enlisting in Company K, Second Regiment, Missouri Volun- 
teers, and he served with distinction through many trying campaigns and 
hotly contested engagements. In 1847 he was appointed assistant surgeon of 
his regiment and he was honorably discharged in October of that year. 

In May, 1850, Doctor Dunlap married Sarah M. Brown, who was called 
to her rest in June, 1857, leaving three children, Sarah J., Edmond J., of this 
review, and John A., all living in 1909. The father of the children married a 
second time and to this last union seven children were born. The Doctor 
was a profound student and recognized authority on geology, botany and 
archaeology, and he built up an excellent library on these and other subjects, 
and he was a verv interesting and brilliant conversationalist. Saline county 
has seen few characters worthier or stronger than he. This excellent man was 
called to close his earthly accounts after reaching his eighty-fourth year, dying 
in Miami in August, 1907. 

Edmond J. Dunlap followed in the footsteps of his father and learned 
pharmacy, having when a boy began clerking in his father's drug store in 
Miami, remaining there until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1875 he 
opened a drug store in Cambridge, Saline county, and he has been in the drug- 
business continuously since that time, being one of the best known druggists 
in this part of the county and during his long years in this line he has built 



470 



PAST AND PRESENT 



lip quite an extensive patronage, for owing to his honest and courteous treat- 
ment his customers usually become his friends and life-long patrons. In 1883 
he moved his business to Gilliam, where he is at present located, carrying a 
large stock of drugs and sundries, paints, glass, oils, cigars, tobaccos, jewelry, 
books and toilet articles. He is a careful business man and has been very suc- 
cessful. He was president of the Gilliam Exchange Bank for a period of 
nearly six years, being succeeded by W. T. Swinney. He at present holds the 
office of vice-president and director of the bank, which is one of the safest 
and most popular financial institutions in this part of the county. 

Politically Mr. Dunlap is a Democrat, and fraternally he is a member of 
the Masonic order at Slater, Missouri. In November, 1882, he was married 
to America A. Land, who was born in Cambridge township, Saline county, 
Missouri, October i, 1864, the daughter of William H. Land, an influential 
merchant of Cambridge, later of Gilliam. Mrs. Dunlap was a woman of cul- 
ture and a great church worker, especially in the Woman's Board of Foreign 
Missions. She was called to her rest on February 13, 1908. No children 
were born to this union. 



JAMES GRANVILLE KEMPER. 

Many of the most enterprising and public-spirited citizens of Saline county 
are direct from the Old Dominion or can claim Virginia ancestry, and, use- 
less to add, no better citizenship is to be found throughout our great republic 
or in any other land and the commonwealth of Missouri should be proud of 
such families who have settled in large numbers within her borders. Of this 
class James G. Kemper is a typical representative, for while he has spent much 
of his active life on his fine farm in Cambridge township, Saline county, he 
was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, December 26, 1845. He is the son of 
John and Adeline (Cole) Kemper, both natives of Fauquier county, Virginia, 
the father having been a farmer by occupation and a successful and highly 
respected citizen. He died in 1857 and his widow survived him a half century, 
dying in 1907, having reached the advanced age of ninety years. She was a 
woman of gracious personality and a favorite with a large circle of friends and 
relatives. She and her husband were the parents of seven children, of whom 
James G., of this review, was the oldest in order of birth. He was the only 
member of the family who came to Missouri. He made his home with his 
parents until 186 1, when, true to his environment and family traditions, he 
enlisted in the Confederate army, in Capt. James H. Jamison's company. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 47 1 

Eleventh Virginia Infantry, General Longstreet's corps. Pickett's division. 
General Kemper's brigade. Thus he was in the flower of the great Southern 
army. He went out as a private, but for meritorious conduct lie gradually 
rose, step by step, to first sergeant of the company. He was engaged in the 
following battles : Bull Run. Yorktown. being badly wounded in the latter 
fight by a minie-ball passing through the thigh ; he was taken prisoner, held 
six months and was exchanged. He was in the second battle of Manassas, 
Gettysburg, Drury's Bluff, being wounded in the head in the last named fight : 
he also fought at Fredericksburg, the Wilderness and many others in which 
his command was engaged, serving until the surrender, after which he re- 
turned home. 

In December. 1865, Mr. Kemper came to Saline county. Missouri, and 
located in Cambridge township, living as a farm hand with \\\ W. Field, with 
whom he remained for a period of ten years. He saved his earnings and in 
1875 he bought eighty acres in section 23, township 52, range 20, later added 
thirty acres and in 1900 bought eighty acres more, making one hundred and 
ninety acres. His farm is excellently adapted to the general farming which 
he successfully conducts. He deals in high grade^ cattle and is making a suc- 
cess of both his farming- and stock raising. He has a very attractive and cozy 
home and has done remarkably well since coming here, considering his humble 
beginning. 

Politically Mr. Kemper is a Democrat and he has long taken more or 
less interest in local political afTairs. He was school director in Cambridge 
township for a period of thirty-six years and road commissioner for thirteen 
years, very faithfully discharging the duties of each. 

On December i, 1865. Mr. Kemper married Diadama Jones, a native of 
Fauquier county. Virginia, where she was reared, educated and married. She 
was called to the unseen world while living in Saline county. Missouri, on 
November i, 1879, at the age of forty-three years, leaving four children: 
James L.. living in Miami township; John G.. of Slater, this county; Myra 
W., living with her father; Stella, the wife of James E. Norvell. of Cambridge 
township, 

James G. Kemper married a second time, his last wife being Anna L. 
Helm, whom he espoused on December 28. 1882. She was born in Cam- 
bridge township, this county, July 27, i860, and is the daughter of Lina C. 
and Lucy F. (Gauldin) Helm, natives of Buckingham county, Virginia, the 
former born in 1825 and the latter in 1839. They came to Saline county, 
Missouri, about 1853. Mr. Helm makes his home with James G. Kemper, 
his wife having died on March 19, 1886. 



472 PAST AND PRESENT 

Three children have been born of Mr. Kemper's second marriage : Robert 
L., born November 8, 1883; Anna Mabel, born December 20, 1887; Thomas 
R.. born April 25. 1890. 



WILLIAM THOMAS SVVINNEY. 

William T. Swinney, president of the Gilliam Exchange Bank and one of 
the representative business men of Saline county, is a native of Missouri, born 
near Glasgow, in Howard county, October 13, 1853. He springs from a long 
line of Virginia ancestry, and since 1836 the paternal branch of the family has 
figured prominently in various parts of Missouri, his father, James E. Swin- 
ney, coming to this state in that year and locating in the county of Howard. 
James Swinney, son of Thomas Swinney, was born in May, 18 18, in Camp- 
bell county, Virginia, and at the age of eighteen severed home ties to seek 
his fortune in the West. With two hundred dollars in money and a horse, 
saddle and bridle, he rode from Virginia through to Kansas, but the prairie 
country of Illinois and Missouri not appealing to him (having been raised 
among the hills of his native state), he went southwest as far as Benton county, 
Missouri, wdiere he entered a quarter section of rocky and uneven land, which 
was sold many years after his death Avithout attempting to improve it. He 
finally located in Howard county, where he engaged as overseer of a large 
tobacco plantation owned by his cousin, W. D. Swinney, which position he held 
during the eighteen years ensuing, when, about 1857, he purchased one thou- 
sand acres of land in Cambridge township. Saline county, to wdiich he removed 
the year following and engaged in raising tobacco upon quite an extensive 
scale. In addition to growing large crops of tobacco, he also bought, packed 
and shipped many thousand pounds every year and in due time became one 
of the largest tobacco dealers in the central part of the state. Cultivating his 
land by slave labor and being a judicious buyer, he realized handsome profits 
from the business and it w^as not long until he w^as the possessor of a fortune 
which made him one of the wealthy men of the county of Saline. In 1863, 
owing to the disturbed condition of the country resulting from the Civil war, 
he sold the larger part of his farm and took up his residence in Howard county, 
subsequently trading the balance of his land in Cambridge township for land 
in that county. 

James Swinney, although a Democrat in politics and a large slave holder, 
opposed secession, but took no active part in the war. Notwithstanding his 
neutral attitude, he suffered considerable loss from the armies of both sections 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 473 

and during- the larger part of the troublous period attempted little in the way 
of business. He was conservative in public and political matters, a great lover 
of home and held the interests of his family above all worldly titles and honors. 
At an early age he united with the Methodist Episcopal church and through- 
out a long and useful career demonstrated by his daily life the beauty and 
worth of an earnest and sincere Christian faith. In May, 1850, he married 
Mary A. Jones, who was born in the year 1832, being the daughter of William 
B. and Mary (Stith) Jones, who at the time of her birth were residing near 
the Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Both parents were natives of Virginia and 
early pioneers of Kentucky, moving thence in a later day to Nodaway county, 
Missouri, where they spent the remainder of their lives. 

James and Mary A. Swinney were the parents of eight children, \\'illiam 
T.. the subject of this sketch, being the second in the family, and one of the 
two now living, his sister, Mrs. B. H. Cheatham, residing at Colton, Cali- 
fornia. James E. Swinney died in 1868, after an illness of six months' dura- 
tion. Subsequently, 1882, his widow married Fayette H. Gilliam, of Cam- 
bridge township, who now survives, being at this time in his ninety-seventh 
year and making his home in Marshall, Saline county. His wife died in 
January, 1905. 

W^illiam Thomas Swinney was educated in a private school at Glasgow 
and Pritchett College of the same place, and after finishing his studies took 
charge of his mother's farm in Howard county, which he managed for some 
years, looking after the interests of his mother and four younger children in 
the meantime. He continued on this place until the first of January, 1881, 
when he came to Gilliam to take charge of the leaf tobacco business of W. T. 
Gilliam, in connection with which position he also managed that gentleman's 
plantation during the summer months, his duties in the winter season con- 
sisting very largely of packing and shipping. ]\Ir. Swinney remained in the 
tobacco business until 1884, when, owing to the advanced age of Mr. Gilliam, 
he took charge of all the latter's interests in addition to the above, including 
the elevator and flouring mill in Gilliam, all of which he conducted with grati- 
fying success during the eleven years ensuing. On reaching the age of eighty- 
six years, Mr. Gilliam, in 1896, deeded all of his property to Mr. Swinney, 
making him his trustee with instructions to close up his estate to the best in- 
terests of his family and the town. This the subject at once proceeded to do 
and in 1900. after accomplishing the task, he became manager of the mill and 
elevator for \\'illiam Pollock, who purchased both enterprises in the meantime, 
and continued in that capacity until November. 1906. when he was chosen 
cashier of the Gilliam Exchange Bank, to fill the vacancy caused by the death 



474 PAST AND PRESENT 

of John I\. Kirk. Accepting the position, he at once entered upon the duties of 
the same, but at the end of one year he was further honored by being made 
president of the institution, which responsible office he still holds and in which 
he has demonstrated executive ability of a high order and a familiarity with 
financial matters remarkable in one of his limited experience in banking. 

Mr. Swinney is distinctively a business man and as such has attained to a 
high standing among his contemporaries. He possesses well balanced judg- 
ment, sound practical intelligence and the ability and tact not only to take ad- 
vantage of opportunities but to create opportunities when and where they do 
not exist. Personally he is a gentleman of kindly manners and pleasing ad- 
dress, popular among his friends and fellow citizens, and those who know him 
best speak in high praise of his many amiable qualities and sturdy characteris- 
tics. 

In politics he has always been an unswerving supporter of the Democratic 
party, though not a partisan nor seeker after the honors and emoluments of 
office, and in religion is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church South. 

In the month of January, 1883, occurred the marriage of Air. Swinney 
and Anna K. Hawkins, daughter of William and Adaline (Gwinn) Hawkins, 
natives of Saline county. Missouri, Mrs. Swinney having been born in Cam- 
bridge township in the year 1861. Mr. and Mrs. Swinney have had four 
children, three of whom are living, the oldest dying in infancy. Elizabeth, the 
second of the number, was born August 18, 1885, Agnes September 12, 1895, 
and William T. in July, 1898. 

William N. Hawkins, the father of Mrs. Swinney, was born in Saline 
county, Missouri, April 18, 1829, and was the son of Nixon and Frances 
(Mason) Hawkins. These parents were natives of Virginia, where they were 
reared and married. Soon after the latter event they came to Saline county, 
being numbered among the pioneers of Cambridge tov^^nship. They located 
land and located a farm west of New Frankfort, and there Nixon Hawkins 
spent the remainder of his days, his death occurring in about 1850. His wnfe 
survived him many years, dying in Camljridge township, in 1895. over ninety 
years of age. Nixon Hawkins was a Democrat in politics and his wife was 
a member of the Missionary Baptist church. They were the parents of eleven 
chiklrcn. of which William N. was among the younger. 

William N. Haw^kins was reared on the home farm and received his edu- 
cation in the common schools. On reaching mature years he engaged in 
farming, eventually owning one hundred and sixty acres of land. About 1877 
he engaged in merchandising at New Frankfort, but his death occurred two 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOURI 475 

years later, January 3, 1879. On September 23, i860, he married Adaline 
Gwinn, who was born in Cambridge township, this county, in 1838, the daugh- 
ter ()f Abner and Dianna ( McMahan) Gwinn. These parents w^ere natives of 
Virginia, who in an early day came from Kentucky to Saline county, where 
they became pioneer farmers. During the troublous days with the Indians, they 
were at Cooper's Fort, in Howard county. They were slave owners and be- 
came successful farmers, spending the remainder of their lives in Cambridge 
township, where they both died. Abner Gwinn was a minister of the Baptist 
church and helped to establish an early church of that denomination, preach- 
ing on Sundays, for which he received no salary. He was a Democrat in 
politics. He died about 1855 and his wife about 1880. She had remained 
on the old homestead after her husband's death ; she also was a Baptist. They 
were the parents of ten children, Mrs. Gwinn being the sixth in the order of 
birth. A\'illiam N. Hawkins and wife became the parents of six children, 
namely: Anna K., Frances M., Marion A., William L., Robert H. and Maud 
B., all of whom are living. Mr. Hawkins was a Democrat politically and his 
wife was a member of the Missionary Baptist church at Good Hope. She died 
May 22, 1878. During the Civil war Mr. HaW'kins sympathized with the 
South and made an effort to join (jeneral Price's command, but was taken 
prisoner near the Blackwater and w^as confined in IMcDowell's College. St. 
Louis, being later transferred to the prison at Alton, Illinois. Because of sick- 
ness, resulting from confinement, he w^as finally sent to a hospital at St. Louis, 
where he recovered and was afterwards sent home. 



WILLIAM McMAHAN. 



The readers of this history who delight in hearing of the early davs in 
Saline county, of the strange conditions that existed here when the prairies 
were wild and numerous steamboats rounded the bends in the "big muddy 
water." and of the later developments of the locality through its various 
stages to the opulent present, could not find any one more interesting to 
talk to than William McMahan, a venerable and highly respected citizen of 
Gilliam. Saline county, for he was born in Miami township, near the town 
of Miami, May 30, 1838, and his useful life has been spent within the bor- 
ders of Saline county. He has been an obsei-ving man and his reminiscences 
of the days of his childhood are indeed interesting and instructive. He is 
the son of Jesse and Emily (Cunningham) McMahan, the former supposed 



4/6 PAST AND PRESENT 

lo liave been born in Miami township, this county, about 1807, he being 
the third son of Wilham McMahan and wife, who were among the earhest 
pioneers of tliis county, and from them the subject got many interesting- 
facts regarding the hfe liere at the beginning of the last century when the 
red man and wild beasts still roamed at will. William McMahan, as the 
name implies, was born in Ireland, and on a forgotten day in the long ago 
he crossed the great Atlantic in a slow sailing vessel and finally found his way 
to Missouri. It is known that he came to Howard county first, where he 
remained for some time in Co(^per's fort on the Missouri river, and while 
there he fought in the Indian wars. After peace had been assured this hardy 
])ioneer moved to the Miami bottoms and became the owner of a large farm 
which he operated with ten or twelve slaves, and at his death he was one 
of the wealthiest men in the county. He was twice married ; the place of 
his first marriage is not known, but eight children were born to the union. 
His second marriage took place after he moved to !\Iianii bottoms, his sec- 
ond wife being a Mrs. Wheeler and this marriage was without issue. His 
second wife preceded him to the grave by a number of years, his death oc- 
curring about 1853, at the advanced age of eighty-five years. All of his 
children lived to be grown. Jesse, the third son, married when f|uite a 
young man, choosing as a life partner a Miss Cunningham, a native of 
North Carolina, and to this union a daughter w^as born, Susan, wdio mar- 
ried William Kellev, of Saline county. Jesse AIcMahan's wife died within 
two years after their marriage, and some time afterw-ards he married Emily 
Cunningham, a cousin of his first wife, and who also was a native of North 
Carolina. This union resulted in the birth of two children, Mary A., who 
married lohn F. Kinnev, of Cambridge township, this county, and William, 
of this review. The father of these children was a man of tine personal 
traits, a hard worker and he succeeded in establishing a good home. His 
death occurred about 1840. his widow joining him in the unseen land about 
1845. I heir son William was taken to the home of Stephen \Mieeler. of 
Mi;;mi tfnvnship. who was the son of the subject's step-grandmother. 

William McIMahan made his home with Mr. Wheeler until he was fif- 
teen years of age, when he went to the \illage of Alianii and entered a 
blacksmith shop to learn the trade, remaining there for two years when, on 
account of failing health, he returned to the farm and worked as a laborer 
until the l)reaking out of the Civil war. He showed his patriotism by en- 
listing in the Missouri State (iuards and afterwards in the Confederate army 
and served gallantly through many campaigns and battles until the close of 
the war, after which he returned home and went to work again as a farm 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 477 

hand. He saved his money and about 1867 ^'^^ bought his first land, fortv 
acres located in section 10, township 50, range 19, abcnit two miles south of 
Gilliam. This he sold in time and iDought forty acres in Clay township, 
which he later sold, and in 1883 bought one hundred and twenty acres in 
section 10, township 51, range 19. He' sold this and in 1904 retired from 
active work and bought a pleasant and attractive home in (iilliam where he 
now resides, surrounded by the comforts of life as a result of his former 
years of able management and close application to his work. He is certain- 
ly deserving of great credit for what he has accomplished owing to his early 
environment, which was none too favorable. Politically he is a Democrat, 
but no ofiice seeker. He is a member of the Baptist church. 

In December, 1873, Mr. McMahan married ^Nlrs. Annie B. Griffin, who 
was born in Miami, Saline county, the daughter of an excellent old family. 
This union resulted in the birth of five children, two of whom are living : 
Jesse P., born September, 1875, living in Kansas City, and Mary N., born 
June 29, 1877, the wife of Joseph B. Hufif. They reside on the home farm. 
The mother of these children passed to her reward on December 30. 1880, and 
Mr. McMahan married again on March 8, 1883, his last wife l^eing Minnie 
Netherton, who was born in Davis county, Missouri, March 13, 1845, where 
she was reared and educated and where her family is well known and has been 
influential for several g^enerations. No children ha\e been born to this last 
union. 

Mr. McMahan is a man who has won the respect and confidence of all 
who know him for his life record is without a blemish, for. while laboring 
for his own advancement, he has not been neglectful of his dutiesi to his 
felhnv men. 



JAMES H. OSBORNE, M. D. 

Conspicuous among the successful medical men of Saline countv is Dr. 
James H. Osborne, who, since 1884, has practiced his profession at Gilliam 
and for six years prior to that date was actively engaged in the noble work 
of alleviating suffering humanity in his native state of Indiana. He is one 
of eleven children whose parents, Hardin and Priscilla ( Tencher) Osborne, 
were natives of Kentucky, but who in an earlv day went to Hendricks 
county, Indiana, where they married and reared their family, the Doctor be- 
ing the ninth in order of birth. By occupation Hardin Osborne was a farmer. 
He stood high as a citizen, took an active interest in the improvement of his 



478 PAST AND PRESENT 

adopted county and the development of its resources, and departed this 
life on the 8th day of March. 1864. at the ag-e of fifty-eight years. Mrs. 
Osborne survived lier husband until 1888, on May 2d of which year she 
closed her eyes to earthly scenes at the ripe age of eighty-two years. Eight 
sons and three daughters were born to this worthy couple, five of the former 
serving in the United States army at the same time : James H., the sub- 
ject of this review; Silas, who was killed near Rome, Georgia; Thomas 
J., who died of typhoid fever while in the service, the other three escap- 
ing with their lives, although Nicholas received a gunshot wound in the arm, 
which made him a permanent cripple. The members of the family now liv- 
ing are Mrs. jMalinda Reitzel, of Waldo, Kansas, who was born in 1833; 
^^'i]liam B., a retired farmer of Pittsboro, Indiana, whose birth occurred in 
1842; Dr. John A., also of Pittsboro, born in 1840; James H., of this re- 
view, who first saw the light of day on December i, 1844; George W'., of 
Pittsboro, Indiana, who w'as born in 1846, and Mrs. Sudie Harrison, of 
Springfield, Illinois, whose birth occurred in the year 1850. 

The early life of Dr. James H. Osborne was spent on the home farm 
in Hendricks county, Indiana, and he received a good education in the pub- 
lic schools. He was reared to farm labor and in 1862 enlisted in the Sev- 
entieth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Col. Benjamin Har- 
rison, afterwards President of the United States, and was with his com- 
mand throughout its varied experience of campaign and battle until the close 
of the Civil war. His regiment marched with Sherman to the sea and at the 
surrender of the Confederacy he was detailed to care for some of the sick 
in his company, being sent from North Carolina to Ft. Schuyler, New York, 
by lx)at, thence to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he arrived two days in ad- 
vance of his regiment. The Doctor experienced his full share of the vicis- 
situdes of war, participated in a number of bloody battles and minor engage- 
ments, and at the expiration oi his term of service retired from the army 
with a record of which any soldier might well feel proud. 

Returning home at the close of the war the subject entered a shop to 
learn l)lacksniithing and after becoming proficient at the trade set up an es- 
tablishment of his own. which he conducted for a period of thirteen years. 
^^'hile thus engaged he yielded to a desire of long standing by taking up the 
study of medicine, which he prosecuted in the evenings and during his leis- 
ure hours and in 1878 took a course of lectures in the Aledical College of 
Indiana. Being sufficiently equipped to begin practicing in 1881 he located 
at Portland ]\Iills. where he remained until 1884, building up a lucrative 
professional business in the meantime and forging rapidly to the front among 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 479 

the successful medical men of that part of the state. Actuated by a laud- 
able ambition to increase his professional knowledge, Doctor Osborne, in 
1888. again entered the Medical College of Indiana at Indianapolis, from 
which he was graduated on March 4, 1889. In October, 1884, after spend- 
ing one year in (ireencastle, he located at Ciilliam. Missouri, where he has 
since been acti\-elv engaged in the duties of his calling. 

Doctor Osborne is a close and critical student and spares no pains to 
keep in touch with the trend of medical thought. His practice, which takes 
a wide range, has been as successful iinancially as professionally and he is 
now not only one of the representative men of his calling in central Mis- 
souri, but also occupies a prominent position among the substantial citizens 
of the county in which he lives. Politically he is a Republican, but, with 
the exception of serving several terms as alderman, he has held no elective 
office nor sought any kind of public honors. He is an active and influential 
worker in the Masonic fraternity and with his w-ife holds to the doctrines as 
taught by the Seventh Day Adventists, belonging to the church of that de- 
nomination in Kansas City. 

Doctor Osborne was married at Battle Creek, Michigan, to Mrs. Inez 
(Purinton) Stone, widow of the late Prof. C. A\'. Stone, of that city, and 
a native of Franklin county, Vermont, where her birth occurred February 
27, 1848. Doctor and Mrs. Osborne have no children of their own l;)ut bv 
a previous marriage Doctor Osborne has a son who was born in Indiana 
in 1870. 

Oliver G. Osborne was educated at the Adventist College, Battle Creek, 
Michigan, and for a number of years acted as pri\-ate secretary to the aud- 
itor of the Union Pacific railroad, with headquarters at Omaha. Nebraska. 
For fifteen years he was connected with the Nebraska National Guard, 
joining the organization as a private and resigning January 11. 1909, as 
lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment. He was with the Guard in Cuba 
during the Spanish-American war, where he rendered efficient service, and 
he now holds a medal as the best drilled man in the state of Nebraska and 
a silver cup for being the best marksman in the regiment to which he be- 
longed. 

On his return from Cuba Mr. Osborne was united in marriage with 
Mrs. ]\Iae (Beresford) Lyons, a relative of Lord Beresford of England, the 
union being terminated by the death of Mrs. Osborne in 1902. Sulisecjuent- 
ly, May, 1905, he contracted a matrimonial alliance with ]\Iiss Retta Holmes, 
of Fremont. Nebraska, a trained nurse and registered pharmacist, the mar- 
riage being without issue. Mr. Osborne has had quite an eventful military 



_|.8o PAST AND PRESENT 

career and his record is alx)\e the suspicion of reproach. He is a i^-entle- 
man of intelHgence. fine address and varied experience and with his accom- 
plished wife moves in the best social circles in the city in which they reside. 



THOMAS SHEPARD. 



A ^■enerable and highly respected citizen of Cambridge township who has 
been a picturesque character, — a product of the pioneer days, — and who has 
wrested success from a resisting nature by the force of his personality, thereby 
enjoving the blessings and comforts in the evening of his life as the fruits of 
a well directed career, is Thomas Shepard, a descendant of a sterling family 
of the Blue Grass state, he himself having been born in Kentucky, in Lex- 
ington. Fayette county, on July 9, 1828, the son of ^^'illiam and Sarah 
( Erskine) Shepard. These parents were both natives of Kentucky, where they 
grew to maturity and from which state, in 1840, they came to western Mis- 
souri, making the journey in covered wagons and arriving in Audrain county 
in the fall of the year. There William Shepard entered forty acres of land, 
about fifteen miles from Mexico, Missouri, where, in true first settler style, he 
began clearing the ground and establishing a home. Misfortune visited him 
the follow^ing spring, 1841, his wife dying at the age of thirty-three years, leav- 
ing three children. Thomas, of this review ; William, Jr., born in October, 183 1, 
who lives in Clay township. Saline county, Missouri ; Nancy, wdio married 
James \\'arson, of Saline county, and is now deceased. The father of these 
children remained in Audrain county for a number of years, marrying thrice, 
and all of his wives dying prior to his death. About 1854 he and his third w'ife 
and one child moved to Saline county, Missouri, locating in Cambridge town- 
ship, opposite Glasgow. Aliout 1856 he bought eighty acres of bottom land and 
lived on the same for about four years, and after leaving there he traveled from 
place to place until 1882, wdien his third wife died and he made his home with 
his children until his death, in February, 1883, at the advanced age of eighty- 
six years. He was a rugged character, honest and a man who balked at no ob- 
stacles. 

Thomas Shepard, of this review^, made his home with his father until he 
was twenty-one years of age, assisting with the work on the place and gain- 
ing a meager education in the old-fashioned district schools. At the time 
indicated above he went to work as a farm hand for twelve dollars per month 
for about a year, then he took a trip to the South, going as far as New Orleans, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 481 

but not finding conditions entirely tO' his fancy, he returned to SaHne county 
after two years. Having" saved about four hundred dohars, he rented a farm 
in Clay township where he lived for two years, then leased a farm there on 
which he spent four years, then in 1864, after losing almost everything as a 
result of the foraging of soldiers, he sold out and moved to Daviess county, 
and remained there about a year, then returned to Saline county and rented 
a farm of Taylor Gilliam in Cambridge township for one year. After that he 
worked as overseer for Joe Smith one year, then leased a farm owned by 
Smith, on which he lived four years. In 1872 he moved to a farm of eighty 
acres in section 10, township 51, Cambridge township, which he had bought 
about a year previous. He has been prosperous and to this purchase he has 
added one hundred and twenty acres, and he now owns one hundred and 
ninety acres, having sold ten acres to his son. He raised tobacco principally 
for manv years and is \'ery successful in all his farming, being a careful 
manager and a good w'orker. He is now very comfortably situated and has a 
well improved farm, a cozy and substantial home and excellent outbuildings. 

Politically Mr. Shepard is a Republican. He proved his loyalty to the 
Union by enlisting in 1864 in the Federal army and served until the following 
year wdien he secured a substitute. He is a member of the Baptist church of 
Gilliam, in which he has taken much interest and been a liberal supporter. 

Mr. Shepard was married on June 24, 1856, to Rebecca A. Warson, who 
was born in the Glasgow bottoms, in Clay township. Saline county, Missouri, 
November 14, 1841, the daughter of Joseph and Rachael (Stanley) Warson, 
the father a native of Kentucky and the mother of Tennessee. \Mien nine 
years of age, Joseph Warson was brought to Missouri by his parents, the 
family locating in Howard county. Rachael Stanley was seventeen years old 
when she came to Missouri with her parents, who also located in Howard 
county, where she married Mr. Warson, soon afterwards moving to Clay 
township. Saline county, where they lived until Mr. Warson's death, about 
1853, at the age of forty-four years. Mrs. Warson died in California about 
1872, at the age of seventy-seven years; she had gone there on a visit. They 
were the parents of twelve children, an equal number of sons and daughters. 
Mrs. Thomas Shepard being the seventh child in order of birth : besides her- 
self only two other children are living, Mrs. Naomi Hubbard, of Slater, Mis- 
souri, and Mrs. Susan Hayes, of Cambridge township, this county. 

Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Shepard, eight of whom 
are living at this writing, namely : Sarah L. Bailey, of Clay township, was 
born September 20, 1858; William F., whose farm adjoins that of his father, 
was born February 16, 1861 ; Joseph W., living in Cambridge township, was 

31 



482 PAST AND PRESENT 

l)t)rn July 8, 1863; Clayborn P.. of Slater, was born February 2, 1866; Mrs. 
]'1orence M. Goodman, of Clay township, was born August 8, 1868 ; James T.. 
living in Clav township, was born June 26, 1871 ; Lavinna V. Dilly, who lived 
in Clav township, was born December 8, T874, and died l*'el:>rnary 11, 1901; 
Nevada F. Croslan, li\'ing in Clay township, was liorn June 26. 1877; Walter 
W'.. living in Slater, was born September 28, 1883. 

Mrs. Shepard is noted for her fine needlework, ha\ing won several prizes 
and blue ribbcms at county fairs on embroider)- and similar work. 



MADISOX C. CHEATHAM. 

Prominent among the sturd}- pioneers who ga\e character and stabil- 
ity to the early settlement of Cambridge township was the late Madison C. 
Cheatham, whose lamented death, on March 14, 1899. removed from Sa- 
line county one of its most enterprising men and public spirited citizens. Mr. 
Cheatham was born in Xaslnille. Tennessee, November 23, 182 1, and came to 
Saline county from Kentuck}- at (|uite an early date, locating in the village 
of Cambridge where he worked for some years at the plasterer's trade. On 
November i, 1848, he married Martha Judith F. Ayres, who was born May 
8, 1828. in Buckingham county, Virginia, the daughter of Matthias and 
Nancy (Howell) Ayres, both natixes of the count}' of Buckingham, but from 
1836 until their respective deaths residents of Saline county, Missouri. On 
moving to this county Mr. A}-res purchased a tract of land near Cambridge, 
which he developed and improved and to which he added from time to time, 
until he finally became the owner of four hundred acres, nearly if not quite 
all of which he cultivated by slave labor and amassed a handsome fortune. 
Of the thirteen children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ayres, two only are living, 
these being Mrs. Cheatham, \\idow of the subject of this review, and Mrs. 
Frank Fand, both of whom have reached ripe old age. though still retaining 
possession of most of their physical and mental i30wers. The death of Mr. 
Ayres occurred in 1851, at the age of seventy years, his wife following him to 
the gra\-e in 1884. when eighty-seven ^'ears old. 

l-'rom the time of their marriage until 1853 Mr. and Mrs. Cheatham 
made their home with Mrs. Cheatham's parents. In the latter year they 
moved to a farm of one hundred and eighty acres on the south edge of the 
present town of Gilliam, which Mr. Cheatham purchased and improved and on 
which the familv still reside. Li connection with ao-riculture ^Ir. Cheatham 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 483 

worked at his trade for a number of years and, being a man of great in- 
dustry and frugal habits, he succeeded well at the two occupations and in due 
time acquired a comfortable competency. He took an active interest in all 
matters pertaining to the development of the country, became a leader of the 
Democratic party in his part of the county and also an influential factor in 
introducing schools and other means of improving the young people in the 
neighborhood. In the latter part of his life he united with the IMethodist 
Episcopal church and continued a faithful and consistent member of the same 
to the end of his days, besides assisting to the extent of his ability various 
charitable and humanitarian enterprises and using his influence at all times 
for the moral advancement of his fellow men. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cheatham were the parents of eleven children. All but 
one daughter, who died at the age of thirteen, grew to maturity and reared 
children of their own. George, the oldest of the family, wdio was born Sep- 
tember 30, 1849, resides in the village of Gilliam, as does also Mrs. Josephine 
Swinney, whose birth occurred in the year 1853; Samuel Mathias, born 
August 14, 1854, departed this life December 17, 1899; Fayette was born on 
the 26th of October, 1856; Joseph W., born September 30, 1858; Mary B., 
born November 14, i860, is unmarried and lives with her mother on the 
family homestead; Benjamin H. was born March i, 1863, and for some years 
has been a resident of California; William Edward, whose birth occurred on 
the 2ist of February, 1865, lives at the old home and manages the farm; Mrs. 
Judith C. Connahan was born j\Iay 4, 1867, and makes her home in Coeur 
d'Alene, Idaho; Lily was born August 27, 1869, and died July 25, 1882, and 
Mrs. Lucy J. McFarland. of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the youngest of the fam- 
ily, was born on the 7th day of October, 1872. Those whose places of resi- 
dence are not given above live at or near Gilliam, \\'illiam E. being the only 
son unmarried. The family is an old one and greatly esteemed and the high 
reputation which its several members enjoy bear evidence of the unsullied 
luster of an honored name. 

Airs. Cheatham, although past her eighty-second year, is remark- 
ably well preserved for one of her age, and retains unimpaired nearly all of 
her bodily powers, while her mind is as clear and memory as retentive almost 
as in the days of her prime. She en j 03^5 fairly good health and lives with her 
youngest son, who spares no pains in looking after her interests and minister- 
ing to her comfort. Her life has been long and useful, a blessing to her family 
and friends and all who enjoy the privilege of her acquaintance speak in high 
praise of her beautiful character and many sterling qualities of mind and 
heart. 



484 PAST AND PRESENT 

CLAYBOURN HILL. 

Altlioug'h the life record of Claybourn Hill has been closed by the hand 
of dcaih. his influence still pervades the lives of those who knew him best, for 
lie was a man of exemplary character and led a model life in every respect, 
and few men were better known or held in higher esteem by the people of 
Cambridge township, Saline county, Missouri, than he. His birth occurred 
in Prince Edward county, Virginia, March 7. 1801. He grew tO' maturity in 
his native state and attended school there. On February i, 1831, he was mar- 
ried to Martha Brightwell, who was born in the same county of Virginia as 
that in which her husband first saw the light, her birth occurring on March 
10, 1808. She was the daughter of William and Nancy Brightwell. Mr. and 
I\Jrs. Hill came to Saline county, Missouri, in September, 1837, making the 
long, arduous trip overland in a covered wagon, drawn by two horses, bring- 
ing two small children. They located in the Good Hope neighborhood in 
Cambridge township. Saline county, Missouri, Mr. Hill entering land in sec- 
tions 19 and 20, township 52, range 19, and he lived there until his death. 
Politically he was a Whig, later a Democrat. He owned several slaves and 
raised large quantities of tobacco. He took no part in the Civil war, but he 
was visited by a number of soldiers who shot him in the leg, necessitating its 
amputation. The soldiers came to his smoke-house one night for the purpose 
of stealing his meat and he was shot when he attempted to drive them away. 
He was a member of the Baptist church. 

Mr. and Mrs. Claybourn Hill were the parents of five children, namely : 
Mrs. Mary C. Norvell, born in Virginia, January 5, 1835, and now living in 
Cambridge township. Saline county, Missouri; James B., born November 19, 
1836. died in California; Charles B., born December 13, 1838, is living in 
Grand Junction, Colorado; Mrs. Nancy M. Moss, born in 1841, is living at 
Reading, California; Claybourn W., born in 1847, is a druggist at Lone Jack, 
Missouri. The father of these children died on March 27, 1880, and their 
mother passed away in December, 1849, when the children were young. 
Mary C, the oldest daughter, married, on August 2, 1854, Littleton Rhoades. 
who was born in this county in April, 1829. He was the son of George and 
Ann (Hawkins) Rhoades, both natives of Virginia, the father having been 
bom in Orange county in 1803. They moved to Howard county, Missouri, 
about 1826, moving to Saline county soon afterward, locating in Cambridge 
township, in the Good Hope settlement where Mr. Rhoades entered land, 
finally becoming prosperous, owning several hundred acres of land, also a 
large farm in Atchison countv. Mr. Rhoades was a Democrat and he held 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 485 

the office of justice of the peace for a number of years, and, having 
shown that he was weh versed in the law and possessed ah the qualifications 
for a successful public sen^ant, he was elected judge of the county court of 
Saline county for a period of two terms. He was one of the leading- citizens 
of the county in every respect. He owned eig'hteen or twenty slaves who cul- 
tivated his extensive acres of tobacco and hemp. Mr. Rhoades was a deacon 
in the Baptist church for a number of years, in fact, a pillar of the local church 
for many years, having been a member of the church from early youth. Mrs. 
Rhoades died about 1837, leaving four children, one having died in infancy, 
another in childhood. Of the four who grew to maturity, three were married; 
they were: Littleton, Mrs. Sallie Ford, and Richard M., the last named living 
in Atchison county, Missouri, he being the only one of the children living at 
this w'riting (1909). George Rhoades was twice married, the second time in 
1838 to Jane Hall, who \vas born in Indiana in 1814, and to this union nine 
children were born, eight of whom are living at this writing, namely : Dr. Mar- 
cus M., born in 1839, living at Graham, Missouri; George R., bora December 
3, 1843, ^^'^'^s in Cambridge township. Saline county; Mrs. Henrietta Gilliam 
hves at Slater, Missouri ; John T. lives in Montana ; Mrs. Mary C. Mead 
lives in Slater, Missouri ; William R. also lives in that town engaged in the 
drug business ; Ethelbert L. is living in Miami township, Saline county ; Mrs. 
H. J. Ely, of Slater, Missouri. The death of George Rhoades occurred in 
Cambridge township and that of his wife on the old homestead in 1890. 

Littleton and Mary C. (Hill) Rhoades, wdio married August 2. 1854, 
soon afterwards moved to Atchison county, Missouri, locating on a farm 
there where they remained until Mr. Rhoades died, December 8, 1857. They 
were the parents of three children, namely; John R., born in Atchison county, 
in July, 1855 ' Eugene was born December 2. 1856, and is residing in Atchison 
county, where he has served as judge of the county court for two years ; Mrs. 
Mary L. Maupin, who was born on February 21, 1858, also lives in that 
county. 

Mrs. Rhoades remained in Atchison county, Missouri, after her husband's 
death, until in June, 1858, when she returned to her father's home in Saline 
county, Missouri, where she remained until 1872. She married a second time, 
her last husband being Daniel S. Norvell, who was born in Buckingham 
county, Virginia, February 6, 1813. He came to Saline county, Missouri, 
about 1838, locating- in Cambridge township where he entered land, having 
owned about three hundred acres at the time of his death. Previous to the 
Civil war he was a slave owner. He belonged to the Baptist church. He was 
a widower when he married Mrs. Rhoades, his first wife having died in 



486 PAST AND PRESENT 

September. 1871 ; they were the parents of ten children, four of whom are 
hving- at this writing. Mr. Norvell and his second wife made tlieir home on 
his farm until his death, June i, 1891. No children were born to them. 

Mrs. Norvell, who received a widow's dower in the estate of her last 
husband, lives on the farm, occupying the old homestead, at present owning 
fifty-seven acres. She is a member of the Baptist church, and, although well 
past the meridian of life, she is active and, with the assistance of her grandson, 
T. Forest Rhoades, conducts the affairs of her farm. She is a kindhearted. 
Christian lady and one always feels better after meeting and conversing with 
her. She is very fond of her children and takes a great interest in their wel- 
fare. Her second child, Eugene Rhoades, is a progressive farmer in Atchison 
county, married and has four children, all boys. Mrs. NorvelTs youngest 
child, Mrs. Mary L. Maupin, also of Atchison county, is the mother of eleven 
children, all living. 



JOHN R. RHOADES. 



A well known farmer of Cambridge township. Saline county, is John R. 
Rhoades, who was born in Atchison county, Missouri, July 10, 1855. He is 
the son of Littleton and Mary C. (Hill) Rhoades, each representing a long 
line of sterling ancestors. John R. Rhoades received his education in the 
public schools of Cambridge township, Saline county, whither he came with 
his parents when a boy. He grew up on the home farm where he began work- 
ing in the fields when yet a small lad, and he remained on the farm with his 
mother until his marriage, on May 11, 1879. Soon afterwards he bought a 
farm on Fish creek, in Clay township, and lived there for eight months, when 
he moved back to Cambridge township, renting land here for a short time. In 
the fall of 1 88 1 he bought seventy-nine acres in section 19, township 52, range 
19, Cambridge township, where he lives at this writing (1909). He carries 
on general farming very successfully and has a comfortable dwelling and 
good outbuildings; he keeps some good stock, but does not deal extensively 
in any line of livestock. 

Mr. Rhoades w^as first married on May 11, 1879, to Kate M. Freet, who 
was born in Cambridge township, Saline county, February 16, 1859, the 
daughter of Samuel and Maria Freet, natives of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Rhoades 
was called to her rest on March 29, 1890, after becoming the mother of five 
children, the youngest of whom, Willie J., died on August 30. 1890, aged 
seven months. Those living are, T. Forest, born February 8, 1882, who resides 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 487 

with his grandniother. Mrs. M. C. Norvell ; Eugene A. was born Octoljer 7, 
1883, and is hving in Sacramento, California; he married Dona R. Hall, l)y 
whom one child. Atlee Eugene, Jr., was born June 14, 1909; Maggie M. is 
the wife of Clarence Marshall, of Cambridge township, this county, and her 
birth occurred on August 13, 1886; one child, John, was born to them August 
26, 1906; Minnie K., born March 9, 1888, is the wife of Reid Jeter. The 
oldest of Mr. Rhoades' children, Samuel L., was born April 26, 1880, and 
died April 28, 1889. 

John R. Rhoades was married a second time, his last wife being Susan 
A. McCormick, whom he espoused on October i, 1891. She was born on 
October 10, 1866, and is the daughter of Erskine E. and Luticia A. (Hawkins) 
McCormick, of Cambridge township. Saline county. This second union has 
resulted in the birth of three children, namely: Mary L., born April 7, 1896; 
Mitchell B.. born April 23, 1899, and Lorena Estelle, born November 30, 1902. 

Mr. Rhoades is regarded by all who know him as a man of upright char- 
acter and a conservative and painstaking farmer, who has made a success of 
his chosen profession because he has attended strictly to his individual affairs, 
however not neglecting his duty to the general public while advancing his own 
interests, and by reason of these commendable qualities of character, he is 
held in high favor by all who know him. He and his wife are faithful mem- 
bers of the Baptist church. 



COMMODORE PERRY STORTS. 

The family of this name in Saline county is of German stock, American- 
ized by long residence in this country. George Storts, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, settled in what is now West Virginia in the early part of the last cen- 
tury and from him has sprung the Saline county branch of the family. His 
son. Perry Commodore Storts, was born in West Virginia, March 24, 1836, 
and came west when about nineteen years old. He settled on a farm in Sa- 
line county, five miles north of Slater, and has achieved a competence by farm- 
ing steadily for forty years. While he now resides in Slater, he is still in- 
terested in agricultural pursuits. In youth he acted as overseer for Doctor 
Lacy, who was an extensive owner of slaves, and later served two years in 
the Southern army, as a meml)er of a Missouri regiment. In 1863 he mar- 
ried Ann Elizabeth, daughter of Laban Garrett, a native of Virginia who 
went to Tennessee, married there and subsequently came to this part of Mis- 



488 PAST AND PRESENT 

S(Uiri. He taught the first term of school in Saline county, being among the 
\er\- first of those who settled in this section. Mrs. Storts was born February 
10. 1839. and is still living. She and her husband became the parents of 
seven children, whose names in order of birth are as follows: \\'illiam B.. 
in the livestock commission business at St. Joseph, Missouri ; Hepzibah died 
in infancy : Commodore P. ; Brick Pomeroy, a farmer and stock dealer near 
Slater: Rulina. at home: Anna S.. wife of L. A. Buck, a traveling salesman 
of Slater; and Dollie, at home. 

Commodore Perry Storts, third in this list, was born on the parental farm 
near Slater, January 17, 1866. He remained on the farm until the comple- 
tion of his nineteenth year, meantime attending the public schools and the 
high school at Slater, from which he was graduated. He cut short his educa- 
tion to accept a position in the Citizens Stock Bank of Slater and was employed 
there as a clerk for nine years. December 17, 1894, the bank failed and Mr. 
Storts was appointed assignee by the board of directors. He gave bond of 
seven hundred thousand dollars and took complete charge of the bank's af- 
fairs, which it took several years to close up. He had always had a legal career 
in view, in fact his first work was to secure money to obtain an education 
for the bar and he began studying law as soon as he entered the bank. His 
ambition was finally gratified by his admission to the bar in 1897, and he began 
practice at once in partnership with R. Gurdon Thompson, a brilliant young 
lawyer who had been his schoolmate but who died soon after the l:)usiness 
association commenced at Slater. Mr. Storts continued alone and has 
achieved unusual success, being possessed of marked talents for business and all 
the social qualities that make for popularity. He has prospered financially, 
having farming interests and other investments, but is noted for his generos- 
ity, willingly and gladly giving of his time and money to all worthv enter- 
prises. 

September 17, 1891, Mr. Storts married Katie Graves, who was born 
in Saline county and went to school with her future husband. Her parents, 
Junius and Anna M. Graves, came from Kentucky before the war, in which 
the father subsequently served as a soldier. Mr. and Mrs. Storts have two 
children, Mattie May. born July 1. 1892, and Perry (iraves, born February 
10, 1899. Mr. Storts is a member of the Baptist church and has been mod- 
erator of the Saline Baptist Association, which includes twenty-five churches, 
since 1903. For a number of years he has been clerk of his home church in 
Slater, to which his wife and daughter also belong. He has taken an 
especial interest in church work, not only at home but all over the state, being 
often called upon to preside and address meetings. Fraternally he is a mem- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 489 

ber of Cambridge Lodge, No. 63, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and 
was master of the lodge for several years and has held nearly all the positions 
of the local order. He is a member of Chapter No. 112, Royal Arch Masons, 
of Slater and he and his wife are members of Chapter No. 67 of the Order of 
Eastern Star. He is a member of Marshall Commandery No. 36, Knights 
Templar, and stands high in Masonry throughout the Missouri branches of the 
order. Though a Democrat in politics and frequently active during cam- 
paigns, he has never sought or desired office. Mr. Storts is exceedingly gen- 
ial and public spirited, being a favorite with all who meet him. He is a man 
of fine presence, genial address and affable manners, — in fact makes such a 
pleasant and entertaining companion that all who enjoy his delightful pres- 
ence are anxious to meet him again. 



TIPPING BROTHERS. 



No name has been more familiar in Saline countv for thirtv-five vears 
than that of Tipping. It is connected enduringly with a valuable industry, 
the first of its kind founded in the county and pushed to success by the won- 
derful energ}- and executive ability of James A. Tipping-. He was born at 
Selma, Alaljama. in 1853 ^"^^ came to Missouri, with his parents, when a b(iv. 
They located at Arrow Rock, where he lived eight or ten Acars, being in 
business during the latter part of this period. In 1875 he came to Marshall 
and formed a partnership with Edward Farley, but later purchased his inter- 
est and conducted the business alone. In 1875 li^ established the first marble 
shop in Saline county, which he conducted successfully until his death, Sep- 
tember 17, 1897. He became one of the best known men in the county. 
He was reared in the Catholic church, and was an Odd Fellow. Knight of 
Pythias and ]\faccabee. He married Christina Bihr, of Columbia, Missouri, 
by whom he had six children, \\^illiam V., Mary E., Katherine A., Fred B., 
Homer R. and Dora M. 

\\'illiam \'. and Fred B. Tipping w-ere born in Marshall, Missouri. Both 
were educated in the city public schools and when their father died the boys 
sold the plant, William V. being associated with other well known firms 
until March 14, 1909, when he and Fred B. started their present business at 
the old stand, which they own, besides three other adjoining store rooms, the 
entire establishment forming a substantial business block on Lafayette street. 
They conduct a granite and marble works under the firm name of Tipping 



4QO PAST AND PRESENT 

Brothers, and bid fair lo reach the fame of their father in the business as 
thev are young men of industrious habits and excellent characters, already 
(|uite popular with their trade as well as the general public. The entire fam- 
ily belongs to the Christian church and all live together in a modern home sit- 
uated on twenty-seven acres in Marshall. They stand high socially in Mar- 
shall and are welcome guests in the city's best social circles. 



LOGAX BALLENTINE CHAPPELL. 

Saline county lost a valuable citizen and favorite son by the untimely 
death of Logan Ballentine Chappell. He was a man of large affairs and his 
comparatively brief life was intimately interwoven with the interests of his 
community. A typical Missourian, the flower of Southern chivalry, enter- 
prising, progressive and public spirited, his taking off in the prime of manhood 
was a loss distinctly felt by every man in the county of which he was the 
pride and ornament. Of large, athletic build, standing six feet high and 
w'eighing two hundred pounds, his impressive physical characteristics were but 
the outward indication of his intellectual superiority. The ancestors of his 
family were of old English stock, whose descendants settled in Virginia, 
from which state Mr. Chappell came to Missouri, during the formative period 
of this great commonwealth. He located in Calloway county and there 
reared his children, one of whom was destined to achieve great distinction 
in the state. Phil E. Chappell was born August i8, 1837, and from his ear- 
liest childhood gave promise of future fame. He became a resident of Kan- 
sas City, where his work in various walks of life made him one of the most 
distinguished men of Missouri. He was one of the giants in those heroic 
days half a centui-y ago, when an imperial state was being fashioned out of the 
wilderness and what he did then has become a part of Missouri's history. 
July 3, 1861, he married Theresa Ellen Tarlton, by whom he had five children. 
Of these, Logan Ballentine Chappell, the second child and only son, was torn 
in Calloway county, Missouri, November 4, 1864. His education was re- 
ceived at the Kemper school in Boonville and at Central College in Cooper 
county. After he reached manhood he engaged in agricultural pursuits with 
such success as to achieve the reputation of being the best farmer in the state. 
He became the owner of a magnificent farm in Saline county knowai as "The 
Maples," which experts regarded as the finest farming estate in Missouri. 
He was passionately fond of fine stock and highly successful as a breeder of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 491 

Hereford cattle. His home was the abode of hospitality and the center of a 
social circle, both large and influential. All the app(tintments were elegant 
and the mode of life after the best manner of the old aristocracy of the South 
in its palmiest days. ]\Ir. Chappell was a director of the Farmers' Savings 
Bank of Marshall and a trustee of the Sappington fund. Religious in his tem- 
perament, he was a steward in the Southern Methodist church and a man of 
the strictest morals as well as the highest ideals. He was a man of industry, 
energy and excellent business judgment, who though of few words impressed 
all who approached him with his fixedness of purpose and. unswerving deter- 
mination to accomplish whatever he undertook. 

March 17, 1900, Mr. Chappell married Rena, daughter of Nathan Cor- 
der, of Waverly, Missouri. They have three children, Theresa, Hazel and 
Helen, whose appearance and manners give promise of unusually attractive 
womanhood. Mr. Chappell died August 23, 1904, at the home of his par- 
ents, 1836 Pendleton avenue, Kansas City. He had gone to the city a few 
weeks previously to treat for peritonitis, but after arrival grew gradually 
worse until his fine spirit was hushed in death. In all the relations of life, as 
father, husband, friend, public official, common citizen, he was generous, true 
and warm hearted. The memory of his just and honest life is a precious 
legacy to his family, as well as a valued remembrance to the thousands who 
knew and loved him. Mrs. Chappell, who is a lady of more than ordinary 
graces and a fit companion for so noble a husband, makes her home in Mar- 
shall with her three little girls. They are welcome visitors in every house- 
hold, not only because all desire to honor the dead father and husband, but 
because they themselves are deserving of the best by reason of the grace of 
their intercourse and the purity. of their lives. 



HENRY C. DEIS, Jr. 



Henry C. Deis, Jr., the fourth son of a family of ten children born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Henry C. Deis, of Gilliam, Saline county, where the subject 
is residing, was born May 7, 1875. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth 
Goetze. The ancestry of the parents of the subject is found in the sketch of 
Henrv^ C. Deis, Sr., in this work. 

Henry C. Deis, Jr., was educated in the common schools of Saline county. 
After leaving school he launched in the grocery business, becoming a clerk 
for M. D. Kerr, of Gilliam, where he worked for a period of ten years, during 



4(jJ PAST AND PRESENT 

which time he rendered very efficient service and learned the business 
thorouohly. In igoo he left the employ of Mr. Kerr and opened a general 
store in (hlliam. w here he is at present engaged in business, having built up an 
extensive trade with the towns and surrounding country. He carries a well 
selected stock of general merchandise and his patrons are constantly increas- 
ing. 

Mr. Deis was married on Jtme 12, 1906. to Alice Chandler, a native of a 
prominent family of Howard county, Missouri, where she was born on May 
31, 1886. She is the daughter of William and Eva Chandler, of Cambridge 
township. Saline county. To Mr. and Mrs. Deis one child, Dorothy L., was 
born March 29, 1907. 

Politically Mr. Deis is a Democrat and he has taken considerable interest 
in local affairs, having very ably held the office of treasurer of (jilliam for a 
period of eight years. He is a member of the Masonic order at Slater, ^Mis- 
souri, and he belongs to the Baptist church at Gilliam. 



HON. ROBERT LEE HAINS. 

The family of this name in Saline county is of Welsh stock, the emi- 
grant ancestors locating in northeastern Virginia during the latter part of 
the seventeenth centiu'}'. One <^f their descendants was George C. Hains, 
who was born in FaiKjiu'er county. Virginia, and became a farmer after he 
grew up. At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the Eighth Vir- 
ginia Regiment, with which he participated in many battles and saw much 
hard service. He was at Manassas, Ball's Bluff and the AA'ilderness, be- 
sides many other sharp engagements large and small. He remained with the 
banner throughout the entire period of hostilities and quit only when Lee was 
forced to surrender to superior numbers. Shortly after the conclusion of 
peace, in 1865, h^ removed to Ohio, but eighteen years later he crossed into 
the fertile state of Missouri, locating in Saline county and settling on the farm 
near Slater, which has continued to be his home up to the present time. He 
married Elizabeth McCourt, of Belmont county, Ohio, by whom he has had 
twelve children; Robert L. : John C. of Slater; Mrs. Carrie M. Potter, of 
Afalta Bend, Missouri; Mrs. Xettie Virginia Hill, of Slater; AA'. A\\, of Mar- 
shall ; ^Irs. Mattie C. Grimes, of Slater; Minnie, of Slater; Mrs. Hattie 
Grimes, of Mt. Leonard; George AA\, of Slater; Daisy, of Slater; Rozicr N., 
of Slater; and Hazel. 



/ 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 493 

Robert Lee Hains, eldest of this large family, was born in Belmont 
county. Ohio, February 25, 1866. A\'hen only three years old his parents 
went to Virginia and he received his first schooling in that state. When he 
came to Missouri in 1883. he continued his studies irregularly in the local 
schools and at William Jewel College. He reached Slater on March 13. 1883, 
and knew only one man west of the Mississippi river. Of the twelve children, 
seven became teachers and two still follow the profession. ^Ir. Hains taught 
in Saline county for seventeen years, beginning at the age of nineteen as soon 
as he got out of college. During his teaching career he was also actively 
engaged in farming, operating the farm of two hundred and forty acres, 
which he still owns, and living on it until three or four years ago. January 
I. 1906, he located at Slater as partner of R. D. Ouisenberry, his brother- 
in-law. in the hardware and furniture business. 'Mr. Hains. who was alwa}S 
popular as a farmer and business man, also atttracted attention politically at 
an earlv age as he always assisted in the campaigns and was an enthusiastic 
Democrat. In 1900 he was nominated by his party as representative in the 
Legislature from Saline county, was elected and by re-election served the 
three terms closing in 1906. He proved to be a valuable member of the 
house of Representatives, in all of whose important proceedings he took an 
active part, having in view all the time the interest of his constituents. He 
was an especially warm advocate of the Institution for the Feeble Minded, 
located at Marshall, and during his six years' service was instrumental in get- 
ting for that worthy charity appropriations amounting to four hundred and 
seventv-seven thousand dollars. As a farmer and good citizen he took special 
interest in the law prohibiting racing at St. Louis, known as the repeal of the 
breeders' bill, and did all in his power to get this enactment on the statute 
book. Another measure which Mr. Hains was potential in passing was the 
bill establishing a binding twine plant at the state pri.son. 

October 8, 1891. Mr. Hains married Roselma W.. youngest daughter 
of Daniel and Mary Quisenberry. of Saline county. The parents came here 
from Spottsylvania county, Virginia, some years before the war. The mother 
was Mary, daughter of Abner Gwinn, a pioneer Baptist preacher. Air. and 
and Mrs. Hains have had two children, Marion Lee, born June 7. 1898, and 
an elder son who died in infancy. The parents are members of the Baptist 
church, to which Mr. Hains has belonged for twenty-five years and he is as- 
sistant superintendent of the Sunday school. He has always taken much in- 
terest in church work, as he has in all that promises good to the community. 
He is president of the Baptist Young- People's Union of the Slater 
Baptist church, and in his fraternal relations he is a member of the Masons, 



494 PAST AND PRESENT 

INIodeni Woodmen and Knights of Pythias. He is strictly a self-made man, 
educating himself after the day's work was done and he can, without boast- 
ing, attribute all his success in life to his early training and the self-reliance, 
sober habits and industrious inclinations then acquired. 



SAMUEL E. MARTIN. 



A progressive and influential agriculturist of Marshall township, Sa- 
line county, is Samuel E. ISIartin, whose life has been led along quiet and 
unobtrusive paths. However, it has been of more than passing interest and 
influence to his neighbors, for in advancing his own interests he has not been 
neglectful *of the rights and welfare of others. He is a descendant of excel- 
lent pioneer people of northwestern Missouri, who came to Cooper county 
and still later Saline county, this state. He is the son of Robert D. and 
Jennett (Smith) Martin, both natives of Kentucky where they were mar- 
ried and from which state the)^ moved to Indiana, in which state their son, 
Samuel E., of this review, was born, March 20, 1842, where the family re- 
mained for a short time, moving in October of that year to Missouri and 
located in Cooper county, near Arrow Rock, where they bought a farm and 
carried on general farming, making great improvements in the place wdiere 
they settled and where the father lived until 1861, when his death occurred. 
He was a Whig until 1858, when he voted the Democratic ticket. He was 
never an office seeker; he was a plain, honest man of high integritv and above 
reproach. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church. His widow sur- 
vived him until 1877, when she, too, passed to the unknown. She was a good 
woman, and was of Scotch descent, Mr. Martin being of Irish descent. They 
were the parents of the following children: John T., ex-county treasurer of 
Saline county; William, a teacher and farmer; James H.. a carpenter; Samuel 
E., of this review; Mary E. is the wife of ^^^ S. Brown; Edward T. is 
farming in the state of Washington ; Catherine is the wife of J. W. Shemwell. 

Samuel E. Martin w-as a baby when his parents brought liim to Alissouri 
and he was reared and educated here in the common schools, remaining under 
the parental roof, assisting his mother with the work about the home place 
after the death of his father, until he married in 1871. During the Civil war 
he remained at home, refraining from taking sides and he experienced no 
trouble. He began life for himself by buying open prairie land, two hundred 
and four acres, which he broke and improved, this being the farm where he 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 495 

still lives. It is interesting to hear him relate how the country has improved 
since then, for he, like many another who settled here, had to break the virgin 
prairie sod and clear the ground of primitive timber. However, in 1881, 
after ten years of successful farming here, he sold the place to his brother, J. 
P. Martin, and moved two miles north of Shackelford, where he l)ought a 
farm which he developed and sold in 1895 and returned to the old home farm 
which he purchased and he has since remained here. His brother built 
a verv convenient and substantial dwelling and otherwise improved the place, 
which is now one of the best in the township, having been carefully tilled so 
that it has retained its original strength of soil. He carries on general farm- 
ing and stock raising in such a manner as to stamp him fully abreast of the 
times in this line and he has been very successful since beginning life for him- 
self. He is a strong supporter of the Democratic party, but has never aspired 
to public office. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, is well known 
over most of the county and wherever he is known he is duly respected for 
his tine personal traits. 

Mr. Martin's domestic life began in 1871, when he married Sarah E. 
Clements, who was born in Virginia in 1850, the daughter of Charles and 
Ann (Filler) Clements, natives also of Virginia, who came to Missouri in 
an early day, locating in Cass county and after the Civil war they bought a 
farm in Cass county, where they remained until they came to Marshall town- 
ship, Saline county, Missouri, having sold their Cass county farm. The rail- 
road bought his place here and Mr. Clements then bought the Finnegan place, 
on which he lived until his death, carrying on general farming and stock 
raising, being very successful. He was a highly honored man and he and 
his family were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He and 
his wife were the parents of the following children: Thomas; Sarah E., wife 
of Samuel E. Martin, of this review; Ruth married E. P. Martin; John is 
living in the West ; Jennie married T. W. \\'alters ; Ann D. married a Mr. 
Lowry ; Emma B. is the wife of B. Levy. 

The following children were born to Air. and Mrs. Martin : Mary E. 
has remained single ; Bessie died when thirteen years of age ; Ida married 
John Roscher; Edgar is a farmer in North Dakota; Robert, a farmer, mar- 
ried Margaret Andrews, daughter of David Andrews, who was born at 
Sweet Springs, this county, the Andrews family being early settlers here; 
Lester, who remained single, died when twenty-four years of age; William 
lives in San Antonio, Texas; Gerard died at the age of two years; Catherine 
died when six months old. 



49'3 FAST AND PRESENT 

The mother of the children, a woman of beautiful Christian character 
and retinemcnt. was called to her rest in 1889. She was a member of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church. 



JOHN WALL. 

Xinet}--one A'ears have dissolved in the mists of time since this vener- 
able and highly honored pioneer first saw the light of day. hea\en having 
bounteously lengthened out his useful and interesting career until now, in 
the golden Indian summer of his life, he can look backward over days well 
spent, and with no compunction for any past acts and no fear of the future, 
he finds himself surrounded by all the comforts of life and a blessing to a 
vast mmiber of relatives, friends and acquaintances. 

John ^^'all, a descendant of a prominent early family of Saline county 
and a \'eteran of the Mexican war, was born in Montgomery county, Vir- 
ginia, January 18, 1819, educated in the common schools and has figured 
conspicuously in various walks of life. He is the son of Samuel and Mar- 
garet (Utt) Wall, both natives of the Old Dominion, having been reared 
in Virginia and married there. The father was born in November, 1790, 
the son of John Wall, a native of South Carolina, where he was reared 
and from which state he enlisted as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, 
serving under Gen. Francis Marion. The Wall family is of German ex- 
traction and early settlers in Virginia, where they were farmers and slave 
owners and prominent in the Lutheran church. John died there in 1824 at 
an advanced age. He reared four sons. Samuel, the youngest of the boys, 
grew to manhood in Virginia, married there and began farming on the old 
homestead. He remained there until all his children were born but one, 
and in 1833 he moved to Saline county, Missouri, and in 1835 he entered 
the land where John Wall of this review now resides, later buying other 
lands. He brought one male slave from Virginia. He was born Novem- 
ber 22. 1790, and died August 15, 1865. at the age of seventy-five years. 
When he settled here he built a log cabin, made rails for his fences and 
cleared a small acreage, soon getting a start and later becoming fairly well- 
to-do for those days. There was plenty of wild game and wild beasts here 
then, the country being sparsely settled. The Rev. Henry Weedin, 
who had been here several years previously, had erected a grist mill, oper- 
ated by horse power, in the neighborhood, and he was often compelled to 




TOHN WALL. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOl.'RI 497 

go to Cooper's Fort, in Howard county, on account of hostile Indians. The 
early settlers went to .\rrow Rock and Jonesboro for their milling and trad- 
ing. They raised hemp, tiax and other materials on the farm for their 
clotlhng, the women spinning and weaving the garments. The countv set- 
tled up slowly and f<jr many years there were no churches. Aljout 1855 
John Wall and John C. Pulliam sawed luml)er in the Missouri river bot- 
toms for the frame to build the first church house at Marshall. I'rior to 
this time services were held at private houses and at the court house at Alar- 
shall, or w'herever a place was convenient. The Walls were Lutherans, 
but there being no services of this denomination here at that time, they 
joined the Presbyterians about 1840 and continued in this church through 
the remaining years of their life. 

Mr. and Mrs. W all came to the then new country here from their old 
Virginia home because they beliex'ed their children would have greater ad- 
vantages for a start in life in the newer state. P)Oth he and his wife under- 
went the usual privations and hardships incident to a pioneer life and b(jth 
were always proud of their adopted home and their neighbors, the sterling 
pioneer families. Mr. Wall was a strong Democrat, but he li\'ed a (|uiet 
life. He died highly respected and after a life filled with good deeds and 
honor in August. 1865, at the age of seventy-five years. His widow sur- 
vived until August 15, 1885, reaching the advanced age of eighty-five }ears. 
They were the parents of the following children : Elvina married W. L. 
Brown, of California; Elizabeth is the widow of John Ryan, and is living 
in California ; John, of this review, living on the old home farm ; Mary J. ; 
Mrs. A. Jackson; Henry died in Colorado; Margaret married William 
Clark, of Marshall; William AT, the only child of this family born in Mis- 
souri, moved to Indian Territory, and later was a resident at Rocky Ford. 
Colorado. 

John W^all was thirteen years of age when he moved with his parents 
from Virginia to Missouri, and he soon began assisting his father in es- 
tablishing a new home in the W^est, and here he grew to manhood. He 
has resided in Saline county seventy-six years, and has seen it grow from 
a wild prairie to its present opulency, doing what he could in the general 
development of the same ; he has been a hard worker all his life and has 
been successful. He remained under the parental roof until 1846, when he 
was quick to respond to his country's call for troops for the Mexican war 
and he w'as mustered in at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, serving in Compau}- 
D, First Regiment, AUssouri Mounted Volunteers, commanded by Col. .\. 
W. Doniphan. This regiment participated in the battles of Brazito and 

32 



4yS PAST AND PRESENT 

Sacramento, being successful in both battles. Mr. Wall passed safely 
ihnnigh the war, being never wounded nor taken prisoner. lM)r his ser- 
vices the government rememl)ers him with a substantia] pension. lie was 
mustered out in June, 1847, at New Orleans. Returning home, he resumed 
farming, which he followed until 1849, ^vhen the discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia caused him to join the great caravan across the trackless plains for 
the (hstant Kldorado. the colon^• willi which lie made the trip being com- 
l^osed of fiftv-f(un- men and sixteen wagons, enduring the usual hardships 
en route, but reaching their destination in safety. The party then scattered 
and Mr. Wall i)rospected and mined in different places with some success, 
returning home in 1852 by way of the isthmus of Panama and New Or- 
leans. .After arri\'ing in Saline county, he engaged in sawmilling for two 
years. In 1856 he married and with a company built a grist-mill at Cam- 
bridge, filling the position of engineer for a period of two years. He then 
closed out and later engaged in the merchandise business at Cambridge in 
1859, continuing until 1876, but during the Civil war his business was 
light. He opposed secession and stood for the Union and he was in the 
state service for the Federal cause from 1862 to 1865 and liable to call at 
anv time, but he never left the state, rendering some service in the state as 
a militiaman. He was at the little battle of Glasgow, opposing General 
Price in one of his raids, Mr. Wall and his company being captured, but 
was soon afterward paroled. He returned home in time and in 1866 was 
elected sheriff of Saline county, serving two terms until 1870. He had con- 
siderable trouble the first two years of his administration, it being recon- 
struction days, the old busliwhackers annoying him, but he was always ecpial 
to the occasion, alert, brave and persistent in the performance of his duty. 
It was his duty to collect the taxes as a part of his official duties, he being- 
required to give heavy bond, and he very ably discharged the duties of both 
offices, gaining the confidence and respect of all his constituents of whatever 
political faith. 

Mr. Wall bought the interests of the other heirs to the old homestead 
and in 1878 he moved to the old home, giving all his attention to farming 
and stock raising in a most successful manner. The place consists of two 
hundred and eighty acres, wdiich he has kept in a high state of cultivation 
and with his usual energy and push has made a great success. In later years 
he has turned the work and business of the place over to his sons, who are 
carrying forward very energeticallv the work inaugurated by their father. 
The latter, although ninety-one years of age, attends to the garden and 
chores. He has a good memorv and it is very interesting to hear him relate 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 499 

reminiscences of the early days here, of his experiences in the Mexican war, 
of his trials crossing the plains, in the gold camps of the far West and his 
trip home by way of the isthmus. He is indeed a grand old man, grand 
because of his past years of faithful service in loehalf of his countr}-, for his 
long life of industry, his honorable living and his generosity in assisting 
friends. He believes in keeping busy, that a man will rust out c[uicker than 
he will Wear out. Useless to say. he is well known throughout the county 
and highly respected by all. He was reared a Democrat, but in his youth he 
was inclined to be a Whig in principle. Since returning from California 
he has been a Republican. 

Mr. Wall married Mary B. Gault in 1856. She was born in Saline 
county, Missouri, September 22, 1837. the daughter of John and Salome 
(Kiser) Gault, both natives of Virginia and early settlers in Saline county, 
the Risers having been among the earliest pioneers. ' John Gault first began 
farming here, later worked at his trade of saddlemaker at Miami, where he 
continued during his active life and where he died. He was an active Metho- 
dist. His family consisted of ten children, Mary B., wife of Mr. W^all, being 
one of the number. 

To Mr. and Mrs. John Wall six children were bom, all sons, named 
as follows : Edward E., a civil engineer of St. Louis, where he is influen- 
tial in politics ; Charles G. died at four and one-half years of age ; John E. 
is faiTning at home, as are also Samuel G. and Henry; George C. is book- 
keeper and stenographer for a St. Louis firm, where he has remained seven 
years. Henry and George have remained single. The mother of these 
children was a Methodist. After a long and mutually happy wedded life 
Mr. and Mrs. John Wall were separated by the "grim reaper" who claimed 
Mrs. Wall for his own on May 5, 1909. Her life had been a beautiful one, 
filled with 2:ood deeds. 



CALOWAY FRANKLIN ODELL. 

The subject of this sketch is one of the oldest native residents of Saline 
county, eighty-three years having dissolved in the mists of the past since his 
birth occurred on the, 12th day of September, 1826. His parents, Jeremiah 
and Elizabeth (Gregory) Odell, were natives of Tennessee and became hus- 
band and wife in that state. As early as 181 8 Jeremiah Odell made a pros- 
pecting tour through Missouri territory on horseback and, being pleased with 
the country in the central part of the state, decided to make it his future place 



i^OO PAST AND PRESENT 

of abode. Returning home, he married and the following year (1819) 
brought his bride to the new Eldorado and located first in Howard county, 
near a fort to wdiich the settlers were accustomed to resort on account of the 
hostile attitude of the Indians. Later he transferred his residence to Saline 
county, settling originally on a tract of land, which he partly improyed. but 
a few years later sold the place and entered land near the site of Alarshall. 
He added to his possessions from time to time until he became one of the 
largest land owners in the community, and as the county seat had not yet been 
located he donated in 1839 sixty-five acres near the central part of the county 
for the purpose oi securing the same, provided the land should revert to his 
estate in case the town be located elsewhere. A site for the seat of justice 
having been selected on his place, he afterwards deeded the above tract to 
the county, and was among the most active and influential in settling and 
improving the new town, which in due time became the center of trade for a 
large area of territory and a place of considerable importance. Mr. Odell 
shared with his neighbors the usual hardships and vicissitudes of pioneer 
life, not the least among which was the fear of Indian massacre, as the sav- 
ages were quite numerous and always ready to steal horses and commit other 
depredations against the settlements. When they went on the war-path the 
white families sought refuge in the forts which had been erected at various 
places and not infrequently would these posts be attacked by the wily foe, be- 
sides engaging in open battle when their numbers warranted such actions. 

Mr. Odell purchased slaves and in the course of a few years attained con- 
siderable prominence as a farmer and citizen. He was a Democrat in politics 
and an influential worker for his party, taking an active interest in public mat- 
ters, l)ut never aspired to office of any kind. He was a man of strong mind 
and, although of limited scholastic attainmejits, was far above the average in 
intelligence and general information and well fitted for the influential posi- 
tion he held among his fellow citizens. He was widely known, highly re- 
spected and his name, which ever stood for all that was honorable and up- 
right in manhood, is being perpetuated by the finest street in Marshall, which 
in compliment to him was called Odell avenue. He lived to the ripe old 
age of eighty-six and with his good wife, who survived him a few years, lies 
buried in the Odell cemetery, which was laid out on the land which he origin- 
ally purchased from the government. 

Jeremiah and Elizabeth Odell reared a family of nine children, viz: 
Calvin. James, William, Caloway. l^>lix, John, Mary, Jackson and Emme- 
line, of whom Caloway is the only survivor. 

Caloway Odell was raised on the family homestead, early becoming fa- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 5OI 

miliar with the ckities of the farm and when fifteen years of age accepted a 
position in the office of the first circuit clerk of Saline comity. Later he clerked 
for seven years in a mercantile house in Marshall and from 1848 to 1852 in- 
clusive served as deputy sheriff. In 1855 he turned his attention to carpentry, 
which he followed with good success a few years hefore and for several years 
after the war, and then engaged in the undertaking business in Marshall which 
he conducted with gratifying financial profit for a considerable period. His 
father gave him fifteen acres of the eighty-acre tract adjoining the town site 
of Marshall and on this he erected in 1857 a comfortable and commodious 
residence which is now within the city limits, having sold all but one acre, 
which he reserved for his home. By judicious investments from time to time 
Mr. Odell became the owner of several tracts of valuable real estate, owning 
forty acres of land adjoining the corporate limits of the city and three fine 
farms which he rents and from which he receives an income much more than 
sufficient for his necessities. Like his father, he, too, is a man of affairs, 
always interested in the welfare of his city and county and keeping abreast 
of the times on the g-reat public questions and political issues of the day. A 
Democrat in politics, he has been active in promoting the success of his party 
and at the breaking out of the war he was opposed to secession, although nat- 
urally sympathizing with the South. In common with the people of his sec- 
tion of the country he experienced not a little annoyance during those troublous 
times on account of foraging bands of reckless desperadoes, who in addition 
to helping themselves from whatever the home and farm contained frequently 
compelled the good wife to cook and prepare their meals. By reason of the 
continued excitement and unsettled condition of the country his health be- 
came impaired, on account of which he went to Illinois, where he remained 
until aft'airs resumed their normal state, when he returned greatly improved. 
At the close of the war Air. Odell took up agriculture and stock raising, 
which he continued until advancing age obliged him to forego further active 
labor, since which time he has lived a life of retirement in Marshall, where, in 
a beautiful home, surrounded l)y all the necessary material comforts and 
other blessings, he is spending the evening of his days at peace with the 
world, his conscience and his God. He h.as seen the country de^•eloped from 
a wilderness to its present advanced state of progress and civilization, re- 
members the time when he shot deer from his own door and in many other 
ways recalls the pioneer period with its strong, courageous, virile men and 
equallv brave and fearless women, through whose efforts the country was 
redeemed from its primitive condition and converted into a very garden of 
plenty and beauty and to whom this highly favored part of the state is so 



Z^02 PAST AND PRESENT 

largely indebted for the prosperity which it now enjoys. Honest and up- 
right in all of his dealing's, with an honored name and a character above re- 
proach, he has done his part in bringing- about the remarkable changes re- 
ferred to and now, in the twilight of his career, he can look back over a 
life in which there is little to criticise and much to commend. 

Mr. Odell was married in 1855 to Matilda Gregory, whose birth oc- 
curred on the /th of June, 1829, being a daughter of William and Jennie 
(Murrell) Gregory, both natives of Tennessee. Their parents were among 
the early pioneers of Saline county and stood high in the esteem of the large 
circle of neighbors and friends with whom they mingled. To them were 
Ix^rn seven children. Mrs. Sarah West; Mrs. Matilda Odell; Henry, who 
died recently in California; Samuel, who lives in that state ; Mrs. Elizabeth 
Kinchelo, who died in Cooper county. Missouri ; William departed this life 
in Utah, and Archie, a farmer of Saline county. Mr. and Mrs. Odell have 
two children, William L., a prosp^erous farmer and representative citizen of 
Saline county, and Frank M., who is engaged in the stock business at Mar- 
shall. 



EDWIN T. ALEXANDER. 

Of sturdy self-reliant family were the Alexanders, originally of England, 
but pioneers of the colonies as far back as the seventeenth century. Accord- 
ing to the traditions, three brothers came over at the same time, one settling 
in Maryland, one in New York and one in Kentucky. The Saline county 
Alexanders are descended from the latter branch and others are still found in 
the region of Lexington, where they are prominent and well-to-do, some of 
them having achieved reputation as breeders of fine horses and cattle. One 
of them, during the first half of the last century, came to Missouri with a 
brother and located at St. Louis in the livery business. He later removed to 
Boonville, where he accumulated wealth as proprietor of a hotel and livery 
stable. His son, James M. Alexander, who was born at Boonville, became 
quite prominent and successful in an important line of manufacture. A sad- 
dler by trade, he achieved a high reputation for the strength, durability and 
perfection of his product. Nearly every saddle made in Saline county in 
those days was the result of his handicraft and his name became a household 
word among horsemen. Coming to Saline county when a young man, he 
worked for a while as a journeyman, and then located at Arrow Rock where 
for six years he conducted business on his own account. During the war he 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 503 

suffered considerably from depredations of the lawless element, who did not 
hesitate to appropriate his fine saddles to their own use, while forgetting to 
pay for them. For awhile he served as a soldier in the Federal army in 
Captain Bingham's company and after the conclusion of peace removed to 
Rock Island, Illinois, where he worked for four years as a saddler. Return- 
ing to Arrow Rock, he followed his trade until death ended his career in 1882. 
He was a member of the Christian church for many years and a charter mem- 
ber of the congregation at Arrow Rock. He married Alice McNeil, of St. 
Louis, who was descended from an old eastern family that became early pio- 
neers of Missouri. She died about 1880, after becoming the mother of eight 
children, of whom six are living. These are Edwin T. ; Mrs. John O. Adams, 
of California, Missouri ; Mrs. W. C. Fisher, of Marshall, Missouri ; ]\Irs. 
Fee Cheatham, Mrs. Laura Benbow, and Miss May Alexander, the three last 
named residing at Gilliam, this county. 

Edwin T. Alexander, eldest of the living children, w^as born at Caron- 
delet, Missouri, March 8, 1856. His youth was spent in Boonville, Arrow 
Rock and Rock Island, where his father lived at different times, and his pri- 
mary education was received in the two places last mentioned. He had the 
benefit of a term in the private academy of Miss Anna Reid, at Arrow Rock, 
after which he finished in the high school of the same town, under the pro- 
fessorship of G. W. Grove. His first work was as a clerk in a drug store at 
Arrow Rock, followed by a similar position with P. H. Franklin, druggist at 
Marshall, for one year. Returning to Arrows Rock, he engaged in the drug 
business for himself, but after three years sold out his interests and came to 
Slater where he has remained since in various lines of employment. For 
four years he clerked in a drug store, then entered the educational field and 
taught school for twenty years in Cambridge township. Aside from the three 
years in charge of schools in the county and one year with the Slater Mill and 
Elevator Company as bookkeeper, he was with the Slater schools all of this 
time and for a part of the time was principal. July i, 1908, he laid down his 
books to accept the appointment as postmaster of Slater, tendered him by 
President Roosevelt. 

November 12, 1880, Mr. Alexander married Maggie, eldest daughter 
of Elisha Ancell, a pioneer citizen of Saline county. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander 
have two sons. Claude C, eldest, is a graduate of Missouri Valley College, 
with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and is also a Master of Arts of the L'ni- 
versity of Chicago. He married Grace Newman, of Albany, Missouri, and 
they have two children, Sarah Margaret and Jettie Lucile. For three years 
he was superintendent of the Albany (Missouri) schools, and was re-elected 



c;o4 PAST AND PRESENT 

for the fourth year, but resii^ned to accept the position of principal of the 
Hibbing- ( Minn. ) schools, where he now resides. Roy A., Mr. Alexander's 
youn«-est son, was formerly manager of the Mead Shoe Company of Slater, 
but recently engaged in the furniture and wall paper business for himself. 
He married May Montgomery and has two children, Leroy and Ruth. Mr. 
and Mrs. Alexander and family are members of the Presbyterian church of 
which the former has been an elder for about fifteen years. He is a member 
of the Modern \\'oo(lmen of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, a Republican in politics and a clean, honest Christian gentleman who is 
highly respected by all. 



JAMES R. PHILLIPS. 



The family of this name settled in Kentucky at a very early date, ^^^len 
Gen. Thomas Phillips, of Virginia, reached *'The Dark and Bloody Ground." 
the state was sparsely settled and the conditions sufficiently primitive to suit 
the tastes of the hardiest adventurer. With the old pioneer came a son named 
John C. who at the time of the migration was a mere boy. The family set- 
tled in Hart cotmty and lived by farming, ^^■illiam H. Phillips, son of the 
last mentioned and a representative of the third generation, was born in Hart 
county. Kentucky, and removed to Saline county, Missouri, in 1858. He 
engaged in farming and continued in that occupation until his death, December 
5, 1881. He married Sallie L. Phillips, a native of Green county, Kentucky, 
who at present resides in Marshall, wath her daughter. Of her seven children, 
five are living, John D., of San Antonio, Texas; \A'. T., of Moberly. Mis- 
souri; George R., of Henry county, Missouri; Mrs. W. R. Ehrman, of Mar- 
shall, and James R. 

James R. Phillips, third of his father's children, was born in Saline 
county. Missouri, five miles southeast of Marshall, November 9. 1863. He 
grew up on the farm and remained there until 1893. meantime going through 
the educational routine of the usual country boy. In 1893 ^^^ came to Mar- 
shall and engaged in the real estate and insurance business, which he has since 
conducted. In 1905 he took in S. J. Montgomery as a partner and the firm has 
the reputation of being "hustlers." Mr. Phillips is special agent for the Home 
Insurance Company of New York, and has been on the road in the interest 
of that concern for a year or more. Aside from business Mr. Phillips is a 
man of prominence and influence in the political world. During the sessions 
of the Missouri General Assembly from 1893 to 1897 he was assistant enroll- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 505 

ing clerk in the house of Representatives. He was elected mayor of Mar- 
shall in 1904 and served until 1907, leaving a very creditable record. During 
his administration he built the new w'ater plant of Alarshall, which experts 
pronounce an exceptionally good one and its service has proved satisfactory 
to the people. He took steps to have board walks in town replaced with 
brick and concrete and by this action greatly improved the appearance of the 
place, w'hile adding much to the comfort of pedestrians. While he was in of- 
fice a sewer system was put in the south half of the town and several new^ 
streets macadamized. In fact Mr. Phillips' two terms as mayor will compare 
favorably with those of any of his predecessors or successors. He was presi- 
dent of the Association of Mayors of Missouri Cities of the Fourth Class, 
which was a decided compliment and tribute to his popularity. During his 
administration Marshall was made a city of the third class. Mr. Phillips is 
secretarv of the Marshall In\estment Compan}', a corporation handling real 
estate and loans, organized for a special purpose, but permitted by its charter 
to do regular business. Recently Mr. Phillips disposed of his real estate part- 
nership with Mr. Montgomery and will devote all his time to the road as 
special agent for the Home Insurance Company. 

December 30, 1896, Mr. Phillips married Edna B., daughter of Ambrose 
and Margaret (Glendy) Fry, both natives of Virginia and residents of Callo- 
way county, Missouri, where Mrs. Phillips was born. They have three chil- 
dren : Ruth B., born October 12, 1898; James R., Jr., born April 23, 1900. 
and Frank F.. who was born October 15, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are 
members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and the former is a member 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellow^s. He is also quite prominent as a 
member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which fraternity 
he is past exalted ruler and represented it as a delegate to the grand lodge at 
its meeting at Los Angeles, California, in July, 1909. 



CHARLES RETRY. 

The family of this name is a contribution to America l:)y the historic 
kingdom of Prussia and has been identified with this countrv for over half a 
century. John Nicholas Petry. the emigrant founder, was l^orn at Idar. Prus- 
sia, and came to the United States in October, 1857. ?Ie located at Boon- 
ville. Indiana, w'here he prosecuted his trade as shoemaker until April, 1865. 
He found a location at Jefferson City. Missouri, and made that citv his home 



506 PAST AND PRESENT 

until 1905, when he took up his abode with his son at jMarshall, and there 
ended his days, when eighty-three years old. He had belonged to the Metho- 
dist church for over fifty years and was always a man of exemplary habits. 
He married Philapina Kline, a native of Prussia, who died in May, 1897, after 
becoming the mother of seven children, of whom six are living. Their names 
in order of seniority are as follows : Charles ; William, a resident of Jefferson 
City ; Lewis, a resident of Nelson, Saline county ; August ; Ernest and John, 
the last tw^o living in Jefferson City. The fact that these six sons acted as 
pallbearers for both their father and mother is recalled as a pathetic incident in 
the family history. 

Charles Petry, eldest of the children, w-as born at Idar, Prussia, August 
24, 1850, and was consequently but seven years old when his parents crossed 
the Atlantic in search of a home in the New World. His first and only 
schooling was at Boonville, Indiana, during his father's brief residence at 
that place. At an early age he began work wnth his father in the shoe busi- 
ness and remained on the bench until the completion of his seventeenth year. 
In 1867 his father bought a saw mill in Moniteau county, Missouri, and 
Charles was given the task of running the establishment, which he did con- 
tinuously until 1888. In that year he went to work as chief engineer for the 
Marshall Water Company and eight years later became associated with Col- 
vert Brothers and others in organizing the Marshall Ice Company, in which 
he was made superintendent of manufacturing and construction. He has con- 
tinued in this business and established himself as one of the industrious, reliable 
and progressive citizens of the county seat. Whatever he does, he does 
thoroughl}', he keeps his engagements, respects his word and thus stands well 
w'ith patrons of his company and the people generally. He has prospered 
financially as the result of frugal habits, industry and good management and is 
now able to live comfortably and enjoy life in a beautiful home, consisting of 
seven acres of ground and situated on Eastwood avenue, in Marshall. He 
also owns the old Steel homestead, a valuable farm located between Napton 
and Nelson. 

In December, 1887, Mr. Petry married Ada May, daughter of Benja- 
min B. Steel, a well known farmer and carpenter of Saline county, who died 
about 1880. The children by this marriage are: Viola M., wife of F. P. 
Williams, operator for the Chicago & Alton railroad at Gilliam, Missouri ; 
William B., a dentist at Marshall; Charles T., assistant of his father in the 
ice plant; Dora, in the Marshall high school, and Steel, also a student in the 
same high school, which he entered before the completion of his fourteenth 
year. The parents are members of the Methodist church South and Mr. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 507 

Petry is a member of Trilumina Lodge, No. 205, of the Masonic fraternity, 
and Lodge No. 259, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The family 
stands well, both in the business and social world, as they have the steady 
ofoino- and winsome characteristics of the German race. 



RICHARD BARR. 



One of the younger generation of Saline county's prominent and sub- 
stantial farmers is Richard Barr, who is also known as an extensive dealer 
in livestock. He was born in Burlington, Iowa, May 15. 1857. and when 
eight years of age was brought to Saline county, Missouri, by his parents, 
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Barr, whose lives are given proper notice in another 
sketch in this work. He was reared on the home farm and was educated in 
the common schools, also spending eighteen months in school at Atchison, 
Kansas. Being the oldest child in a family of eight children, he was the 
first to assist his father and conditions were such that it was necessary for 
him to begin work when still a mere boy and he proved to be of great assist- 
ance in improving the farm. He remained with his parents until 1889, when 
he married and built the house wdiere he still resides and at once began farm- 
ing for himself. He first started on one hundred acres and he has made 
many substantial improvements on the place and has been very successful, 
being a hard worker and understanding well all the "ins and outs" of the 
agricultural business. He has an excellent farm, highly cultivated, now 
owning tw'O hundred and tw^enty acres, having added to his original pur-, 
chase from time to time. He devotes considerable attention to raising stock, 
buying and feeding cattle, no small part of his income being derived from 
this source, his stock always finding a ready market owing to their high 
grade and excellent quality. He has a nice home and attractive surroundings 
and everything about the place shows that a gentleman of good taste is 
its owner. 

Politically, Mr. Barr is a Democrat, but he has never aspired to public 
office. He and his family are worthy members of the Catholic church at 
Shackelford, in which congregation they hold high rank. 

Mr. Barr was married March 5, 1889, to Catherine Holmes, who was 
born in Saline county, Missouri, October 24, 1861. She is the daughter of 
Patrick Holmes, an early settler in this county, and an excellent and suc- 
cessful man and a liberal supporter of the Catholic church. He was a general 



50!^ PAST AND PRESENT 

farmer and stock man. in |)(:)litics a Democrat, a c|uiet. honest man. whom to 
know was to honor, lie (h'ed at liis liomestead liere in June, 1907, liis widow 
still snr\i\in^-. She is the datit^hter of Thomas Dnffy. a pioneer settler here, 
who died in the early days. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Holmes the following- children were horn: 
John, a farmer; ]*eter li\es on the old homestead; Catherine, wife of Richard 
Barr ; Marv marrietl Thomas Campbell, both deceased. The}- left one son, 
who was reared by his grandmother. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Richard Barr the following children were l)orn : Mary. 
Bridget. Rosa, Thomas, Holmes and Edna, all niembers of the home circle, 
constituting a happ\- family. 



THOMAS W. WINSLOW. 

A worth)- descendant from a prominent pioneer family of Saline county 
is T. W. W'inslow, a nati\-e of Greene county, Virginia, where his birth oc- 
curred October 29, 1845, and when ten years of age he was brought to Mis- 
souri by his parents and was reared on a farm here, receiving his education 
in the district schools. He is the son of Henry B. and Drucilla A. F. (Good- 
all) Winslow, both natives of Virginia, where they grew to maturity, married 
and began farming. Of the Winslow family we first hear of three brothers 
who came to America from England in the old colonial davs. They stopped 
for a time in \"irginia, where they separated and settled in different states, 
.one of them remaining in Virginia, and from him this branch of the family 
sprang. The paternal grandfather w-as Henry B. Winslow, Sr., wdio was a 
])rominent farmer and slaxe owner and one of the "First Families of Vir- 
ginia." an honorary a])pellation to the first settlers of the Old Dominion. He 
remained there itntil his death, and was the father of the following children: 
Henry B., father of T. W.. of this review; Ixichard ; Robert; Mar\-, now Mrs. 
Eddings; Patsy hrst married a Mr. Simms, later a Mr. Maupin, the fornier 
ha\ ing died. Henry B. Winslow remained in Virginia, farming successfully 
until all but one of his children were born. In the fall of 1855 he emigrated 
to Missoiu'i by way of Kentucky, making the trip in wagons, brmging his 
faniily and sla\-es and all his household eft'ects. He located in Saline count)-, 
spending the winter with his sister, Mrs. Mau]Mn, who had come here first as 
early as about 1836 and later in 1856. During the winter referred to he lo- 
cated and bought the land on which T. W. of this re\iew resides. The j)lace 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 509 

had a small rude house on it, but no other improvements. It consisted of two 
hundred and forty acres ; he later bought adjoining land until he owned a 
\erv large farm, and he became one of the ])rominent farmers of the county. 
His main crop was hemp, but he was a general farmer and stock raiser. He 
was too old to take the field during the Civil war, but his sympathies were 
with the South. Soldiers foraged on his farm, taking his stock and pro- 
visions. He was once arrested and taken to Marshall, but he was released. 
Two of his sons were in the Southern army, in Marmaduke's body guard, in 
General Price's command; one of the sons died in prison, but the other re- 
turned home after the war. The father was a Democrat, but never a public 
man. He was emphatic in bis decisions in all cjuestions. Although he was 
tln-eatened during the war, he would not "curb his tongue." He broke the 
virgin prairie sod here and developed a splendid farm. He was a Missionary 
Baptist and at first attended Salt Pond church, a long distance from his home. 
In i860 he assisted in org'anizing a union church about four miles northeast 
of his farm, and he was largely instrumental in building the substantial church 
there known as "Union," so named because its members were from various 
Baptist churches. However, the war interrupted the finishing of the church 
until after it had closed, although services were held there. He was a deacon 
and one of the pillars of the church. When he came here the county was 
sparsely settled and wild game was plentiful. His h(Uise was the headquarters 
for preachers and the wayfaring man was never turned from his door. He 
was charitable to the afflicted and needy, a good neighbor, well know'n and 
highly respected. His death occurred at the old homestead about 1881 and he 
is buried at the little cemetery at Union church. His widow survived, dying 
about 1887. She was a good and kindly disposed woman, a Baptist. The 
following children were born to them : Edwin M. ser\-ed through the Civil 
war and died July 8. 1.909 ; his wife is also deceased ; four children survive 
them; John B. died while still single; Mary M. married H. Bailey; Martha 
E. married A. Bickers ; Robert, who remained single, died while a prisoner 
of war; Eliza married William Kiser; T. W., of this review; Henry B.. Jr.. 
is living in Texas; Valentine I. is farming on the old homestead; Richard C. 
is also a farmer; Frances C. married J. W. Harrison; Moses W. is a farmer. 
All these children lived to be grown and all married, but two sons. 

T. \\\ ^^'inslow grew to manhood in Saline county, Missouri, having 
l^een a small boy when he came here from Virginia. During the war he 
spent one year in Illinois. He remained under his parental roof until he mar- 
ried, in 1868. He located on a fami of eighty acres, near Shackelford, on 
which he remained for fourteen years, gaining a very desirable landed estate. 



5IO PAST AND PRESENT 

Avhicli he greatly improved. His wife died in 1882 and in 1884 he bought 
eiglitv acres of his father's farm, also buying the interests of the other chil- 
dren, and he soon had one of the best improved farms in the neighborhood. 
He put out an excellent orchard, and in many ways brought his place up to 
the standard, some of the forest trees he then planted being now very large. 
He still owns both the farms he improved; they have claimed his close at- 
tention and he has been very successful in his general farming and stock 
raising. He has a pleasant and attractive home and good outbuildings. He 
votes the Democratic ticket, but never aspired to offices of public trust. He 
was reared in the Missionary Baptist church, from wliich faith he has ncN'er de- 
parted. 

Mr. Winslow first married Mary W. Lewis, who was born in Saline 
countv, Missouri, the daughter of Lawrence B. and Sophia (Coleman) Lewis, 
both natives of Virginia, where they grew to maturity and were married, be- 
ing early settlers in Saline county, Missouri. They improved a good farm 
here, which they finally sold and bought another. He was a prominent farmer 
and owned slaves. He took no part in the war, but used his influence for the 
South, and his sons served in the Southern army. He was a Democrat and a 
Baptist. He assisted in the organization of Union church, was a good and use- 
ful man and he is sleeping the sleep of the just in the old Union churchyard. 
He and his wife were the parents of seven children, Mrs. T. W. Winslow be- 
ing the sixth child in order of birth. 

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Winslow were as follows : Drucilla, 
now Mrs. ^^^ithers; John B. is still a member of the home circle; three chil- 
dren died in infancy ; Thomas W. is living at home. The mother of these 
children was called to her rest in 1882. In the fall of 1884 Mr. Winslow 
married again, his second wife being Flora N. Coleman, who was born in 
Miami township. Saline county, the daughter of Samuel H. Coleman, a na- 
tive of Virginia and an early settler in Saline county, Missouri ; he engaged 
in the grain business at Miami and later established an elevator near Laynes- 
ville, also conducted a sawmill and warehouses. He was a useful man and 
prominently identified with the business interests of Saline coimty. He took 
no part in the Civil war, but his death occurred before the conflict ended. He 
was a Democrat and a Baptist. He and his wife were the parents of seven 
children. Flora N., wife of T. W. Winslow, of this review, being the oldest 
in order of birlli. • 

The following children have been born to Mr. Winslow and his second 
wife: Stella B., born in 1886, is single and a member of the home circle; 
Beverlv C. died in infancv. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 5II 

THOMAS BARR. 

The venerable and highly honored citizen of Sahne county whose name 
appears above was born in Ireland in 1824 and reared on a farm in that 
countrv. He came to America when he reached manhood, locating- in Phila- 
delohia where he had a brother who had preceded him here. Soon after- 
wards he engaged in farming, having hired to a Quaker farmer in Pennsyl- 
vania, doing much of his teaming to the city of Philadelphia, remaining there 
six years, during which time he married Mary Grant, also born in Ireland. 
Mr. Barr then came west and located at Burlington, Iowa, where he ran a 
dray, later engaging- in farming for two years. He then began draying again, 
and in 1865 he moved to Saline county, Missouri, and rented a farm for two 
years, then buying forty acres of raw prairie land which he improved. He 
prospered and from time to time bought additional tracts of forty and eighty 
acres, finally becoming the owner of five hundred acres. He has lived in 
this locality ever since and now in his declining years finds himself sur- 
rounded by every comfort of life and the owner of one of the most valued 
landed estates in this township. He has devoted his attention exclusively to 
farming and stock raising, always investing his surplus money in land. He 
has a comfortable and beautifully located home, good outbuildings and every- 
thing to make a life in the countiy desirable and pleasant. He was reared 
in the Catholic faith, from which he has never departed. L'pon settling at 
his present location he joined the Shackelford church and has remained one 
of the worthy and faithful members of the same, being a liberal supporter of 
the local church and rearing his family in this faith. He is recognized among 
the prominent and substantial men of Saline county, of which he is proud, 
having reared his family in a very worthy manner and lived to see them well 
established here, his sons being prominent farmers and stock men and church 
people. The character of Thomas Barr is beyond reproach and he is a man 
whom all his neighbors admire. He has always supported the Democratic 
party, but has never aspired to public office. 

Mrs. Thoma? Barr came from Ireland with some friends, her parents 
dying in Ireland, of which country they were natives and lifelong residents. 
Both Mr. and ]\Irs. Barr have about reached the ripe old age of eighty-six 
}ears anil are in the full enjoyment of useful and well spent lives, having 
nothing to retract or regret and looking with serene and confident faith to 
fuller and sweeter existences in the great beyond. Thev are favorites with 
the young people of their community and their lives are replete with success 
and so beautifully rounded out with kindness, benevolence and hospitality 



512 



PAST AND PRESENT 



lliat they should be held up as examples fur others. Eight children have 
been born to them, named as follows: Richard, whose life history appears 
elsewhere in this work; Mrs. Mary Belt, living in Oklahoma; Anna, now 
Mrs. B. Lynch; John and William, both prominent farmers and stock men; 
Katie, now Airs. C. Castle; Charles is a progressive fanner; Rosa married 
F. Castle. 



JAMES PRESTON ADAMS. 

A well remembered and highly revered citizen of Salt Fork township. 
Saline county, was James P. Adams, whose life record has been closed by 
the fate that awaits all mankind, but whose influence will long remain with 
those who knew him best. He was a man of many excellent traits of char- 
acter and superior worth, and his career was one of which his descendants 
may well be proud. He was a Kentuckian, having been born in that state 
on May i8, 1847. and was reared on a farm. He was the son of John S. 
Adams, a native of Kentucky, wdio came to Missouri and located in Saline 
county in 1849, renting a farm in Marshall township, later buying land which 
he improved and engaged in general farming and stock raising. He was 
a strong Democrat, but never aspired to public office or notoriety of any kind. 
His sympathies w^ere strong for the South during the Civil war. and he had 
tw'o sons who went into the Southern army and gave up their lives for the 
cause wdiich they espoused. He remained on his farm until called to his re- 
ward on Julv 25, 1876. He is remembered as a plain, quiet, honest man, 
highly respected in each community in which he lived, his reputation being 
above reproach, he and his wife both being worthy members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. South. His widow survived him, dying March 25, 1903. 
They were the parents of ten children, seven of wdiom grew^ to maturity, James 
P.. of this review, having been the sixth in order of birth. He remained 
under the ])arental roof until he was twenty-five years of age. 1872, when he 
married Lillie C. Shannon, a native of Kentucky, a lady of intelligence and 
culture, and who proved to be a worthy helpmeet. When they married, Mr. 
Adams owned a small farm east of Marshall where they made their start, 
later sold out and bought the farm where Mrs. Adams now resides. It con- 
sists of two hundred and forty acres of excellent land, which Mr. Adams 
greatly improved by skillful methods, erecting a large, commodious two- 
story frame house, convenient barn and substantial outbuildings, and he placed 
the farm in a high state of cultivation, carrying on general farming and stock 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOIRI 513 

raising-. He prospered and in time invested his sa\-ings in a second farm, 
which he also placed in a high state of cnltivation and good improvements, 
both farms being located in Salt Fork township. 

^^dlen only seventeen years of age, Mr. Adams showed his courage and 
patriotism by enlisting in the Southern army when Price made his last raid 
in northern Missouri in 1864. going south wMth Price's arm}-, serving in 
Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, and after Lee's surrender he went to Shreve- 
port, Louisiana; his regiment having surrendered, he w-as paroled and fur- 
nished transportation by the federal government home, making the trip l)v 
water for the most part. He was ne\'er wounded or made a prisoner. He 
was a self-made man and the architect of his own fortunes, wdth the assistance 
only of his good wife, who always did her part in all life's affairs, being ever 
ready to advise and assist him. He was a broad-minded and intelligent busi- 
ness man and a good financier, and by hard work and honest dealing he and 
his wife created a valuable estate. 

Politically, Mr. Adams was a strong Democrat, but he never aspired to 
public otifices or notoriety of any kind, and he was [D<^pular throughout this 
section of the county as a result of his sterling integrity and honor. He was 
an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church South, of which Mrs. 
Adams is also a consistent member. 

This excellent man, kindly neighbor and worthy husband and father 
was called to close his earthly accounts and join the "innumerable caravan" 
on March 12, 1903. After his death his widow took charge of and settled 
up all business affairs and placed J. B. Davis, her son-in-law, on the last 
farm purchased by Mr. Adams, — in fact, giving Air. Davis charge of the 
farming interests on both places. Mrs. Adams and a single daughter occupy 
the old homestead. 

Mr. and Mrs. Adams were blessed with two interesting daughters, Olive 
M., the wife of J. B. Davis, mentioned above, and Mattie L., who has re- 
mained single. 

J. B. Davis was born in Saline county, Missouri, in 1872, the son of 
John B. Davis, a Virginian and an early settler in Saline countv, Missouri, 
where he became known as an extensive dealer in stock, and he became locally 
prominent, filling some public positions as a Democrat. He reared a family 
of sixteen children, nine of whom grew to maturity, J. B. having been the 
thirteenth in order of birth. The Davis family are Southern Methodists. 

Mrs. Lillie C. Adams, widows of J. P. Adams, was born in Kentucky, 
November 27, 1844, and she came wnth her parents to Saline county, Mis- 
souri, in 1853. Mr. and Mrs. Shannon, her parents, were both natives of 

33 



514 I'AST AND PRESENT 

Kentucky, Mr. Shannon coming to Alissouri for the benefit of liis liealth. He 
rented a small farm in Saline county, liis death occurring here on |ul\- 25, 
1854. Later his widcnv bought a farm and ke])t the family together, rearing 
lier children in credit and respectability, as none but a good mother could 
do. She reiuained on the homestead until all her children were grown and 
married, then her son, Elias D., who had [jurchased a farm, induced his 
mother to spend her declining years with him, which she did, dying in 1902. 
Elias D. ShaniKiU ne\'er married, jM'eferring to dexote his sole attention to the 
care of his aged mother, who was, as was also her husband, a wortln- nicml)er 
of the Christian church. They were the parents of these children : Robert, 
who died at the age of eleven years; Mary, now Airs. Steel ; John died, leaving 
eight children; David is also deceased: Elias D. is a farmer; Lillie C, who 
married J. P. Adams, of this review. She is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church South, and a woiuan who numliers her friends b\' the score. 



JOHN D. BAKER. 



One of the substantial agriculturists of the \icinit}' of Xajjton, Saline 
county, is John D. Baker, a descendant of an honored pioneer family of this 
countv. his birth occurring within the liorders of the same. December 25. 
1859, the son of John and Nancy \\'. ( Wood) Baker, the former of German 
descent, 1)orn in 1818 at Zanes^•ille, Ohio, and the latter in Virginia. The 
father of John Baker died when he was young and his mother married again 
and wdien young he w^as bound out to a mechanic and learned the millwright's 
trade, which he afterwards followed, and in 1839, in company with the father 
of Doctor Fisher, came to Cooper county, ^Missouri. Later, in 1844. he 
moved to Saline county, locating at jonesboro, wdiere Mr. Baker assisted to 
erect the Jonesboro mill, operated b}- water-power, it being among the first 
mills of importance built in the C(ninty. He managed the mill for a number 
of years and he was a useful man to the country customers, many of whom 
came from adjoining counties. Mr. Fisher waS' the proprietor of the mill 
and Mr. Baker was the active manager of the same until his health failed, 
when he (juit milling and began farming on land which he purchased, only 
looking after the repairs on the mill from that time. In 1858 John Baker mar- 
ried Nancy ^^^ Wood. His brother, Tobias Baker, came to Saline county 
earlv and settled here on a farm near Herndon, wdiere he lived until his 
<leath : his sister, Marv, living in Ohio, married a Mr. Caldwell, who was a 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 515 

farmer, John Baker carried on general farming very successfnlly, also stock 
raising. He was a Southern sympathizer during the Civil war, but, owing to 
his health, he took no part. At different times troops foraged on his farm, 
taking his horses and other stock,— in fact, everything that they found loose, 
— but he was done no bodily harm. He added to his farm from time to time 
and became well-to-do. He was a Democrat, but avoided active public life 
in everv respect. When he came here game was plentiful and, while he 
was not a great hunter, he frequently went in quest of game. During all his 
milling career he knew no time when there was not plenty of grain to meet 
the needs of the residents of Saline county. He was reared a Lutheran and 
he never departed from his allegiance to this creed, but in the absence of this 
denomination here, he affiliated with the Baptists, being a conscientious Chris- 
tian throughout his life and he was highly respected for his honesty in all his 
daily affairs. He was in delicate health for a number of years, but continued 
to look after his business affairs. He died at the homestead, near Napton, 
May 16, 1900, at the ripe old age of eighty-two years. His widow, a woman 
of gracious personality, who was all along a faithful and courageous help- 
meet, is still living, finding a comfortable home with her son, John D., of 
this review, and she yet holds the old homestead. She is the daughter of 
David and Lucy (Gay) Wood, both natives of Virginia, where they were 
married. David Wood served throug'h the war of 1812, as a result of which 
he received a pension. He came to Missouri about 1838, locating in Saline 
county, where he was employed as overseer for a number of years, later 
entering land which he improved and on which he carried on general farming 
and stock raising. He was a Democrat, but lived a retired life in reference 
to public affairs. He remained on his farm until after the death of his w'ife 
and then made his home with his daughter, Mrs. John Baker, until his death 
in 1874, at an advanced age. He was too old to take an active part in the 
Civil war, but he was for the South. He was a Baptist, was well known 
and highly respected. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, 
six daughters and one son, Nancy W., mother of John D. Baker, being the 
youngest in order of birth; the son, Richard Wood, who lived in Pettis 
county, Missouri, is now deceased. 

The following children were born to Mr. and ]\Irs. John Baker: John 
D., of this review; Mary, wife of William M. Thorp, a farmer; Oiarles \\'.. 
living on the old homestead; Eva V. has remained single. 

John D. Baker was reared in Saline county, where he attended the 
common schools and assisted with the work on the home place, remaining 
under the parental roof until he married in 18S7, when he bought land where 



5lh PAST AND PRESENT 

he yet lives, making many substantial improvements on the same, erecting a 
substantial and cozy dwelling, good l)arns and other outbuildings and culti- 
vating an excellent orchard. He has a very valuable and highly productive 
l)lace on which he conducts a general farming l)usincss and feeds large num- 
bers of cattle for the market, no small part of his annual income being derived 
from this source, for he thoroughly understands the successful handling of 
live stock, giving his exclusive attention to his farming and stock business. 
He is a strong Democrat and has taken more or less interest in local affairs 
for some time, being a member of the Democratic central committee, working 
for the party and his friends; however, he has never sought public office 
himself 

John D. Baker married Hattie B. Thorp, who was born in Saline county 
and reared and educated here; she is the daughter of T. J. and Mary (Mar- 
shall) Thorp, both natives of Missouri, who married here and settled on a 
farm in Saline county, Mr. Thorp being an extensive farmer and stock raiser. 
He served in the Confederate army, was a Democrat, but has held no offices : 
he was a member of the Baptist church. He died on the old Marshall home- 
stead and Mrs. Thorp is also deceased. They were the parents of nine chil- 
dren, Mrs. John D. Baker being the oldest. This union resulted in the birth 
of one child, June, born March 20, 1889. who graduated from the academic 
department of the Missouri Valley College at Marshall. 

Mrs. John D. Baker was called to her rew^ard on December 3, 1896. She 
was a woman of fine personal attributes, a devoted member of the Baptist 
church, of which Mr. Baker is also a member and a liberal supporter. Xo 
better family is to be found within the borders of Saline county than the 
Bakers. 



SAMUEL D. COCHRAN. 



Among the prominent citizens and successful farmers of Saline county. 
Missouri, none occupy a higher position in the estimation of his fellow citizens 
than the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch. A broad- 
minded man and intelligent agriculturist, he is progressive in his methods 
and keeps in close touch with the most advanced ideas relating to his pro- 
fession, with the result that he has kept in the forefront and occupies an en~ 
viable position among his fellows. 

Samuel D. Cochran is descended from a long line of sterling ancestors. 
His great-grandfather on the paternal side was a native of Scotland, who 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 517 

came to America in an early day and settled in Virginia. During- the war 
of the Revolution he enlisted in behalf of the colonists and served as a mem- 
ber of General Washington's body guard. His son John, grandfather of the 
subject, was reared in Kentucky, but in an early day he came to Boone county, 
^Missouri, being numbered among the earliest pioneers of that section of the 
state. He at once took a prominent part in the development of Boone county, 
exerting a strong influence in favor of the best moral conditions and also 
taking a leading part in the commercial development of the community. Dur- 
ing the Civil war he served in the Confederate army and during a visit to 
his home he was captured by a posse of Federal sympathizers, who took him 
away for the avowed purpose of killing him. However, Odin Guitar, of 
Columbia, who was a Federalist, rallied around him a number of men and 
rescued him. Federal troops were constantly engaged in foraging- in that 
locality and Mr. Cochran suffered much material loss, besides many unpleas- 
ant experiences for the family. Mr. Cochran was a man of high intelli- 
gence and a high sense of justice and he was frequently called upon to ad- 
just disputes and differences between his neighbors, his reputation as an 
arbitrator being known throughout that part of the state. His sterling in- 
tegrity, high sense of personal honor and his broad-minded grasp of business 
affairs, gave him at once a prestige and assured his business success. In 
politics he was a Democrat and his religious views were those of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church. He was the father of the following children: W^il- 
liam, James. John. Robert. Samuel. Marion, George. \\'.. Amanda. Marguerite 
and a daughter that died young. Amanda became the wife of S. Elliot and 
Tvlarguerite died in young womanhood. All of the sons reached mature years, 
were married and followed ag-ricultural pursuits. All are yet living excepting 
?^Iarion and Robert. During the Civil war all of the sons served in the Con- 
federate army and made good records as valiant and courageous soldiers. 

The subject's father, George \\'. Cochran, was born in Missouri, on the 
old Roone county homestead, where he was reared, receiving his education 
in the common schools. He married Anna Smith and followed the business of 
farming, to which he had been reared. At the outbreak of the Civil war he 
entered the Confederate army and served until the close of that struggle. He 
took part in many of the most hotly contested battles of that struggle, but was 
not wounded nor taken prisoner. After the war he returned home, was mar- 
ried and thereafter devoted himself to farming. He bought a tract of land, 
on which he followed general farming, also giving considerable attention to 
the raising of live stock, in both of which lines he was eminentlv successful. 
Besides superintending- his own business aff'airs. he also served a number of 



5l8 PAST AND PRESENT 

years as overseer, for M. U. Paine. In 1874 he closed out his business affairs 
liere and moved to CaHfornia, where for two years he was engaged in car- 
pentering. Returning to Boonville. Missouri, in 1876. he remained there until 
the following vear. when he came to Saline county, settling on land owned by 
his father-in-law. Subsequently he bought the farm, which he conducted with 
marked success until 1899, when he sold out and moved to the state of Wash- 
ington, where he homesteaded land and also bought a tract of school land. He 
l)ro\'ed u\) his land and impro\ed the farm, but subse(|uently disposed of all 
his real estate holdings and engaged in the hardware and implement business 
at Dixie. Walla Walla county, Washington. In all his business investments 
he was successful, so that recently he was enabled to retire from active busi- 
ness pursuits and is now living practically retired at Dixie. Though claiming 
Dixie as his present home, he expects to return to Saline county to spend his 
last years. An ardent Cumberland Presbyterian in religious belief and a 
faithful member of the church, he has occupied many positions of responsibility 
in the church, and has helped to organize a number of churches in the West, 
being especially active in the promotion of Sabbath schools. In every com- 
munity in which he has lived he has enjoyed the unbounded confidence of the 
people with whom he has been associated. All the members of his family have 
enjoyed high reputations as men of integrity and honor and they have honored 
the various communities in which they have lived. Mrs. Anna Cochran is the 
daughter of Henry Smith, a native of Kentucky, who came to Boone county, 
Missouri, in an early day. His wife was reared near Harper's Ferry, Vir- 
ginia. After coming to Boone county, Mr. Smith settled on a fann, which he 
operated and also gave some attention to the cooperage business, which trade 
he followed to some extent all his active years. He was a Democrat in 
politics, but never held public office. Late in life he closed out his business 
affairs in Boone county and, going further west, engaged in the sheep busi- 
ness. He died at a ripe old age. He reared a large family of children, of 
whom the subject's mother was the second in order of birth. The children 
were all devout Christians, members of the Methodist church. To George 
W. and Anna Cochran were born two children, Samuel D., the subject of this 
sketch, and Mattie E., the wife of Thomas Hedrick, of Dixie, Washington. 

Samuel D. Cochran, the immediate subject of this sketch, was born in 
Boone county, Missouri, July 27, 1867. He was reared on the paternal farm- 
stead and received his education in the common schools of the neighborhood. 
He remained with his parents until his marriage and worked with his father 
at the carpenter business. In 1888 he entered into agricultural operations in 
partnership with his father, renting land for three vears. In 1894 he rented 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 5I9 

land on his own account near where he now hves, subsequently moving- to 
another and smaller farm, which he operated until December, 1896. when he 
moved to the farm of Judge Xapton's where he had all the land he could work- 
up to four hundred acres. He was successful in his operations and remained 
there until April, 1907, when he bought the F. A. Benedict farm of three 
hundred acres. The place is well improved, containing a large and attractive 
residence and substantial and commodious barn and other necessary outbuild- 
ings. He has made some substantial improvements and maintained the i)rop- 
erty at the highest standard of excellence. He is progressive and practical in 
his farming operations and his labors are annually rewarded with bountiful 
harvests. All he has, has been acquired through his own efforts and he has 
literally been the architect of his own fortune. In addition to general farm- 
ing, he also gives considerable attention to the breeding and raising of live- 
stock, feeding many cattle for market, in all of which operations he has met 
with splendid success. 

In 1884, Mr. Cochran married Martha Davis, who was born in Saline 
county, Missouri, in 1868, a daughter of John B. and Sarah E. (Smith) 
Davis. John B. Davis was a native of Virginia and his wife of Kentucky. He 
came, at the age of five years, to Missouri with his parents, they settling in 
Howard county in 1839. In 1846 they moved to Saline county, locating on 
a farm in Salt Fork township, where John B. Davis grew to manhood, and 
afterward married and settled. Mrs. Cochran's paternal grandfather was 
William Davis, who was a prominent and successful man, being a large farmer 
and slave owner. He was a strong Democrat in politics and held many public 
offices of trust and responsibility. He reared a family of nine children, 
seven sons and two daughters, all except one of whom grew to mature years 
and married. All of the sons served in the Confederate army. The youngest, 
John B., Mrs. Cochran's father, was colonel of his regiment, serving prin- 
cipally in Missouri and Arkansas and was fortunate in escaping wounds or im- 
prisonment. In 1855 he married Sarah E. Smith, a native of Kentucky and a 
daughter of Jarvis Smith. He had come to Saline county in 1854, and he 
here attained considerable prominence as a successful farmer and slave owner. 
He was a Democrat in politics, though not an office holder, while in religious 
belief he was a Methodist. Dr. Crawford Smith and himself were the found- 
ers of Smith's Chapel. He reared twelve children, of whom Mrs. Cochran's 
mother was the eighth in order of birth. Seven sons were in the Confederate 
army during the Civil war. ^^'hen John B. Davis was first married he located 
at Longwood, Pettis county, this state, where he engaged in merchandising 
and the manufacture of tobacco. During the war his store was broken into, 



520 PAST AND PRESENT 

r()bl)e(l and much of the merchandise was destroyed. After the war he re- 
turned to his farm in Sahne county, and conducted it successfully during- his 
remaining active years. His death occurred on the i6th of May. 1907. From 
the age of twenty years, he was an active member of the Methodist church, 
in which he rendered effective service, serving as class leader. He was also 
a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. His widow, who still lives at 
the old homestead, is also a member of the Methodist church and is highly 
respected in the community. To this worthy couple were torn thirteen chil- 
dren, three <^f whom are deceased, those living being as follows: G. W., who 
is engaged in business near Marshall, this state; Mary V., the wife of F. E. 
Gilbert; Elizabeth, the wife of A. J. Pow'ell.; Sarah E., die wife of the subject 
of this sketch; Lavinia A., the wife of Charles L. ^^'alker ; Charles B.. of this 
county; Joseph B., who is engaged in farming in this township; Zeleka, the 
wife of W. F. Heckman ; John R., of Marshall, and James M., of Nelson. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Cochran have been born the following children : Russell 
B., born in 1891 ; Marion D., born in 1893; Percy D., born in 1894; Howard, 
born in 1896; Sarah F., born in 1898; Athal, born in 1900; John W., born in 
1901 ; Juanita, born in 1903; Mamie V., born in 1905. 

In political belief Mr. Cochran is an ardent Democrat, though he has 
never aspired to public office. He is a faithful and worthy member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church South, as are also the other members of the 
family. Fraternally Mr. Cochran is a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America. A man of pleasing personality and splendid qualities of character, 
he has won and retains the warm friendship and high regard of all who 
know him and as a representative citizen of his community he is eminently 
entitled to notice in a work of this nature. 



HON. MATHEW WALTON HALL. 

Saline county, Missouri, enjoys a high reputation l)ecause of the high order 
of her citizenship, and none of her citizens occupy a more enviable position in 
the esteem of his fellows than the gentleman whose name appears at the head 
of this sketch. A residence here of over a half century has given his fellows a 
full opportunity to observe him in the various lines of activity in which he 
has engaged and his present high standing is due solely to the honorable and 
u])right course he has pursued. As a leading' citizen of his communit}- he is 
cminentlv entitled to representation in a work of this character. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 52 1 

Mathew W. Hall was born at Arrow Rock, Saline county, Missouri, on 
the i(^)tli of August, 1853, and his parents were Dr. Mathew and Ag'ues 
(Lester) Hall. The father was a native of Kentucky and the nicjther of Vir- 
ginia, and their marriage occurred at Salem, Illinois. The subject's paternal 
grandfather. Nathan H. Hall, was a prominent minister of the Presbyterian 
church, ha\'ing sei\'ed his church at \arious points in Boone county, this state, 
and at Columbia. He was an able and successful preacher of the Gospel and 
is favorably remembered by those who knew him. He entered upon the work 
of the ministry in Kentucky and for the long- period of thirty years was pastor 
of one of the largest and most prominent churches in Lexington, subsequently 
moving- to Missouri and locating at Columbia, where he lived until his death, 
which occurred at a ripe old age. Nathan H. Hall was twice married. To 
the first union four children were born, namely: John, a physician; Wilson, a 
lawyer; Emeline. who became the wife of Judge Smith; Mathew, father of 
the subject. To the second union were born three daughters, two of whom 
are deceased, the other one being- Florida, who became the wife of Mr. Tun- 
still and resides at San Antonio. Texas, he being now deceased. 

Mathew Hall, the subject's father, was born in Kentucky, and received 
his preliminary education in the common scIkjoIs of that state. Deciding 
upon the medical professi(jn. he studied that science and entered upon the ac- 
tive practice at Salem, Illinois". He was married there and continued in the 
active practice there until the spring of 1845, when he moved to Arrow Rock, 
Saline county, Missouri. Here he continued in the practice of medicine with 
marked success until the spring of 1857, when he located on a tract of land, 
which he had previously entered from the government at one hundred and 
twenty-t^^•e dollars per acre, and to the improvement of which he devoted his 
attention. He made many improvements and owned a number of slaves, be- 
ing numbered among the prosperous land owners of the county. He con- 
tinued to practice the healing art for many years. He was a Democrat in 
politics and took an acti\e part in local public affan's. being twice elected to 
sen-e his county in the state Legislature. Before the Civil war he voted in 
favor of secession and to the time of his death he never altered his convictions 
in this matter. After the war he was again elected to the Legislature, and 
in this capacity he rendered invaluable service for the state, doing- much for 
the upbuilding and development of the state. He was a public spirited man 
and his support was ever given to every movement looking to the ad\-ancement 
of the best interests of the community. In religious belief he was a Presby- 
terian, and was consistent in his life. In his professional practice he covered 
a wide range of countrv and r(^de lone distances, makino- no discrimination 



522 PAST AND PRESENT 

l)et\veeii rich and pi^or, all receiving his best efforts at all times, while often 
times those in financial distress found their medical bill liberally rebated by 
the kind-hearted physician. Fraternally he was a member of the Ancient Free 
and Accepted Masons of Arrow Rock. His death occurred at the home of 
his son. Mathew AW, the subject of this sketch, on November 19, 1894. His 
wife had preceded him to the silent land, her death occurring in August. 
1884. Mrs. Hall's parents were both natives of Virginia, and both were 
members of the Baptist church. The children of Dr. Mathew and Agnes Hall 
are briefly mentioned as follows: Lester, a physician at Kansas City; W. E., 
who was a lawyer at Kansas City, is dead, leaving a widow and three chil- 
dren; John R., a successful physician at Marshall; Louisa is the wife of W, 
A\'. Trigg, a business man at Boonville; Mathew W., the subject of this 
sketch; Dr. T. B., a physician, is living on the old homestead; Florida is the 
wife of Hon. D. W. Shackelford, congressman from the eighth Missouri dis- 
trict : Efhe is the wife of Fred G. Glover, a business man at Kansas City. 

Mathew W. Hall was reared on the paternal homestead, to which his 
parents moved when he was four years old. He was reared to agricultural 
pursuits and during his early years of boyhood he inculcated those principles 
which contributed so largely to his later success. He secured his education m 
the common schools, completing his mental discipline at the W^estminster Col- 
lege, at Fulton, Missouri. He remained wnth his parents until his marriage, 
in February, 1883. He formed a strong attachment for farming life, and w^as 
practical and industrious in his efforts. After his marriage he resided for a 
short time at Boonville, and then located on the farm where the family yet 
resides. The residence was remodeled and the farm w^as otherwise per- 
manently improved, the property being developed into one of the best proper- 
ties in the county. He here carried on general farming, and also gave con- 
siderable attention to the raising of live stock, in which he met wdth very grati- 
fying success. 

A stanch Democrat in politics, Mr. Hall took an active part in political 
affairs. In 1886 he was elected clerk of the circuit court, and so satisfactory 
were his services in this capacity that he was re-elected to succeed himself. At 
the close of his second term Mr. Hall was elected to represent his county in the 
state Legislature and here he won highest honors as a legislator. He served 
in this capacity four consecutive terms and sensed on a number of important 
committees. He introduced a number of important bills and he was the first 
in Missouri to introduce a bill for the regulation of the practice of medicine 
and surgery, the eft'ect of the bill being to raise the standard of this profession 
in the state of Missouri. His last legislative term expired in 1901. xA.t in- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 523 

tervals during- the progress of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. 
Louis Mr. Hall was associated with Mr. Waters, of Columbia, in arraneino- 
the agricultural exhibit at that exposition. In January, 1905, Mr. Hall was 
appointed by Governor Folk warden of the Missouri penitentiary, in which 
responsible position he served four years, or until a Republican governor was 
elected. After the expiration of his official term Mr. Hall returned to his 
farm, where he still resides. He is practical and systematic in his operations 
and has achieved a distinctive success as a farmer. 

At Kansas City, Missouri, in February, 1883, Mr. Hall married Minnie 
Woods, who was born in Howard county, Missouri, in March, 1861, the 
daughter of Rev. Charles C. and Mary M. (Nicolds) Woods. Charles C. 
Woods was a native of Virginia and his wife of Howard county, Missouri. 
the former being a son of Samuel Houston Woods, who was of Scotch-L'ish 
descent and who owned a large plantation, called Freecastle. He was reared 
an Episcopalian in religious belief, but later in life joined the Methodist 
Episcopal church. About 1855 he caught the western fever and set his face 
towards the New Eldorado, Missouri, moving his family and possessions to 
this state that year. The caravan which made the long and tiresome overland 
trip comprised seven wagons and fifty-five people, the trip being made in 
safety. They located in Morgan county, where he engaged in farming-, buy- 
ing a tract of land. The country at that time abounded in wild game and the 
pioneer larder did not suffer for the want of fresh meat. Mr. Woods suc- 
cessfully followed farming here until the opening of the Civil war. Three of 
his sons served in the army, all of whom passed safely through that terrible 
struggle and returned home at its close. Because of his own attitude in that 
struggle, he was compelled to leave the state and went to Illinois for safety. 
Before going he gave to each of the heads of negro families who had been in 
his service a tract of land and farming implements, thus starting' them in life 
on their own account. After the close of the war Mr. Woods returned to his 
Missouri home and resumed farming. Eventually he sold his land and spent 
his remaining }eaYs at WHiitehall, his death occurring in 1876. During the 
early "musterings" he was elected a colonel of militia, having taken a deep 
interest in military affairs. To him and his wife were born seven children, 
of whom Charles C. was the sixth in order of birth. He was born in Virginia 
in July. 1848. and attended the common schools there. After completing his 
common school education he attended Trinity College in North Carolina and. 
subsequently, the Central College, at Fayette, Missouri. At the outbreak of 
the Civil war. in 1861. he entered the Confederate army, in which he served 
valiantly until the battle of Pea Ridge, in which he was taken a prisoner. Ijeing 



SJ4 PAST AND PRESENT 

held for sonic lime, or until he was paroled. During his service he was in 
Ger.eral Brag-g's army and served as chaplain of his brigade. Prior to the 
war he had l)een a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, being a 
member of the Southw^est Missouri conference, having been ordained by 
r.ishops Marvin and Carman. Since 1867 lie has ser\'ed regularly in the min- 
istrv, being numbered among the leading preachers of his denomination in 
this part of the state. He was honored by Trinity College, which conferred 
up;)n him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He is now residing in St. Louis, 
where he is rendering effective service as associate editor of the Christian 
Advocate, a leading and influential church paper. His winters are usually 
s])ent on the coast of h^lorida. where he flnds rest and recuperation. Rev. 
Woods was twice married, the first time to Mary M. Nicolds, the daughter of 
John C. and h^lizabeth (Woodson) Nicolds. of Kentucky. The father was a 
successful tobacconist and owned a large plantation in Howard county. He 
gave particular attention to the sale of tobacco, which frequently called him to 
the Eastern states. He was the father of twelve children, of which number 
Mis. \\'oods' mother was the seventh in order of birth. Her marriage to Rev. 
Woods took place in Howard county in i860, and to this union were born two 
children, Minnie C, the wife of the subject, and Samuel H., a druggist in 
I'lorida. Mr. Woods' second wafe was Anna Nicolds, a sister of his first wafe, 
and this union w-as blessed in the birth of six children, namely: Maud C, 
Samuel R.. Elizabeth M., Anna Mabel. Eugene A. and Nell : John R. is a 
practicing physician at Napton ; Charles is a medical student at Columbia. 
Missouri ; Lois is a school student. All are members of the Methodist Episco- 
l)a1 church South. 



JOSEPH EI ELD. M. D. 



Among the stalwart, enterprising and well known ciliztns of Saline 
count \-, the subject of this sketch occupied a conspicuous ])lace during his life- 
time. He was connected with luisiness aff'airs in a ])rominent way, and. 
though some of his late investments proved unfortunate, his own rejjutation 
for sterling integrity and rectitude of jjiu'pose was not impeached. JMiergetic 
and progressive, he at all times commanded the respect of his fellow men. who 
esteemed him because of his high character and splendid jjcrsonal (|ualities. 

Joseph Eield was born in Cambridge township. Saline countw .Missouri, 
on .\])ril 2T,, T853, and was the son of William W. and Luc\- A. (Jones) 
I'ield. These parents were natives of Virginia ;;nd were among the pioneer 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 525 

settlers of Saline cdiinty. On coming' here, they first located on a farm about 
four miles north of Slater, where the father died iii 1888. at the age of 
seventv-five years. His wife was born in 1823 and is now making her home 
with her only living son, J. Will Field, in Cambridge township, this county. 
Joseph Field was the eldest son in this family. He received his education 
in the common schools of Saline county and in the \\'illiam Jewell College 
at Liberty, Missouri. Having decided to make the practice of medicine his 
life work. Air. h'ield entered the medical department of the Cniversity of 
Virginia, where in due time he was graduated and received his degree of 
DcKtor of Medicine. Immediately after his graduation he returned to Saline 
countv and in January, 1878. he was united in marriage to Zella Mills. She 
was born at Arrow Rock, this county. (Jctober g, 1853. a daughter of Henry 
S. and Doroth}' P. (Scott) Mills. Her father was born in W'atertown, X>w 
York, in July, 1820, and his wife was born August 17, 1833. They came at 
an earlv dav to vSaline countv with their respective parents, who located near 
Arrow Rock. 

At the time of his marriage Doctor Field located in Marshall, this county, 
where he engaged in the practice for about one }'ear, at the end of which 
time, realizing- the opportunit}- which presented itself, he went to Slater and 
engaged in the banking- business. This bank, which was organized in 1879. 
had for its principal stockholders Dr. Joseph JMeld, Henry S. Mills, William 
Putsch and William W. Field, the Doctor's father. Doctor Field accepted 
the position of cashier of the new institution and William H. Scanland was 
assistant cashier, the latter being succeeded shortly afterwards by San- 
ford T. Lvne. The capital stock of the bank was twenty thousand dollars and 
the banking room was kjcated in a small frame building, sitting back about 
twenty feet from Main street, about where Schaurer & Hill's furniture store 
now stands. In a short time the bank was located in the room now occupied 
1)y Dan V. Herider, attorney, where it remained until 1880, when the l)ank 
erected a one-story brick building on Main street and moved into it. In i88[ 
Doctor Field, and Messrs. Mills and Putsch sold their stock in the bank to 
Ren FI. Wilson and Dr. D. ^^^ Reid, the latter becoming president and Mr. 
Wilson cashier. Doctor Field and Mr. Lyne then went to Kansas City and 
took charge of a bank Mr. Mills had organized there, called the Mills Bank. 
Mr. Mills had for many years conducted a bank at Arrow Rock, this countw 
and was considered a very careful and successful financier. In 1882 Doctor 
I'^ield returned to Slater and organized a new bank, with a capital stock of 
thirty thou.sand dollars, buying out Messrs. Reid and Wilson. Quite a num- 
ber of citizens in Slater and surrounding- countr)- became stockholders in the 



526 PAST AND PRESENT 

new insliuuidii. which was called the Citizens Stock Inink. The (ifhcers of 
the bank were as follows: IMiilip W. Hill, president; Dr. Joseph Field, 
cashier; Sanford 1". I^vne, assistant cashier, and Claude E. Field, bookkeeper. 
About 1885 the capital stock of the bank was increased to one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, the increase being supplied out of the surplus, and the bank at 
that time was generally considered a very sound and prosperous institution. 
Among the new stockholders of tlie bank who came in at about this time were 
Com. I'. Storts. who was made bookkeeper and teller, and Claude E. Field, 
wh(^ was advanced to the position of assistant cashier, which place was made 
vacant Iw the resignation of Mr. Lyne, who left to open u^) a new bank in 
Wichita, Kansas. Later he returned to this place and organized the Slater 
Savings Bank. In 1894 both institutions, to the total .surprise of the entire 
community, closed their doors. The depositors in the Citizens' Stock Bank 
received twelve and oneTialf per cent of their claims. On January 10, 1895, 
about one month after the closing of the bank. Doctor Field passed from 
earthly scenes, leaving a widow and three children, Henry W., Percy C. and 
Lucile M. Mrs. b^ield did not long survive her husband, her death occur- 
ring on April 19, 1895. Doctor Field was a man of marked native ability 
and supplemented his education by much reading of the best literature on a 
wide range of topics, being considered an unusually well informed man. He 
was a man of pleasing personality and forceful character and he enjoyed to a 
remarkable degree the friendship of all who knew him. 

Henry W. Field, eldest son of Dr. Joseph and Zella (Mills) Field, was 
born in Marshill, Missouri, November 14, 1878. He received his education 
in the public schools of Slater and in the Central high school of Kansas City, 
where he was graduated in 1900. That same year he bought the Charles W. 
Garnett farm of three hundred and eleven acres, located in Cambridge town- 
ship, this county, and he at once went to work to make this property a profit- 
able investment. In this he was successful to a marked degree. His grand- 
mother. Mrs. H. S. Mills, died August 9, 1907, and in the settlement of the 
Mills estate Mr. Field inherited eighty acres, to which he subsequently added 
by purchase until this tract comprises two hundred and forty acres. ]\Ir. 
Field is not now actively managing the cultivation of land, but rents it, spend- 
ing the greater part of his time in and about Slater. He is a man of most 
estimable Cjualities and enjoys the regard of the community. 

Percy C. Field, the second son in-order of birth of Dr. Joseph and Zella 
Field, was born in Slater, this county, in December, 1883. He -was given 
the advantage of a good education, having supplemented his public school 
education ])\ attendance at the Kansas City Law School, where he was erad- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 52/ 

uated, later going to Yale College. He is now a resident of Kansas City, 
Alissouri, where he is snccessfully engaged in the practice of law. August 25, 
1908, he married Lillian Bushnell, of Kansas City. 

Lucile M. Field, the third and youngest of Dr. Joseph Field's children, 
was horn in Slater, Septemher 5, 1888, and is now making her home with her 
hrother rerc\' in Kansas Citv. 



ELIAS D. SHANNON, 



In an enumeration (^f the successful farmers and stockmen of Saline 
county the name of Elias D. Shannon should not be omitted as a glance at his 
splendid record will readih' show, for he is not only a man of industry but 
also of the highest integrity. He is a native of Henry county, Kentucky, hav- 
ing been born there on July 24, 1848, reared on the home farm and received 
his education in the district schools. He is the son of Samuel and Martha 
(Adams) Shannon, both born in Kentucky where they w'ere reared, educated 
and married and settled on a farm, remaining there until all their children 
were born. In 1852, having accumulated a competency, they moved to Saline 
county, Missouri, and rented a farm, Mr. Shannon dying here in 1854. He 
was a Democrat, but not an office seeker. He was a member of the Christian 
church, a plain, quiet honest man in whom the utmost confidence w-as reposed 
by all wdio knew him. His widow survived and, sometime after his death, 
bought a farm and kept the family together, rearing them in credit and re- 
spectability, being a woman of rare force of character and business ability. 
She in time traded this place for a larger farm on which the family located 
and carried on general farming and stock raising very successfully. In 1893 
the son, Elias D., of this revieW', bought the farm which he now occupies, the 
family moving to this place soon afterw^ard, Mrs. Shannon remaining on the 
same until her death, in January, 1902. She was a good woman, a member 
of the Christian church and the mother of five children, named as follows : 
Mary, who married Samuel Steel ; John died, leaving eight children, three by 
his first wife and five by his second wife; David A. died, leaving a widow and 
one child: Elias D. of this review was next in order of birth: Lilly C, the 
widow of James P. Adams, is the mother of tw^o daughters. 

Elias D. Shannon remained on the home farm with his brothers, assist- 
ing in the care of his mother, devoting^ his attention to general farming and to 
various kinds of stock, being very successful, finally purchasing the farm of 



528 PAST AND PRESENT 

two Inindred and twenty acres, on which he has erected a cnmmodions, modern 
and substantial dwelhng and he has made many other important improve- 
ments about the place. He has bought all the interests of the other children in 
the jjlace. now owning two excellent farms; he also has a one-half interest m 
another good farm. He raises, buys and feeds stock for the market each year, 
and he is progressive and up-to-date in his fanning and stock dealing, always 
emploving onlv modern methods. He is a Democrat politically, but has never 
held office. He is held in the highest esteem by those among whom he, 
mingles, being a man in whom the utmost confidence may be reposed, being 
admired for his keen business ability, his desire to see others prosper and his 
strict integritv in all the w-alks of life. He is deserving of great credit for 
the abundant success which has crowned his efforts, for he has been the creator 
of his own fortunes. He is to be commended for sacrificing his early man- 
hood's years to the care and pleasure of his mother, than whom a more kindly 
and generous-hearted woman never lived, preferring to lavish all his affection 
on her rather than assume the responsibilities of the married state and he is 
vet a bachelor. 



JULIUS HO^\^\RD DEAL. 

Sali'.ie count\', Missouri, nia\- well be proud of the large number of Vir- 
ginians within her borders, for no better families are to be found in America: 
they are not only honorable and genteel, but are thrifty and progressive, and 
among this large class of her citizenship, none stands deservedly higher than 
Julius Howard Deal, who was born in Augusta county, V^irginia, December 
i I, 1854, the son of George and Rebecca (Coyner) Deal, the former a native 
of I'ennsyh'ania and the latter of Virginia. They married in the latter state 
and came to ^Missouri in the fall of 1858 and settled in Elmwood township. 
Saline county, at a time when this locality was sparsely settled, there being 
only four farms between the land on which they settled and the village of 
Marshall, a distance of about fourteen miles. Georg-e Deal, the father, had 
first come to Missouri in 1856 and purchased one hundred and twenty-five 
acres of land, then returned to Virginia and two years later brought his fam- 
ily here. .At that time he could have bought land on which the citv of ^Lir- 
shall now stands for two dollars and fifty cents per acre. I'eter Deal, the 
father of George Deal, was a native of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry, 
and he spent his life in that state farming. Rebecca Coyner, mother of the 
subject, was the daughter of Michael Coyner. She in later life delighted to 




MR. AND MRS. JULIUS H. DEAL. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 529 

tell of the oN'crland journey which the famih- made in co\'ere(l wagons from 
their Virginia home to Missouri, camping out along the way, bringing some 
of the best grade of horses and oxen with them with which they broke the 
prairie sod here. They first erected a log house, but as thev prospered this 
gave way to a substantial frame structure which is still standing. Mr. Deal 
hauled the lumber with which to construct this house from Sedalia, a distance 
of thirty miles. George Deal was a prosperous farmer and owned se\'eral 
hundred acres of fine land at the time of his death in 1886. His widow sur- 
vived him until 1900. They were memliers of the Lutheran church. George 
Deal was a Democrat politically, and he had the distinction of ser\-ing in the 
Mexican war. He became prominent in local affairs and at one time serxed 
as county judge of Saline county. He and his wife were excellent p^eople and 
greatly esteemed by their neighbors. They w-ere the parents of nine children, 
namel}- : Susan, widow of A. J. Hawle}'. lix'ing in Kansas; John X. lives in 
Texas; Esther, now deceased, was the wife of Doctor' Hawley ; Nealev is the 
wife of Paul Shindauf, living in Cass county, Missouri; she is a twin sister 
of Bettie, the wife of Robert James, living at Paris, Texas; Milton is a farmer 
and resides in Miami township. Saline county; Martha is the wife of George 
Coyner, a pioneer farmer of Elmwood township. Saline county ; he is an ex- 
Confederate soldier, a native of Augusta county, Virginia ; Julius Howard, 
of this review, was the eighth child; Lucy is the wife of Clay Lemmons, of 
Marshall, Missouri. 

Julius H. Deal was four years of age when his parents moved to Saline 
county, Missouri. He was reared on his father's farm and educated in the dis- 
trict schools, remaining at home until he reached manhood, then married and 
settled on part of his present fine farm in Elm\\<)od township, moving where 
he now lives in 1894. He has made extensive and substantial improvements 
from time to time, erecting his cozy and attractive nine-room house in 1895, 
and his home with its modern improvements is one of the most beautiful in 
this vicinity and a place where the many friends of the family are frequently 
entertained with genuine hospitality. He also has modern barns and other 
buildings. Mr. Deal devotes considerable attention to raising' good stock, 
mules, cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, etc., and he does some feeding, his stock al- 
wa}\s finding a ready market owing tO' their excellent quality. 

Mr. Deal was married on October 26, 1876, to Sarah Florence Fulker- 
son, daughter of Ray and Rebecca Elizabeth Eulkerson. She was born in 
Saline county, Missouri, and educated here, being a member of a prominent 
family. The reader is directed to an examination of the sketch of Daniel M. 
Botts in this w^ork for a full history of the Eulkerson family. 

34 



530 PAST AND PRESENT 

To Mr. and Mrs. Deal five children have been born, namely: Aubra mar- 
ried Lvdia Wrigiit, living- in Elmwood township, and they are the parents of 
five children: Homer; Robert, deceased; F'rances ; the fourth child died un- 
named, and the fifth is Aubra, Jr. The second child of the subject and wife 
was named Homer, who died when thirteen years of age. Maurice, who mar- 
ried F.mma Blanche Wright, is a farmer in Elmwood township, and they are 
the i:)arents of two children, Joseph M. and Lawrence R. Oney F. Deal mar- 
ried Theodocia Killion, and he assists his father on the home place. Raymond 
is at home attending- school. 

Mrs. Deal is a member of the Priniitixe Ba])tist church, and ])olitically Mr. 
Deal is a Democrat. He is regarded as an up-to-date farmer and good citizen, 
his faniih- rankin"- with the liest in the countv. 



ANDRE^^' J. PO\A'ELL. 

A prominent farmer and influential citizen of Salt Fork township. Saline 
county, is Andrew J. Powell, a nati\e of l^rimble county, Kentucky, where 
he first saw the light of day on February 26, 1854, having been reared on a 
farm there and educated in the common schools. He is the son of William 
E. and Elizabeth (Wasson) Powell, both nati\-es of Virginia, but they were 
reared in Kentucky, where they were married. The subject's paternal grand- 
father was Marshall Powell, of Virginia, an early settler of Kentucky, in 
which state he improved a farm, owning a number of slaves. Politically he 
was a \\'hig and although he used his influence in local affairs he never sought 
office himself; after the Republican party was organized in 1856 he turned 
Democrat. He was a Missionary Baptist. He spent all the latter part of 
his life in Kentucky, reared a large family, of whom William E., father of 
Andrew J. of this review, was next to the youngest in order of birth, being 
the fifth. He spent his life in Kentucky, married and reared his family there, 
dying in September, 1885. He gave his exclusive attention to farming and 
was very successful, becoming a money lender, being afraid to trust his sav- 
ings with the banks. He had some eccentricities of character, even burying- 
his money later in life, hiding it in many places in large amounts and much 
of it could not be found after his death. He was a Democrat, but never an 
office seeker; he was a Missionary Baptist. He was married four times and 
his first wife, Elizal^eth Wasson, was the mother of Andrew J. Powell of 
this review. She died in 1857 after becoming the mother of six children. An- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 531 

drew y. being next the youngest. His second wife was Sally Dimaru, by 
whom he had five children; this wife also dying, he married Millie Vauter 
and one child, dying in infancy, resulted from this union ; after the death of 
this wife, Mr. Powell married Betty McAlester and this union resulted in 
the birth of one child. 

Andrew J. Powell was reared on the old home place in Kentucky and 
received some training in the district schools, remaining under the parental 
rooftree until he was nineteen years of age, when he went into the battle of 
life for himself. Going to Indiana in 1873, he was employed in the southern 
part of the state to operate a corn sheller, following this for about one year, 
then did general farm work for the same man for a period of five years. His 
emplover bought a farm in Missouri, near Arrow Rock, in the fall of 1877, 
and sent his son and Mr. Powell here to manage the same. They "batched" 
and remained on the farm until the following June, when Mr. Powell returned 
to Indiana and worked for the same man a year, then came to Saline county, 
Missouri, and bought the farm where he now resides, living the life of a 
bachelor on the place for three years, then married in 1883. He has prospered 
here and has added to his original purchase, making many important improve- 
ments, such as erecting a substantial and attractive dwelling, good barn and 
other buildings and setting out an excellent orchard and erecting long- 
"strings" of fencing. He devotes his attention exclusively to general farm- 
ing and stock raising. Not so very long ago he purchased another fine tract 
of land and has greath' improved the same ; he rents this. This place is also 
well kept, has a good orchard and good buildings. 

Mr. Powell is deserving of great credit for the abundant success which 
has crowned his efforts, for he is a self-made man. having started in life empty 
handed, but by hard work, good management and honest dealings he has 
built up a very desirable estate. Politically he is a Democrat, but does not 
mix in public matters, a plain, unassuming man whom everybody likes be- 
cause of his integrity and industry. He is a member of the Missionary 
Baptist church. 

Mr. Powell married Lizzie H. Davis in Saline county. She was born 
in Pettis county, Missouri, in 1862, the daughter of John B. and Sallie E. 
(Smith) Davis, the latter of Kentucky and the former of Virginia. He came 
with his parents to Missouri when five years of age, the family locating in 
Howard county in 1839 where they remained until 1846, when they moved 
to Saline county and settled in Salt Fork township, where John B. Davis was 
reared. He was the son of William Davis, an extensive farmer and slave 
<iwner, a Democrat, having filled a number of public offices, being a man of 



~^T,2 PAST AND PRESENT 

prominence in his community. Among the most important ojffices he filled 
was that of county judge, which he dignified for a number of years. He 
reared a family of seven sons and two daughters, all oi whom grew to ma- 
lurit\-, all the sons serving in the Confederate army. John B. was promoted 
to colonel of his regiment, his ser\ices ha\ing been in Missouri, Arkansas 
and Indian Territory. He was never wounded or taken -prisoner. John B. 
Davis married Sallie E. Smith, of Kentucky, the daughter of Jarvis Smith, 
also of Kentucky and an early settler in Saline county, Missouri, coming here 
in 1854. He was a slave owner and he became prominent; he was a Demo- 
crat and a Methodist. He and Doctor Crawft)rd were the founders of Smith's 
chapel. He took no part in the Civil w^ar. He reared twelve children, the 
mother of Mrs. Powell being the fifth in order of birth. U'hen first married 
John B. Davis located at Longwood, Pettis county, and engaged in the mer- 
cantile business, later manufactured tobacco. During the war his store was 
robbed and his business destroyed and he returned to his farm in Saline county 
practically ruined, but he soon had a start again and prospered in due course 
of time. His death occurred on Alay 16, 1907. He was a great church 
worker, a member of the Methodist church from the time he was twenty years 
of age. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Powell three children have been born : 
John \V., born in 1884, lives at home; Anna E., born in 1886, is the wife of 
John Latham, a farmer; Carrie Z., born in 1891, is still a member of the home 
circle. 



JUNE K. KING. 

Specific mention is made of many of the w^orthy citizens of Saline 
county within the pages of this work, citizens who have figured in the growth 
and development of this favored locality and whose interests have been iden- 
tified with its every phase of progress, each contributing in his sphere of 
action to the well-being of the community in which he resides and to the ad- 
vancement of its normal and legitimate growth. Among this number is he 
whose name appears above, peculiar interest attaching to his career from the 
fact that practically his entire life has been spent within the borders of this 
county. 

June K. King, of Peabody h\arm, one of the successful farmers and 
enterprising" stockmen of Saline county, was born at Savannah, Andrew 
countv. Mis.souri, on the 28th of August. 18^8. He was reared at Omaha 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 533 

and St. Louis until he was seventeen years of age. receiving his education in 
tlie pubhc and high schools of those places. His parents were Will R. and 
Susan (Bent) King, the former born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the 17th of 
October. 1823. and the latter born in Washington county, Ohio. They were 
married in Andrew county, Missouri, and in this state they spent their remain- 
ing years. He was successfully engaged in the mercantile business in different 
localities for over thirty-five years, meeting with fair success. The subject's 
paternal grandfather, Robert King, was a native of Virginia, and during the 
earlv vears of his life he was a successful merchant. He owned land in several 
states and in 1839 he entered a large tract of land in Saline county, compris- 
ing about two thousand five hundred acres. He improved one hundred acres 
of this, and on it he erected a residence and installed an agent to look after 
his interest, he in the meantime retaining his residence at Knoxville, Ten- 
nessee. In later years he practically retired from active business pursuits, 
his only employment being the buying of land as in\'estment. He was the 
father of a number of children, of whom three were sons. Joseph died at 
Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of ninety years. The place and date of John's 
death is unknown. Both had married and reared families. 

Will R. King, the subject's father, died at St. Louis, Missouri, in March, 
1894, his wife having died in Andrew county, Missouri, on August 14, 1861. 
Up to the time of his death there had been no di\-ision of the estate, but later 
it was divided among the children. He was a man of sterling- integrity and 
unquestioned honor, the Scotch-Irish blood which flowed in his veins being 
evidenced in the stanch qualities which characterized his make-up. Though 
reared a Presbyterian in religious belief, he afterwards espoused the creed 
of the Episcopal church, of which he was a devoted and consistent member 
during the remainder of his life. He was during his active years widely con- 
nected with the mercantile interests of Missouri and Nebraska. During 
ten years he conducted a wholesale grocery at Omaha, and for three }'ears 
he was president of the St. Louis Hame and Chain Company. He closed 
out this business in 1876 and returned to his farm in Saline county, taking 
personal charge of it and devoting- his attention to its development. He fenced 
the major part of the estate for grazing purposes, stocking it with the best 
grade of Shorthorn cattle, which he fattened and marketed. In 1890 he 
again took up his residence in St. Louis and during- the following }ears he 
spent much time in traveling. His death occurred at St. Louis on the 8th 
day of March, 1894. He was a broad-minded and intelligent man of aff'airs 
and was a good financier, being prosperous in all his undertakings. He was 
a stanch Democrat in his political views and took an active interest in the 



534 PAST AND PRESENT 

success of his party, though he was in no sense a seeker after public office or 
notoriety. He was a great admirer of Grover Cleveland, and two valuable 
colts owned by him were named, one ''Grover" and the other "iM-ankie." the 
latter in honor of Mr. Cleveland's wife. To Will R. and Susan King were 
born five children, namely: Robert B., a farmer is dead, leaving a widow and 
three children, two sons and a daughter; Joseph died in infancy: William R. 
is a retired farmer and is now living in Marshall; Frankie died in infancy; 
June K., the immediate subject of this sketch. 

June K. King accompanied his father to Saline county in 1876 and as- 
sisted in the operation of the farm and the handling of live stock. When his 
father returned to St. Louis, June took charge of the farm and retained pos- 
session until, under his father's wiH, the land was divided. Under this division 
he received at once six hundred and twenty acres, with other land to even- 
tually come to him. His father had erected a commodious residence on the 
place in 1878 and this the subject has improved in several substantial re- 
spects, having made several convenient additions and other improvements. 
This was one of the first modern houses in Saline county and the other 
buildings on the place are ecjually up-to-date and well arranged. The resi- 
dence is furnace heated, piped with hot and cold water and a complete sewer- 
age system is installed. Mr. King has carried forward the work his father so 
splendidly inaugurated and has been equally successful in his efforts. He keeps 
a fine herd of thoroughbred registered Berkshire hogs and registered Short- 
horn cattle, of which stock he has annual sales on the farm. Mr. King has 
been very successful in the breeding of high grade stock and at the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, he took twenty-one premiums, the third 
largest number awarded to any exhibitor. He gives close personal attention 
to the details of the farm, and the general appearance of the place indicates 
him to be a man of excellent judgment and wise discrimination. He takes 
an intelligent interest in every movement for the betterment of agricultural 
and stock interests, and is giving effective service as president of tlie Amer- 
ican Berkshire Association and is also a director and ofticer in a number of 
state associations as well as county organizations. He has realized splendid 
financial returns in his business. 

In matters political, Mr. King gives an unswerving support to the Dem- 
ocratic party, though he has never aspired to public office for himself. His 
religious belief is that of the Presbyterian church, of which he is a member 
and to which he accords a liberal support. Fraternally, he is a member of 
the Knights of the Maccabees and the Woodmen of the World. 

In 1886 Mr. King married Lizzie L. Mahard, who was born August 14, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 535 

1864, in Sangamon county, Illinois, a daughter of W. K. and Susan CLans- 
den) Alahard. The latter was a native of Ilhnois, while the former was 
horn in Ohio, a son of John Mahard. He was a pork packer at Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and after his removal to Illinois he engaged in farming and stock rais- 
ing, in which he met with good success. Eventually, he moved to Missouri 
and four years afterwards he came to Saline county and bought a farm, on 
which he lived a retired life during the remainder of his years. His son, 
W. K., came from Illinois to Missouri in 1867 and bought a farm. He made 
several exchanges of farm property, but eventually sold his land to John 
Buck and went to Marshall, where he engaged in the implement business for 
a number of years. He later retired from active business and is now living 
in Marshall. He is a Democrat in politics and a Presbyterian in religious 
belief, being well known and highly respected throughout the community. 
To Mr. and Mrs. King have been born the following children : Frankie, 
born November 3, 1887, died March 20. 1895 ; Joseph M.. born June 24, 1892, 
is a student in the Missouri Valley College at Marshall: June K.. Jr.. born 
February 2. 1895. 

A man of wide experience and broad general information. Mr. King 
is considered a man of sound judgment and business foresight, whose advice 
and opinion in business matters are considered invaluable. Broad-minded and 
public-spirited, he takes a commendable interest in the development of the 
best interests of the commuity and every worthy movement receives his 
hearty support. Of genial disposition and pleasing address, he readily forms 
acquaintances and he enjoys the friendship of all who know him. 



PHILIP M. SMITH. 



Descended from honored ancestry and himself numbered among the 
leading citizens of Saline county. Missouri, the subject of this sketch is en- 
titled to specific recognition in a work of this character. A residence in this 
county of many years has but strengthened his hold on the hearts of the peo- 
ple with whom he has been associated and today no one here enjoys a larger 
circle of warm friends and acquaintances, who esteem him because of his ster- 
ling qualities of character and his business ability. 

Mr. Smith was born in St. Louis county, Missouri, on the 3d day of July, 
1871, and is a son of Crawford and Virginia (Penn) Smith, the latter a native 
of Jonesboro, Saline county, Missouri. Crawford Smith was born at Frank- 



536 PAST AND PRESENT 

lin. Howard cnunty. this state, and is a son of Brig. -Gen. Thomas A. and 
Cvnthia (W'liite) Smith. General Smith was born August 12, 1781, a son of 
Francis and Lucv ( Wilkinson) Smith, of Essex county. Virginia, where the 
General was born. Cynthia Smith ^^•as a daughter of Governor James and 
Marv White, of Knoxville, Tennessee, of which state they were natives and 
were there married. Gen. Thomas Smith was educated at William and Mary's 
College, at W'illiamsburg, Virginia, this being the same institution in which 
Thomas Jefferson was educated. Thomas Smith subsequently became a cadet 
in the West Point Military Academy, being later appointed to the rank of 
ensign. Tn 1803, wdien President Jefferson consummated the Louisiana pur- 
chase, he made Mr. Smith a lieutenant and ordered him South to join the 
army which was to formally accept and take charge of the new acquired 
territory. Thus began Thomas Smith's military career, which was a useful 
and brilliant one up to his resignation in 1818. Because of general efficiency 
and personal bravery he was promoted from rank to rank until, in 1814. he 
was made a brigader-general. He became an expert Indian fighter and it 
was lie who finally subdued the Seminole Indians in Florida, almost extermi- 
nating the tribe in the process. Later he joined Gen. William Henry Harrison 
in the latter's celebrated campaign about the Great Lakes and was in personal 
command at the battle of the Thames, which was fought on Canadian soil. 
Subsequently he w-as given the command of the Western department of the 
L'uited States army. During his administration of this command Fort Smith 
was established in Arkansas and named in his honor. During this time also 
forts were established at Rock Island, Illinois, Des Moines, Iowa, and Prairie 
du Chien, \\'isconsin. and it is generally conceded that General Smith did 
more than any other man to subdue the hostile red men and make possible the 
influx and safet}- of the \\hite men in the >^)rtlnvest l^erritorv. In 18 18 
General Smith resigned his military command to become receiver of the 
L'nited States land oft'ice at Franklin. Howard county, Missouri, in wdiich 
position also he achie\ed eminent success. He was among the first to enter 
land in Saline county, acquiring a large tract. He owned a large number of 
slaves and. with the assistance of an overseer, he improved the farm, which he 
named Fxperiment. from the fact that he had never before farmed. The ex- 
periment, however, proved to be a profitable one and General Smith remained 
at Franklin until about 1830, when he quit the land office and moved his 
family to h'x])eriment and became a private citizen. He was enterprising 
and progressive and l)ecame known as one of the most extensive farmers and 
stock raisers in northern Missouri. His death occurred there in 1844. To him 
and his wife were born the following children: Lucy A. became the wife of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 537 

Judge Tucker, of Williamsburg. Virginia, where both died ; Cynthia is the 
wife of Major W. N. Berkeley, of Albemarle county, Virginia, who was a 
veteran of the Confederate army during the Civil war; James died at the Ex- 
periment homestead at the age of thirty-five years : Troup died and was buried 
at sea ; Reuben was a student at William and Mary's College, where his death 
occurred and he was there buried; Crawford, the subject's father, was the 
next in order of birth. 

Crawford Smith attended the common schools of his home neighbor- 
hood, supplementing this by attendance at William and Mary's College, in 
Virginia. Having decided upon the medical profession as his life work, he 
pursued his technical studies in a Philadelphia medical college, where he re- 
ceived the degree of Doctor of Medicine, having taken the full courses in 
medicine and surgeiy. He thereafter gave some attention to the active prac- 
tice of his profession, but eventually, other interests proving more attractive, 
he abandoned the practice. After the death of his father, in 1844, Crawford 
Smith remained at the old home with his mother, assisting in the management 
of the large plantation. The place, on which were employed one hundred and 
fifty slaves, was one of the most extensive farms in the state. Mr. Smith's 
brother James had immediate charge of his father's estate and after the 
brother's death Crawford took charge and had the personal management of 
all lousiness matters connected with the estate. He remained with his mother 
during- the remainder of her life, and after her death, on the division of the 
estate, Crawford Smith retained the old homestead, in addition to which he 
bought the interests of some of the other heirs and all the slaves, giving his 
note for a portion of the slave purchase. After the close of the Civil war, at 
which time the slaves were all legally free, he paid the balance due on the note, 
amounting to twenty thousand dollars. He continued the work inaugurated 
by his father and continued to be the most extensive farmer and stock raiser 
in his section of the state. At the opening of the Civil war Mr. Smith sent 
his family to St. Louis to remain with his wife's relatives for safety, put the 
plantation in charge of an overseer, and then he joined the Confederate army. 
He saw much active service and at the battle of Blackwater. in Saline county, 
his entire company was captured. They were first taken to St. Louis, and a 
short time later were transferred to Alton. Illinois, where they remained as 
prisoners of war for a few months. They then took the oath of allegiance and 
were paroled. Mr. Smith then rejoined his family at St. Louis, where he re- 
mained until the close of the war. making- occasioned trips to the plantation. 
The Federal forces gave him no trouble nor inflicted any damage on him or 
his property. On the close of hostilities Mr. Smith returned to the farm. 



538 PAST AND PRESENT 

which he reor<;anized and then rented, returning to St. Louis county. In 
icS/H lie sold the farm, which at that time comprised two thousand five hun- 
(h'cd acres, l)ut suhse(|ucntly lie was compelled to take the property back, the 
buyers having failed to make the contract payments. He rented the property 
and continued to make St. Louis county his home during the remainder of his 
life. He was a strong Democrat in poHtics and was w^ell informed as to all 
matters pertaining to state and national history. He was a broad-minded, in- 
telligent man and at all times had the courage of his convictions, having in- 
herited the sterling traits of his honored ancestors. Crawford Smith married 
Virginia Penn, a lady of intelligence and culture, who was born at Jones- 
boro, Saline county, this state, the daughter of Dr. George Penn, who came in 
an early day from Virginia and settled at Arrow Rock, wdiere he was suc- 
cessful in the practice of medicine and also in the mercantile business. He also 
owned a good farm and a large number of slaves. He eventually disposed of 
liis interests here and moved to St. Louis county, where he continued the prac- 
tice of his profession and farmed. He was a man of varied experiences and 
undaunted courage. He accompanied Gen. Phil Kearney on one of his ex- 
jjeditions to New Mexico, occupying the position of chief surgeon, and on his 
return from this expedition the Governor of Missouri appointed him sub- 
treasurer at St. Louis, which responsible position he held for a number of 
years. Subsequently he sei'ved two terms in the lower house of the state Legis- 
lature and later served one term in the Senate. During the reorganization of 
the municipal government of St. Louis, Dr. Penn was made one of the com- 
missioners who had in charge the details of this change and his services in this 
capacity were invaluable and entirely satisfactory. He was a born politician 
and a successful leader of men. He w^as a consistent member of the Presby- 
terian church and enjoyed the unbounded confidence of all who knew him. 
His death occurred at St. Louis at the ripe old age of eighty-six years. His 
wife, who had borne the maiden name of Sarabella Chambers, was a daughter 
of Colonel Chambers, who had valiantly served throughout the war of the 
Revolution. He was a man of great prominence and was honored in the 
naming of the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, of which state he w^as 
a native. He reared a large and interesting family, of whom two daughters 
married and lived in Saline county, Missouri, Mrs. Dr. Penn and Mrs. 
Pulliam. To Doctor and Mrs. Penn were born four children, namely : Vir- 
ginia, the mother of the subject; Lucy, James and George. To' Crawford and 
Virginia Smith were born eight children, briefly mentioned as follows: Isa- 
bella, w^ho remains single; Mary B., also unmarried; Thomas A., a popular 
physician and prominent farmer of near Napton, this county; George, whO' is 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 539 

eng-aged in the operation of the old homestead; WilHam N. B., who died at 
the age uf thirty years unmarried; Virginia C, the wife of Dr. Thomas Hall; 
Philip M., the immediate subject of this sketch ; Lucy L., who became the wife 
of a Mr. Stouffer. 

Philip M. Smith was reared on the parental farmstead and received a 
splendid education. After completing- his common school training he entered 
a military school at Waynesboro, Virginia, where he remained three years, 
also subsequently attending a private school. Going to St. Louis with his 
parents, he remained there until the deaths of the latter, when, in 1892, he 
came tO' Saline county and he and two other brothers occupied and farmed the 
old homestead. Subsequently the land was divided and Mr. Smith received 
the land on which he now lives. On this place he has made many permanent 
and substantial improvements, remodeling the house, which is commodious 
and well arranged. He also erected a full set of the necessary outbuildings, 
set out a good orchard and in many other ways he brought the farm up to the 
highest standard of agricultural excellence. He has consistently devoted his 
entire attention to the operation of this farm. He is a practical and systematic 
tiller of the soil, in addition to which he also gives considerable attention to 
the raising of live stock, large numbers of which he buys, feeds and ships to 
the markets. Mr. Smith is progressive and keeps in close touch with the most 
advanced ideas relating to the science of agriculture, annually realizing hand- 
some returns from his land. , 

Politically Mr. Smith is an unswerving Democrat and takes an intelli- 
gent interest in local public affairs, though he has at no time been an aspirant 
for public office. His religious belief is that of the Presbyterian church, in 
which he takes an active part, being at the present time superintendent of the 
Sabbath school. 

In May, 1895, Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Kate Crutcher. who 
was born May 6, 1877, near Napton, Saline county, Missouri, a daughter of 
Thomas E. and Emma (Kennedy) Crutcher. Mrs. Smith's mother was a 
native of Lafayette county, Missouri, and her father of Kentucky, he being a 
son of James Crutcher, of Hardin county, that state. He came to Saline 
county after the close of the Civil war and engaged in merchandising at Nap- 
ton, where he continued with success for a number of years. Eventuallv he was 
enabled to retire from business and is now living at Marshall. He is a mem- 
ber of the Masonic fraternity and, with his wife, of the Baptist church, both 
being highly respected in the community. Their children are Kate, wife of 
the subject of this sketch; Samuel, who died at the age of twenty years; 
Maude E., the wife of A. Naylor; Thomas E., a student in the high school at 



540 PAST AND PRESENT 

Marsliall: \\'ell)()rn, at home. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born five 
chil(h-cn. namely: Philip. Jr.. Catherine, Crawford, T. Crutcher and Beverly 
C. all of whom still remain under the parental roof. In every relation of life, 
Mr. Smith has shown the hig-hest qualities of manhood and at all times he has 
enjoyed the unbounded confidence and the honest regard of his associates. He 
is ])ublic spirited and gives his support to every movement having for its ob- 
ioct the advancement of the best interests of the community. 



TAMES T. THORP. 



The sul)ject of this sketch, who is descended from one of the honored 
old ])ioneer families of Saline county, has maintained the excellent repu- 
tation of the familv for industry, sterling integrity and marked business 
abilitv. He is a native son of the county in which he now lives, having been 
born in Marshall township on the ist day of February. 1856. He is a son 
of Richard B. and Julia A. (Marshall) Thorp, whose marriage occurred in 
this county. Both of these parents were natives of Missouri, the father having 
been born in Howard county and the mother in Saline count}'. The sub- 
ject's paternal grandfather, Jackson Thorp, was a native of Virginia, and of 
Scotch- Irish ancestry. Subsequently he moved to Kentuck}- and exentually 
to Missouri, locating in Howard county in about 1818. After his marriage 
lie settled down to farming, becoming- the owner of a number of slaves. He 
was a Democrat in politics, but held no pul)lic oftice. In religious belief he 
was a Baptist and was widely and favorably known throughout that section 
of the state. He was numbered among the early pioneers of the Louisiana 
Purchase and he took an important and influential part in advancing the de- 
A'elopment of this section of the countr}-. A man of highest personal integ- 
r!i\-. he stood "four square to every wind that blows" and was a leader among 
men. He spent the remainder of his years and died in Howard county. Of 
his family of four sons and three daughters, Richard B. was the eldest, having 
been born in 1824. He grew to manhood on his father's farm in Howard 
count\' and received a good education for that day. He became a successful 
school teacher and in the pursuit of this ])rofession he drifted into Saline 
count\'. Here he followed his profession for a number of vears, accjuiring a 
high reputation as an educator of pronounced ability. He was progressive 
in his ideas and organized a hig-h school, one of the first in this part of the 
state. In 1848 he married Julia A. Marshall and soon afterward went to 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 54I 

farming, eventually becoming- a slave-owner. He was at different times the 
owner of two farms, which he greatly improved and on which he successfulh- 
carried on general farming. He was also successful in the raising and han- 
dling of live stock, having a herd of jennets and being an extensive breeder of 
jacks. Reared a Democrat, nevertheless he was opposed to secession and 
refused to take up arms against the Union. He desired to maintain a neu- 
tral attitude, but eventually the Federals forced him into military service. He 
]:articipate(l in the Glasgow fight and was made a prisoner, being sent to Jef- 
ferson City. Being paroled, he returned to his home and during the re- 
mainder of the war he remained neutral. The most prominent and influential 
citizens of the county were his friends and he was not molested further. 
Howe\'er. he sufi^ered greatly from foraging parties, losing his horses and 
almost everything else that was movable. During the reconstruction period 
he quietly attended to his own business affairs and eventually resumed his 
farming operations, in which he met with a gratifying degree of success. He 
rejoined the Democratic party and thereafter gave it his consistent support. 
In 1870 he was nominated by the Liberal Republicans for the positions of 
sheriff' and tax collector, to which he was elected and served a two-year term, 
to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. He was urged to accept the 
nomination a second time, but declined to run. For a number of years betbre 
and during the war Mr. Thorp served as public administrator, his peculiar 
fitness for such position being g'enerallv recognized. He was thoroughly 
posted on all phases of public affairs and the important and multitudinous de- 
tails of the interests brought before him were attended to with ease and in a 
thoroughly satisfactory manner. His advice was frecjuently sought ])\- his 
neighbors and he was considered a man of sound and mature judgment. In 
religion he was a member of the Baptist church, in which he served as stew- 
ard. He died on April 3, 1897, ^^ the age of seventy-two years. 

Mr. Thorp's first wife, who died in 1868, was the daughter of Richard 
Marshall, a native of Virginia, and a pioneer settler in Saline couuntv, Alis- 
souri. During his first years here he was employed as an (werseer bv Doctor 
Sappington. Eventually, he entered land for himself, which he improved, 
and to the cultivation of which he devoted his attention, becoming an exten- 
sive and successful farmer, owning a good many slaves. Besides the tilling 
of the soil, he also gave considerable attention to the breeding and raising of 
live stock, principally mules and horses. Wild game, such as deer and turkey 
was plentiful and Mr. Marshall enjoyed quite a reputation as a successful 
hunter. He was a worthy and consistent member of the Baptist church, while 
in politics he was a strong Democrat. His death occurred in Saline county 



542 PAST AND PRESENT 

in 1870. He was a man of generous impulses and his home was a common 
stopping- place for wayfarers, as many as one hundred persons being fed 
there in one dav. During the Civil war his sympathies were with the South, 
though he was prevented by age from entering the active service. He reared 
a large family of children, of whom Julia, the subject's mother, was the 
youngest child. To Richard B. and Julia A. Thorp the following children 
were born: Louisa ( ATrs. Mennefee) ; Joseph M., of California; Richard J., 
who resides on the old homestead; James T., the immediate subject of 
this sketch; Jennie M. (Mrs. Theodore Piper) ; John B., a successful farmer 
of this county; Minnie (Mrs. Robert Clough). Mr. Thorp's second mar- 
riage was with Mrs. Mary E. Marshall the widow of William Marshall. She 
was the daughter of Benjamin Jones, a pioneer settler, prominent farmer and 
large slave-owner. By this marriage was born one son, Richard Benjamin. 

James T. Thorp was reared under the parental roof, where he remained 
until reaching mature vears. On attaining manhood he began farming on 
his own account, raising two crops on rented land. After his marriage, in 
1877, he rented land for four years and then bought the farm on which he 
now resides. To the development and cultivation of this farm he has de- 
voted his attention and has maintained it at the highest standard of agri- 
cultural excellence. Many substantial and permanent improvements have 
been made on it and its general appearance indicates the owner to be a man 
of excellent taste and good judgment. Soon after settling on this farm, Mr. 
Thorp began feeding and shipping fat stock of all kinds and later became the 
regular local agent for a St. Louis stock firm, and during his career he has 
bought and shipped thousands of head of cattle. He was extensively and suc- 
cessfullv engaged in these lines until about 1907. when he retired from the 
live stock business as agent iov the St. Louis firm, though he still continues the 
line for himself. During two years he resided at Napton, where, with a part- 
ner, he was engaged in the mercantile business. He has, at dififerent times, 
engaged in various pursuits, but has always drifted back to his first love, agri- 
culture. 

Mr. Thorp is a stanch Democrat, and though he has never sought oftice 
for himself, he has exerted a definite influence in political conventions. He 
and his wife are active and faithful members of the Baptist church, of which 
they are regular attendants and to which thcv contribute liberallv <^f their 
means. 

ATr. Thorp married Katie M. Kennedy, who was born at Napton, this 
county, in 1857. the daughter of Samuel H. and Anna (\\'elburn) Kennedy. 
The father was a native of North Carolina and the mother of Indiana, their 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 543 

marriage occurring- at Lexington, Missouri. Mr. Kennedy came to this 
count V in 1849, and was one of the early mihers of the county, operating a 
mill at Jonesboro inv a number of years, or until after the late Civil war. 
Later he engaged in farming and stock raising, in which he was successful. 
He was of L"ish descent and in him were found many of the sterling qual- 
ities of that race. He was a Democrat in politics, and in religion he was 
a member of the Baptist church, in which he held the office of deacon. By his 
first marriage he became the father of seven children, of whom the subject's 
wife was the third in order of birth. ]\Ir. Kennedy later married Mrs. 
Mollie Hicks, a wndow, and to them were born four children. To James T. 
and Katie ]\I. Thorp were born the following' children: Lonnie K., who is 
engaged in business in St. Louis; James T., Jr., also in St. Louis; Julia A., 
who is a successful school teacher; Eulalia M., who is also a school teacher; 
Catherine is a student in school and remains at home. 



MRS. ELIZABETH JUSTICE. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Justice, widow of the late J. A. Justice, of Marshall, Mis- 
souri, was born in Perry county, Indiana, November 11, 1830, the daughter 
of Abner and Anna (Kelsey) Hobbs, the former a native of Virginia and the 
latter of Kentucky, but they were married in Indiana. The father was the son 
of Nathaniel Hobbs, a Virginian and veteran of the Revoltitionarv war. 
having fought bravely for independence ; he was a prominent planter and one 
of the F. F. V.'s of the Old Dominion, where he spent his life. Abner Hobbs 
was born and reared in Virginia, receiving- a liberal education; he became 
both a physician and a minister in the Christian church, continuing both 
during his active life. He finally moved to Perry county, Indiana, where he 
located in a farm, practicing medicine and ministering- to the people success- 
fully until 1846, when he moved to Missouri, first locating in Cedar county, 
where he continued to practice both his professions and farming; after five 
years there he moved to Madison county, Missouri, and after the Cix'il war 
located in Stone county, where he continued the same life he had always led, 
until age necessitated his retirement from active life, remaining at his home- 
stead in the serene evening of a glorious old age until called to his reward at 
the advanced age of eighty-three years. His widcnv survived three vears. also 
reaching the age of eighty-three. They were a grand old couple and scat- 
tered much sunshine wherever they went. They were the parents of ten 



544 PAST AND PRESENT 

children, all of whom lived to maturity and married, namely: Jane married a 
Mr. McDowell; Mary married a Mr. Lewis; William; Sarah also married a 
Mr. Lewis; Elizabeth, of this review; John; Samuel died in California, 
leaving- a familv : Xathan died while a soldier in the Civil war. through which 
James, the next child, also served ; Anna Eliza married a Mr. Moore. 

Elizabeth Hobbs was twice married, first to Isaac Harbert, who was born 
in Missouri, a descendant of a prominent family. He was a farmer by occu- 
pation and after his marriage he settled on a farm and was making rapid 
headway when overtaken by death, July i8, 1851. He was an unassuming, 
honest man wdiom everybody respected. Two daughters were born to this 
union : Sarah A. married a Mr. Moore, both dying, leaving seven children ; 
Mary is the wife of a ,Mr. 1^■ckmyre, a retired farmer of Longwood, Missouri. 

Mrs. Harbert married again, her second alliance being in 1856, when 
she espoused J. A. Justice, the wedding taking place in Madison county, Mis- 
souri. Mr. Justice was born and reared in Kentucky, having first seen the 
light of day there on October 6, 1830. He was reared to htmest toil on the 
farm and remained under his parental rooftree until after the death of his 
mother. His father married again, but home was not the same to the chil- 
dren, and J. A., then a mature man, left home, bringing two sisters and a 
voung brother to Missouri, locating in Madison county, where he kept the 
children together and educated them. The sisters married, the brother re- 
turning to Kentucky when he reached early manhood and died there during 
the Civil war. j. .\. Justice received great laudation from his ac(|uaintances 
for the manful duty he displayed toward his sisters and brtjther. He was a 
man of great humanitarian impulses and delighted in making life as pleasant 
as possible for those with whom he came into contact. He settled down to 
farming when his marriage with Mrs. Elizabeth Harbert took place and he 
continued his operations in Madison county until the opening of the Civil 
war, when he went to Springfield and joined the Eederal militia. Going into 
active service, his command followed Price's army in his raid in southern 
Missouri, and he took p.art in the battle of Springfield. He remained a 
.soldier until J 863 when he moved to Saline county, bought a farm and soon 
afterwards joined the state militia and participated in the little battle that was 
fought near Glasgow. He sold his first purchase and moved to Marshall, 
later buying another farm on which he made tw'O crops and then moved to 
Marshall again and engaged in the livery business, at which he succeeded for 
several years. He bought and sold stock and town property, thereby securing 
several good rental proi)erties, also securing for his own use a commodious 
brick residence near the business portion of the town. He also loaned some 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 545 

of his surplus earnings and was counted among the active business men of Mar- 
shall and commanded the confidence and respect of his neighbors. He always 
advocated the principles of the Republican party, but he was not a preju- 
diced man, always fair, and he was not a seeker after notoriety. In his early 
life he was a Baptist and later a member of the Christian church, also a 
member of the Ancient Order of United \\'orkmen, carrying insurance. He 
was not only well known, but could claim the undi\-ided respect of all who 
knew him, for his life was that of a Christian gentleman. He took a great 
deal of pains in rearing and educating his two step-daughters, there being no 
difference in point of love and respect between them and his own children. 
He was a loving, kind, indulgent, faithful and worthy husband and father, 
leaving nothing undone for the comfort and pleasure of his family, and he 
helped all his children to get a start in life and in his will made ample pro- 
vision for his life companion, who has alwaj^s been a woman of fine personal 
traits, having been a faithful member of the Christian church since she was 
sixteen years of age. 

This exemplary citizen was called to his reward on December 28. 1906. 
leaving behind him that most to be desired among inheritances — a good name. 

Five children graced the union of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Justice, named 
as follows: Posey A., born July 8, 1857, died August 28, 1858; Dora E., born 
December i, 1858, married T. A. Naylor, a business man of Marshall: 
Francis, born November 28, i860, is a business man in Marshall: Susan, 
born September 6, 1863, married W. Prosser; ^^llliam, born February 18, 
1869, entered the regular anny and serv^ed through the Spanish-American 
war and also in the Philippines. He married in Marshall Bertha Thomas, a 
very estimable lady. He first engaged in business in this city, later moved to 
Kansas City and resumed his business, in which he continued very success- 
fully until death cut short his very promising career on December 17, 1907. 
He is survived by a widow and a daughter, Catherine. 



FRANCIS A. HO\\'ARD, M. D. 

Early in the nineteenth century, when the "Missouri question" was rag- 
ing in Congress and distracting the entire country, three brothers bv the name 
of Howard settled in Cooper county, took up land and engaged in farming. 
Joseph Howard, one of these brothers, prospered as a farmer and reared a 
family, whose descendants were destined to become influential in various 

35 



546 I'ASr AND PRESENT 

calliiii^s in difiVrent parts of the state. 1 fe left a son l)y the name of \\'aid, born 
in Cooper county in 1822, who studied medicine and became eminent as a 
physician. He attended the old St. Louis Medical College. no\y a depaitment 
of Washington L'ni\-ersity, and after recei\ing a good professional education 
for those days, opened an office at Buneton, where he practiced for some 
years and later located at pjoonyille, which was the .scene of his operations 
until death called him in 1885. Dr. W'aid How^ard married Frances E. 

Smallwood, who was born in X'irginia in 1823. and died about 1862. Of 
the six children born to this union, only one suryixes. Two sisters liyed to 
maturity, one of ^yhom married Hon. John M. Williams, a prominent lawyer 
of California. Missouri. She reared a family of eight children, one of whom 
is Judge George H. Williams, of St. Louis, among the youngest members 
of the Missouri bar. She died in January. 1907. Another sister, ^L's. Ma- 
tilda R. Bartling. died at the age of thirty. 

Francis A. Howard, the only suryiying child, was born in Cooper county, 
Missouri. February 5, 1854. He remained in his native neighborhood until 
1878. meantime attending private schools, including a four-years course at 
Cully and Simpson's Listitute. At the same time, he was studying medicine 
and in 1873 entered St. Louis IMedical College, where his father was edu- 
cated. He spent two \ears in close application, then took a \'acation for the 
s?.nie ])eriod. after which he re-entered the medical college and was grad- 
uated in 1877. His first entrance into ])ractice was at Syracuse, Missouri, 
where he remained a year and in the summer of 1878 came to Slater. He 
Ayas the first physician to locate in this town and his life has been closely 
identified with its deyelopment. Iliree years of his time were spent at Malta 
Bend, in Saline county, and three. years at St. Louis, the entire absence being 
eml)r;iced within the years from 1886 to 1892, but aside from this Slater has 
l)een his continuous home. In January. 1893, Doctor Howard was appointed 
division surgeon of the Chicago & Alton railroad, and has held tins posi- 
ti'.n continuousl}- u]) to the ])resent time. He is a memljer of the board of 
physicians of the State Hospital for the Insane (No. 3). located at Nevada, 
Missouri, his appointment being received from Governor Folk. He has been 
recognized as one of the foremost physicians of Saline county, a leading and 
induential physician of Slater and a man of the highest integrity. 

^larch 3. 1881, Doctor Howard was married to Miss Elie S., daughter 
of Thomas Lyne. of Slater. She was born in t86o on her father's farm, ad- 
joining the town. Nina, the eldest of their five children, is the wife of Cleve- 
land Brown, of Slater; Xadine. the second daughter, died in 1890; San- 
ford .\. is a resident of Slater; Harold Lyne. a brieht bov (^f unusual 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 547 

promise, died in January, 1908, at the early age of nineteen; Allie Garnett, 
the youngest of the family, graduated from the Slater high school in 1909. 
Dr. Howard and family are members of the Baptist church. He has been a 
lifelong Democrat, always interested in the success and welfare of his party, 
and unusually well informed concerning all political movements. Doctor 
Howard is a man of high breeding, fascinating address, genial disposition, 
and enjoys the marked esteem of the commuunity. 



JAMES R. EDWARDS. 

Saline county has been fortunate in the number and character of its 
newspapers, those advanced agents of civilization and indispensable aids to 
social and industrial development. The county newspaper is recognized as 
an institution and no other agency does so much for the development of a 
community. Some grow tired, others Aveary of the march and fall out. but 
county newspapers work all the time. On those industrious and often self- 
sacrificing instrumentalities of progress, the people rely for news, advice and 
advocacy ; the newspaper is expected to do for nothing- what all others charge 
for doing. It contributes l30th financially and intellectuallv far beyond any 
other agency engaged in developing and upbuilding. Its work is unselfish, as 
the editor usually profits little, while making fame and fortune for others. 
Besides the "lively ones" at the county seat. Saline county has a good paper 
in the progressive town of Slater which, during- the twenty-four years of its 
existence, has done much to keep the torch of enterprise lighted in this grow- 
ing municipality. Several men had part in the enterprise at first, but the real 
founder and builder was James R. Edwards. He is a son of Cornelius Ed- 
wards, who was born in Faucpiier county, Virginia, in 1810, and removed 
to Missouri in 1833. In 1849 he married Mary A., daughter of Robert 
Scott, and settled in Cooper county, where he followed farming until his 
death, July 5, 1887. Of their seven children, James R. was the fourth and 
his ])irth occurred in Cooper county, November 5. 1859. He grew up on his 
father's farm and learned the habits of industry and thrift, inseparable from 
the life of a country boy. Besides the usual routine in the public schools, he 
had the benefit of a term at Pilot Grove Collegiate Institute in Iiis native 
county, and altogether acquired a fair education. In 1885 he came to Slater 
and, in partnership with C. Whit Williams, establishetl The State Rustler. Two 
}"ears later Mr. Williams sold his interests to L. Lavton, to whom ]\Ir, Ed- 



548 PAST AND PRESENT 

wards also disposed of his interests soon afterwards, and thus for a month was 
out of the newspaper business. His retirement was due to the fact that he 
had been appointed to a clerkship in the state Legislature, which necessitated 
his absence from home. After the expiration of his ofifiicial duties he returned 
to Slater and purchased the entire plant of the Rustler, since which time he 
has been sole editor and proprietor. The paper has prospered under his man- 
agement and done its full share in building up the town. Mr. Edwards, be- 
sides being a good newspaper man, possesses many social traits which aid in 
his work. He is genial in address, a friend maker and friend retainer, 
stands well in the community and is recognized as a substantial citizen. He 
is a member of the Masonic order and is unmarried. 



WILLIAM M. SALTONSTALL. 

Xo man has lived in Cambridge township, Saline county, who deserved 
higher esteem than the late William M. Staltonstall, who left the indelible 
imprint of his personality upon all with whom he came into contact, for he 
was unselfish, a quality that has such a predominating place in the lives of most 
people. He took a delight in seeing his neighbors prosper and often with 
disregard for his own welfare he helped someone in need. His life was ex- 
emplary in every respect and was crowned with success, as it deserved, also 
honor, and such a career as his should be an example to be followed by the 
youth who hesitates at the parting of the ways. He was a scion of a fine old 
Southern family and he himself a gentleman of the old school. He was born 
in Kentucky, March G, 1823, the son of Gurdon F. Saltonstall, long a promi- 
nent physician in the Blue Grass state. William M., his son, was reared on a 
farm and when a boy his parents moved to Tremont, Illinois, where he grew 
to manhood. About 1848 he married Mary E. Page, who was born in Ken- 
tucky, August 6, 1829. She was the daughter of David E. and Hannah Page, 
the father being a Presbyterian minister. They moved to Canton, Illinois, 
when their daughter, Mary E., was young, and it was in the last named place 
that she married Mr. Saltonstall. .\fter their marriage thev mo\'e(l to a farm 
near Tremont which Mr. Saltonstall owned, and they lived there until 1854, 
when he sold out and moved to Howard county, Missouri, making the trip 
overland in a covered wagon. In the spring of 1855 he purchased about five 
hundred acres of excellent land in section 8, township 51, range 19, Cambridge 
township. Saline county, to which farm he moved and later bought eighty 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 549 

acres, then forty acres additional, and he made his home on this farm until his 
death. He greatly improved the place, making it one of the model farms in 
the township, and he was very successful, being a good manager and honest 
in his dealings with his fellow- men. He had an attractive house and sub- 
stantial outbuildings, and always kept a fine grade of live stock of various 
kinds. He was a member of the Christian church and he believed in living 
his religion every day. His wife belonged to the Baptist church. 

To Mr. and Mrs. William M. Saltonstall two children were born ; Mrs. 
Martha J. Bales resided at Pueblo, Colorado, where she died, March 6, 1900; 
she was born January 6, 1850. The second child, Samuel R.. was born Sep- 
tember 7, 1853. 

The mother of these children passed away on September 15, 1875, her 
husband sui"viving until in July, 1899. 

Samuel R. Saltonstall, the son, was born in Tremont, Illinois, and when 
a boy he was brought by his parents to Saline county, Missouri, and he grew 
to maturity on the home place in Cambridge township. He received his 
education in the district schools there, entering Wesleyan University at Bloom- 
ington, Illinois, in 1876, where he made an excellent record. He remained on 
the farm wnth his parents during their lifetime, and he still makes his home 
on the old farm, with the exception of the winter months which are spent at 
Long Beach, California. He inherited one-half of his father's estate and he 
has been very successful in the management of the same, having inherited, too, 
many of the traits of character of his father which go to make up a success- 
ful life. He has added considerable more land to the place and greatly un- 
proved it, and he has now one of the choice farms of the township, a com- 
fortable home and everything to make life agreeable to those desiring to live 
a rural life, which, after all, is the most satisfactory. His estimable wife was 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, to which he also belongs. 

On March 15, 1877, ^^^ married, in Tremont, Illinois, Minnie Spaulding-, 
a native of that city, the representative of an influential family, and she her- 
self a woman of culture and education. She was called to her reward in 
i88t, at the early age of twenty-five years, leaving one son, William iNIathew, 
who was born February 28, 1879. He received a common school education, 
and in March, 1899, he married Katie Dodd, who was born in Sheridan 
county, Missouri. They reside in Pomona, California. 

Samuel R. Saltonstall married a second time, his last wife being Laura 
E. Thompson, with wdiom he formed a matrimonial alliance on March 15, 
1886. She was born in Clay township. Saline county, September 3, 1864. 
the daughter of Pike M. and Elizabeth (Goodwin) Thompson, an old and 



550 PAST AND PRESENT 

well eslal)lishe(l faniil)- of that townshi]) where Mrs. Saltonstall was reared 
and educated. This union lias been without issue. 

Personally Mr. Saltonstall is a pleasant man to know, always congenial, 
convivial, generous and a man who at once impresses one as a worthy son of 
5 worthv sire. 



GERHARD KOCH. 



The farming" element in Saline county has representati\'es from many 
nations, hut none who have come to this locality have succeeded better, con- 
sidering the humble start in life which was destined to be his. than Gerhard 
Koch, who is one of the thrifty farmers of Elmwood township and who is 
regarded as a good neig^hbor and loyal citizen. He was born in Prussia, 
Germany, October 5, 1844, the son of Peter and Mary (Ottersbach) Koch, 
both natives of the Fatherland. The father was a farmer and lived and died 
in the old country, having made a very comfortable living there, being a hard 
working man. He and his family w-ere supporters of the Catholic church. To 
Peter and Mary Koch three children were born : Anthony, who lives in Ger- 
many ; John Peter is a farmer in Henry county, Missouri ; Gerhard, of this re- 
view, who was the youngest in order of birth. 

Gerhard Koch remained at home with his people in the old country, as- 
sisting them with the work about the place until they died, after which he 
worked as a teamster and in factories for about six years. He received his 
education in the common schools there. Believing that better opportunities 
aw^aited him in America, he set sail for our shores in 1869, landing here in 
the spring of that year and coming direct to Missouri. He stopped three 
months in Moniteau county, then in June came on to Saline county and here 
worked out on farms until about 1877, when he purchased eighty acres of land 
which is a part of his present farm. He had been economical and saved his 
money in order to get a start. The place he bought w^as unimproved, being 
county school land. He proved to be a good manager and a careful business 
man so he added to his original purchase from time to time until he now 
has two hundred and forty acres of the best land in Saline county, which he 
has greatly improved by fencing and erecting modern buildings, an excellent 
six-roomed house, substantial barn and other outbuildings, making this one 
of the model farms of Elmwood township. He has skillfully rotated his crops 
so as to retain the original richness of the soil and no small part of his income 
is derived from the handling of stock, especially hogs, which are of the best 



\ 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 55 1 

grade obtainable. He is a good judge of all kinds of live stock and understands 
well how to prepare various kinds for market. 

In 1877 Mr. Koch was married to Christina Youngkamp, who was born 
in Westphalia, Germany, the daughter of Antony Youngkamp, who came to 
America in the latter sixties and settled in Cooper county on a farm, where he 
prospered. To Mr. and Mrs. Koch seven children have been born, namely: 
Mary, wife of Sylvester Goth, living in Henry county, Missouri, and they are 
the parents of four children; Anna Koch married Andrew Cook, living in 
Henry county also; John has remained single and is assisting his father to 
manage the home farm ; Lizzie is single and living at home ; Mary is deceased ; 
AgTies is also deceased ; Rosa is the youngest child. 

The Koch family are all members and liberal supporters of the Catholic 
church at Mt. Leonard, Missouri. Politically Mr. Koch is a Democrat, and 
while he is interested in the general good of his county, he does not find time 
to take a great deal of interest in political affairs, not being an office seeker 
himself, preferring to devote his attention exclusively to his fine farm, which 
is admired by all who have occasion to see it, for it shows that a gentleman 
of thrift and excellent taste and judgment has its management in hand. Its 
owner is certainly deserving of great credit for what he has accomplished, 
considering the early obstacles that beset his way, for he landed in America 
practically penniless, but being' a man of determination and natural ability he 
h.as acciunulated a large competency and become one of our leading citizens. 



ALBERT GALLATIN ROBERTSON. 

Among the members of the many families of early settlers who ha\e 
forged to the front in the realms of business and society and in their daily 
avocations in Saline county, we find 'the name of Albert G. Robertson, pioneer 
farmer and stock raiser, living one mile south of Mt. Leonard in Elmwood 
township. His long life has been associated with the progress of the county, 
especially in the township where he resides, a man in whom the utmost con- 
fidence is reposed by those who know him best, for he had always sought to 
promulgate the interests of others while looking after his own welfare and 
that of his family. He is a native of Wyandot county, Ohio, where his birth 
occurred February 20. 1821, and he has therefore reached the advanced age 
of eighty-nine years, heaven having bounteouslv lengthened out his life that 
it might bless those with whom he comes into contact, for such a career should 



552 PAST AND PRESENT 

be emulated by the younger generation whose destinies are yet matters for 
future years to determine. He is the connecting link between the primitive 
past and the opulent present and it is very interesting to hear him recall reminis- 
cences of the early days of his youth since which time the most gigantic strides 
of the world have been made. He is the son of Josiah and Eliza (Terry) 
Robertson, natives of Virginia. His grandfather was also named Josiah, of 
Scotch descent, but he came to America and died in Virginia. Eliza Terry was 
the daughter of Thomas Terry, a native of Virginia, but who, in about 1800, 
emigrated to Highland county, Ohio. He was a finely educated man and de- 
voted his time principally to teaching, becoming a man of influence in that 
county. The parents of the subject met and married in Ohio and in 1837 came 
to Marion county, Missouri, where they entered a tract of wild land which they 
improved and made their home, later moving to Knox county, Missouri, where 
the father died in 1863, after which event the mother came to Saline county, 
dying here in December, 1879. She was a member of the Christian church. 
Mr. Robertson was a Southern sympathizer and an excellent financier, becom- 
ing well-to-do prior to his death and influential in the different localities where 
he lived. He and his wife were the parents of five children, named as follows : 
Jane, deceased ; Caroline is also deceased ; Isabella lives on the old homestead 
in Marion county, Missouri ; Albert G., of this review ; John M. is deceased. 

Albert G. Robertson was about fifteen years of age when the family came 
to Missouri from Ohio. He was reared on the farm and received a good com- 
mon school education in the pioneer district schools. His brother John also 
became well educated and was a teacher in the Baptist College at Palmyra, Mis- 
souri. The former remained at home, assisting with the work about the place 
and learning habits of industry that have resulted in his success in later years, 
until he was married, then his father gave him a three-hundred-acre farm in 
Knox county, Missouri, which he conducted until 1865 when he moved to Sa- 
line county to his present fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Elm- 
wood township, which is one of the model farms and "show places" of Saline 
county, having been skillfully managed so that the soil has retained its original 
fertility and greatly improved. He has a modern, attractive and beautifully lo- 
cated dwelling, commodious and substantial barns and outbuildings, in fact, 
everything that goes to make a thoroughly modern and desirable country home, 
everything showing that a man of thrift, good judgment and excellent tastes 
has had its management in hand. He has farmed on a large scale, engaging in 
the diverse lines of agriculture and stock raising, being an excellent judge of 
all kinds of live stock. He has given his children all a good start in life finan- 
ciallv. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 553 

Mr. Robertson was married in 1849 to Mary Black, who was born in Perry 
county, Ohio, the daughter of Randall and Dorothy Black, a prominent family 
there and pioneer settlers of Ohio. Mrs. Robertson was reared and educated 
in the Buckeye state and was a woman of gracious personality, refined and 
kindly disposed toward all. She was called to her reward on March 22, 1893, 
after 1)Ccoming the mother of eight children, named as follows: Josiah J., 
an extensive farmer and stockman, who lives in Elmwood township, married 
Margaret Wiseman; the subject's second child, George M., is deceased; John, 
living in Grand Pass township, is a farmer and married Belle Harrison; 
Daniel B. lives in Marshall ; Thomas Stonewall Jackson lives in Marshall ; Ade- 
laide died in infancy; Minnie, who was a Sister of Charity, is also deceased; 
Dorothy L., widow of William Baker, lives at home with her father and keeps 
house for him. 

Mr. Robertson is a Democrat politically and he has taken more or less in- 
terest in political afi^airs. However, he is no politician, merely desiring to aid 
in what way he can the best policies of the body politic, being deeply interested 
in whatever tends toward the development of his locality in any way. The 
Robertson family are loyal supporters of the Catholic church. 

No family in Saline county is more influential or prominent than the Rob- 
ertsons and they are held in the highest esteem by all classes. Mr. Robertson 
is known as a man of unblemished reputation, possessing not only a strict integ- 
rity, but an intelligent appreciation of his responsibilities and the faculty of ac- 
complishments, fully realizing that these traits of character have descended 
through the blood of his ancestry and in whatever stations in life he has at- 
tained, his most valued possessions, his greatest pride shall ever be that price- 
less heritage of his progenitors — an honored name. 



CAPT. CALVIN J. MILLER. 

In the death of the honored subject of this memoir, which occurred in 
1899, at his home in Sweet Springs, Missouri, there passed awav another mem- 
ber of that group of business men who were the leaders in inaugurating and 
building up the commercial interests of Saline county. He was identified 
with the growth of the county for many years and contributed in a large degree 
to its material progress and prosperity. He early had the sagacity to discern 
the eminence which the future had in store for this great and growing section 
of the commonwealth, and, acting in accordance with the dictates of faith and 



1^54 PAST AND PRESENT 

jndi^mcnt, he reaped, in the fulhiess of time, the jyenerous l^enefits which are 
the just recompense of indomita1)le industry, spotless integrity and marvelous 
enterprise. 

Calvin j. Miller was a native of old Virg-inia, that state which has so 
ap])ropriately heen called "the mother of Presidents," his natal day having 
been Inly i6, 1822. He was the son of Thomas Miller, who also was a native 
of that state. He brought his family to Saline county, Missouri, in 1838, 
traveling with four-horse teams, and they spent their first winter at Riser's 
Bridge. The following fall they settled on wild land in Salt Pond, now Liberty 
township, which they proceeded to clear up and which they developed into a 
good farm. Thomas Miller died here in 1871, at the age (^f sixty-nine years. 
He was a son of Valentine and Eva Miller, natives respectively of PennsyKa- 
nia and Germany, both families being of German stock. Valentine Miller died 
in Ohio, while on a prospecting trip in a very early day. The mother came to 
Missouri with the other members of the family in 1838, and is now deceased. 
Thomas jMiller married Anna Spotts, a native of Virginia and a daughter of 
Daniel Spotts, who w^as born in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Anna Miller died in 1885. 
She and her husband were faithful members of the P>aptist church, to which 
they gave a warm and earnest support. They were the parents of five children, 
namely: Calvin J., the subject of this sketch; Mary C., deceased; Margaret, 
deceased ; Frances and Thomas F., the tw^o last named being at the present time 
the only surviving members of this family. 

Calvin J. Miller was reared on the home farm and was educated in a pio- 
neer school. He devoted his energies to the cultivation of the home farm 
until 1849, when he made an overland trip to California, attracted there by the 
wonderful stories of quickly-acquired wealth. He had charge of the expedition 
with which he went, consisting of about twenty-five men and twenty yokes of 
oxen. He remained in California awhile, and then returned East by way of 
the isthmus of Panama. He then engaged in the mercantile Inisiness in Sweet 
Springs, which he successfully conducted up to the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1899, at the age of seventy-seven years. He was a shrewd and 
careful business man, enterprising yet wisely conservative, and his business 
dealings w'cre marked by a spirit of integrity and honesty which gained for 
him a high standing in the community in which so many of his years were 
s])ent. He was a faithful husband and a loving father, as well as a helpful 
friend to all in need. In his death, the community felt that it had sufTered a 
distinct loss. 

In politics the sul)ject w^as a staunch Republican and in an early day he 
served as deputy sheriff of Saline county. During the Civil war Governor 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 555 

Reynolds cc^mmissionecl him captain and he was placed in command of the Sec- 
ond Company, First Battalion, Twentieth Regiment, Fifth Division, Missouri 
State Militia. He also rendered valiant service during the Mexican war, in 
which lie held the rank of first lieutenant. His family now possess a large 
army coat which he took from the body of a dead Mexican soldier in the bat- 
tle of Showa, Mexico. 

Captain Miller married Elizabeth Carmack. who was a distant relative of 
the late Senator Carmack, of Tennessee. She was herself a native of Tennes- 
see and from that state she came with her parents to Missouri in 1842. She 
is still living at Sweet Springs, at the advanced age of eighty-one years. To 
Calvin and Elizabeth Miller were born five children, namely: Charles, who 
died in 1870; Thomas, who died in childhood; Robert ^^^, living in Sweet 
Springs, Missouri; James was killed in 1882 in a terrible cyclone which swept 
over Sweet Springs ; ]\Iary is deceased. 

A man of sterling character and the strictest integrity, Capt. Calvin Mil- 
ler will always be remembered with the kindest of feelings by those who knew 
him. His was a long and busy life, but at no time did he forget his duty to 
his country, his family or his fellow citizens and he enjoys the high esteem of 
all. 



JOSEPH M. FULKESOX. 

"Man is the noblest work of God" and a truly noble man but fulfills the 
plan of the Creator. To some are given a cjuarter of a century wherein to 
complete the appointed work, while the span of others varies to the allotted 
three score and ten. But how true and comforting that life is measured, not by 
years alone, but rather by a purpose achieved and by worthy deeds. How 
often when a loved one answers the final summons, are we confronted with the 
question, "Why must he go when he can be so illy spared?" But the grim 
messenger heeds not and we are left to mourn and to accept submissively. 
Mr. Fulkeson's death removed from the community one who had endeared him- 
self to all who knew him — a man who stood "four square to every wind that 
blows," and who had by a life of right living and lofty purpose attained 
to an enviable standing in the communitv where he lived. 

Joseph M. Fulkeson was born in 1827 in Tennessee and died in Saline 
county, Missouri, in 1896. He was the son of Frederick and ]\Iary hTilkeson. 
These parents were natives of Tennessee, who came to Missouri in a very early 
day, locating in Cooper county on a farm, to the operation of which they de- 



556 PAST AND PRESENT 

voted their remaining years. On that farm the subject of this sketch was 
reared, l)eing early accustomed to the strenuous toil incident to agriculture in 
those early davs. He received his education in the common schools, which in 
those days were comparatively primitive in equipment and methods. In 1850 
Mr. Fulkeson made a trip to California in a search for the precious metal which 
at that time was turning so many faces westward. He remained in the West 
for awhile, and then returned to Saline county and bought a farm in Elmwood 
township. He made many permanent and substantial improvements on this 
farm, which he afterwards sold. He subsequently owned and operated several 
different farms, all his operations being attended with a gratifying degree of 
success. He was practical and methodical in his operations and was progres- 
sive in his ideas, not being backward about adopting new ways of doing things 
when their practicability had been demonstrated. In 1881 Mr. Fulkeson re- 
tired from active work and came to Sweet Springs to reside, making that his 
home until his death. He bought a pleasant and attractive home on Locust 
street, and there his widow now lives. She is a lady of many splendid fjualities 
of character and is well liked by all who know her. 

In 1857 Joseph Fulkeson was united in marriage with Frances Miller, 
who was born in Virginia in 1831. (For a sketch of her parents. Thomas and 
Anna Miller, and family, see elsewhere in this work under the caption of Capt. 
Calvin Miller.) Mr. Fulkeson was an ardent Democrat in his political ten- 
dencies and his religious belief was that of the Baptist church, t(^ which his 
widow also belongs. In every relation of life Mr. Fulkeson was faithful to 
every trust, and he not only enjoyed the love and confidence of those nearest 
and dearest to him, but the unbounded respect of all who had acquaintance with 
him. He easilv made friends and once made he alwavs retained them. 



ABRAHA^I WIDDER. 



One of the respected citizens of Saline county is Aljraham W'idder, who 
has for many years devoted his attention to agricultural and kindred jnu-suits 
and is now living at Sweet Springs, where he is successfully engaged in the 
gardening and florist's business. Of eastern nativity, he has combined the 
conservatism of that section of the country with the progressive spirit of the 
West, and in him it has proven a happy combination. Though well advanced 
in years, he takes a keen interest in the affairs of the community and enjoys 
the unbounded confidence of all who know him. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 557 

Abraham \\'idcler was born June 5, 1836, in Cumberland county. Penn 
sylvania, and is a son of George and Mary (Engle) W'idder, the former a na- 
tive of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Maryland. George 
W'idder was reared and educated in his native state and early applied his ener- 
gies to agricultural pursuits. Eventually he moved to Cumberland county, in 
that state, where he followed farming until his death, which occurred in 1854. 
Pie was survived several years by his widow, who died in 1861. They were 
both faithful and earnest members of the Dunkard church. In politics he was 
first a Whig, but on the formation of the Republican party he became identified 
with it and ever afterward voted that ticket. He was twice married, first to 
a Miss Royer, a native of Pennsylvania, who bore him five children, namely: 
Allen, John, Mary, Elizabeth and Catharine. To his union with Mary Engle 
were born seven children, as follows : Mary. Elizabeth, Samuel. Daniel. 
David. Joseph and Abraham, the immediate subject of this sketch. 

Abraham W'idder was reared on the home farm and secured his education 
in the pioneer schools of his home neighborhood. In i860 he went to Spring- 
field. Illinois, where he learned the carpenter's trade. During the time he 
resided in Springfield he was employed in repairs on the residence of Abraham 
Lincoln. He remained in Springfield five years and then moved to Xapierville, 
near Chicago, where he followed carpentering until 1869. In that year ]\Ir. 
Widder came to Saline county, Missouri, and bought a farm in Salt Pond 
township. The farm had some improvements on it, but Mr. W'idder made many 
further improvements of a permanent and substantial nature and continued the 
operation of the farm until 1882 when he sold that place and bought a small 
farm in the suburbs of Sweet Springs. He was for about three years em- 
ployed as a clerk in a grocery store at Sweet Springs, but at the end of that 
time he took up the work of gardening and raising flowers. He has erected a 
modern steam-heated greenhouse in which he raises winter vegetables of all 
kinds and also many flowers. He has been very successful in this work and 
finds a ready market for his entire product, both in vegetables and flow'ers. On 
his farm he is also devoting considerable attention to the raising of small fruits, 
which he markets in season. Now he is the main source of supply for Sweet 
Springs and vicinity. His place is considered a model of its kind and one 
of the most noticeable features of the place is the attractive residence, which is 
generally conceded to be the best in vSweet Springs. It is of two stories, built 
of brick, and the beauty of the building is greatly enhanced by the well kept 
lawn and grounds which surround it. 

On December 16, 1856. Mr. Widder was married, in Pennsylvania, to 
Martha Seits, a native of that state and a daughter of Jacob and Susan { Bow- 



5.58 PAST AND PRESENT 

man) Seits. als(i natives of the Keystone state. To this union have been 1:)orn 
eight children, namely : Mary Jane is the wife of Joseph Graves, of Marshall, 
this county, and the^• are the parents of two children ; Anna Dilia is the wife 
of J. C. Hibbs, who is in the grocery business at Kansas City, and they have 
two children: (ieorge A. is a traveling- salesman and resides at Sedalia, Mis- 
souri; William L., who is in the dry goods business at Madison, Kansas, mar- 
ried Dollie Achamire and they have one child ; Jacob S. is in the commission 
business at Madison, Kansas, married Effie Achamire and they have two chil- 
dren ; Edwin E. is in Old Mexico; Addie is the wife of W. W. George; Frank 
S. resides in California. 

In politics Mr. W'idder gives an ardent support to the Republican ticket, 
though he has never sought the honors of public 'office himself. On the 8th of 
July, 1862, Mr. Widder enlisted in the Union army and served until the 23d 
of October following. He was mainly assigned to the duty of guarding Con- 
federate prisoners at Alton, Illinois. Since locating in Missouri, Mr. Wid- 
der has enjoyed the unbounded confidence of those with whom he has become 
acquainted and his friends are in number as his acquaintances. He is enter- 
prising and progressixe in his methods and has made a distinctive success of his 
operation. His enterprise is an important one in the community and Mr. 
\\'idder is numbered among the representative men of the county. 



PALLIS L. SCRUGGS. 



Practical!}- all his life the subject of this sketch has been a resident of 
Missouri, and that lie is a representative of one of its pioneer families is evi- 
dent when we revert to the fact that he has now attained to the age of nearly 
four score years. His life has been one of signal usefulness and honor, and 
his memory links the early pioneer epoch, with its primitive surroundings and 
equipments, inseparably with this latter era of prosperity and achievement 
and conditions which have marked the advent of the glorious twentieth cen- 
tur}-. As a representative farmer of the county and one of its pioneer citi- 
zens, it is incumbent that we enter this rcA'iew of the life history of Mr. 
Scruggs. 

Pallis L. Scruggs, formerly one of the active farmers of Saline county, 
but now retired and living in Sweet Springs, was born in Cole county, 
Missouri, No\ember 20. 1832. and is the son of James and Mary (Herndon) 
Scruggs, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia, in which 
stale they were married. The subject's paternal grandfather, Henry Scruggs, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 559 

Avas also a native of Kentucky, and a farmer by vocation. He emigrated to 
Cole county, ATissoiiri. in a very early day, and there spent the remainder of 
his davs. James and Man- Scruggs came to Missouri in 1832 and bought 
government land in Cole county. This they improved into a good farm and 
the\- li\'ed there until their deaths. They were members of the Baptist church 
and t(iok much interest in the advancement of the church in its early days 
here. James Scruggs was a soldier during the Black Hawk war. He and his 
wife were the parents of thirteen children, namely: John William, Susan, 
James and Thomas, twins: Henry, George, Lucretia, Virginia. Amanda, Mary 
Jane. Marshall, Pallis L. and Napoleon. 

Pallis L. Scruggs was reared on the home farm and in the pioneer schools 
he secured a fair education. Educational facilities in those early days were 
somewhat primitive, the school house being built of logs and the floors and 
seats of puncheons, while the teaching methods would scarcely pass muster 
in comparison with the present day methods. 'Idie subject remained at home 
until he had attained his majority, assisting his father in the work of the farm. 
In 1853 he made a trip across the plains, by ox team, to California, during the 
course of which trip he passed through many strange and ofttimes thrilling 
experiences. He engaged in mining in the Golden state and met with fair 
success. After laboring there two years he returned home by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama. In 1865 he came to Saline county and purchased one 
hundred and twenty-eight acres of land in Salt Pond township. This was 
new land and a prodigious amount of labor was required to clear it and put 
it in shape for cultivation. The early pioneers were accustomed to such ex- 
periences, however, and in due time Mr. Scruggs developed his land into one 
of the best farms in the communit}'. In the early days here niany \arieties of 
wild game were to be found, the woods abounding in bear, wolves, wild tur- 
keys, deer and much smaller game, and the table was always well supplied 
with meat. 

i\[r. Scruggs continued to operate this farm with very gratifying success 
until IQ08, and during all these years he constantly maintained the place at 
the highest standard of excellence. He was progressive and systematic in his 
methods and hesitated not to adopt new ideas and methods when their iirac- 
tical)ility had been demonstrated. In connection with the tilling of the soil he 
also gave some attention to the raising of live stock, in which also he was suc- 
cessful. In 1908 Mr. Scruggs bought a nice residence property in Sweet 
Springs, where he is now living and enjoying that rest which he has so richly 
earned. He still owns the old home farm, which is being- operated by his 
son-in-law. 



560 PAST AND PRESENT 

In 1856 Mr. SciTig-gs married Nancy Jane Lobbin, a native of Virginia, 
and a daughter of James and Diana (Martin) Lobbin, who were natives of 
Virginia and early settlers in Missouri. Mrs. Scruggs died in February, 1904. 
Thev were the i)arents of six children, who are briefly mentioned as follows: 
James A., who was killed in the big cyclone which swept over Sweet Springs 
in 1882; ]\Iary E., now deceased, was the wife of Riley Johnson; Missouri 
IL, deceased; Luthera, who is single, remains at home and is her father's 
housekeeper and companion; Minnie is the wife of George W. Hagan. and 
thev have two children, Mona Arline and Nellie A.; Margaret N. is the wife 
of Jesse Dame. 

I'he subject's religious belief is that of the Presbyterian church, of which 
he is a member and to which he gives an earnest and liberal support. His po- 
litical affiliation is with the Democratic party and he has always taken an 
active interest in local political affairs. Fraternally, he is a member of the 
time-honored order of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. In 1863 Mr. 
Scruggs became a member of Company D, Nineteenth Regiment Missouri 
Confederate Infantry, which was assigned to General Marmaduke's division, 
and he saw considerable service, mostly in Missouri and Arkansas. A man 
of sterling- qualities of character, Mr. Scruggs has throughout his long life 
been guided by the highest ideals and he has enjoyed at all times the highest 
regard of his fellow citizens. 



HENRY C. STOLBERG. 



W'lien a man wins success in life by reason of close and persistent ap- 
plication to Avhate\'er he makes his vocation and not owing- to any caprice of 
fortune or inherited wealth or assistance of influential friends, he is de- 
serving of a place in history and to be held up as an example to the young. 
Such a man is Henry C. Stolberg, an extensive farmer of Elmwood town- 
ship. Saline county. He was born in St. Clair county, Illinois, February 13, 
1855, the son of John Michael and Elizabeth (Kramer) Stolberg, both na- 
tives of Germany. The paternal grandfather was John Martin Stolberg, 
who came to the United States in 1844 with his family and they settled in 
St. Clair countv, Illinois, on a farm. Elizabeth Kramer was born May 2^, 
1828, the daughter of Peter Kramer. She and John INIichael Stolberg mar- 
ried in St. Clair county, Illinois, March 26, 185 1. He was first a cooper 
and later in life a farmer. He and his family were members of the Evan- 
gelical Lutheran church. He was first a Republican and later a Democrat. 




HKXRY C. STOLBERCx PLACE. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 56 1 

He and his wife were the parents of ten chilch'en, named as foHows : Martin 
h\es in Belleville, St. Clair county, Illinois; Lena is the wife of George 
Heinrich ; Henry C, of this review; Lizzie, who married George Knntz, is 
deceased ; John Lives in Elmwood township. Saline county, where he is 
farming; Andrew li\es in Belleville, Illinois; (reorge also lives in Illinois; 
Edward, deceased; Dorothea and Michael are deceased. Seven children 
were born to John Martin Stolberg and wife: Henry. John. Andrew, Martha 
E., Elizabeth, Martha Eva and John George. 

Henry C. Stolberg- remained at home until lie was twenty-eight A-ears 
of age. He was reared on a farm and educated in the parochial schools, 
also attended the public schools. He was confirmed in the E^•angelical 
Lutheran church at Ereeburg, Illinois. In 1884 he married and came to his 
present farm of two hundred acres in Saline county. It was an old place 
then, but Mr. Stolberg has greatly improved it, remodeling the large house, 
modernizing it in every respect, and he has built a large and substantial 
barn and other necessary buildings. He has drained the low land and fenced 
it and he has set out a large number of fruit trees of excellent varietv anci 
quality; he is well up on all horticultural ((uestions. taking a delight in 
this phase of his general farming. The grounds al)out the place are sym- 
metrically laid out and tastily kept, through them running cement walks — 
in short, Mr. Stolberg" has one of the most attractive and inviting- country 
homes in Saline county and here the many friends of the family frequently 
gather, always finding a hospitable welcome. He handles all the live stock the 
farm will support and he rotates his crops and was one of the first to begin the 
culture of clover in this section of the state. 

Mr. Stolberg was married in 1884 to Emma E. Trautmann, a native of 
St. Clair county, Illinois, having been born and reared at Caseyville. She is 
the daughter of Ered and Dorothea (Deck) Trautmann, natives of Ger- 
many, who came to America when young. Ered was the son of Philip 
Trautmann, who spent his life in the Fatherland. 

Fred and Dorothea Trautman were married in St. Clair county, Illinois, in 
1850, wdiere they farmed the remainder of their lives. Eight children were born 
to them, named as follows: Ered W., deceased; Emma E., wife of Henry 
C. Stolberg, of this review; Louisa M. ; Philip; William died in infancy, as 
did also Edw^ard ; Caroline and William E. Their parents were members of 
the Evangelical Lutheran church. 

Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stolberg, namely : Hugo 
is living at home, as is also Wanda A. ; Adela H. is in school; Emma E. died 
when two years of age. 

36 



562 PAST AND PRESENT 

Mr. and Mrs. Stolljerg- are menil^ers of the Evanoelical Lutheran church 
at Belleville. Illinois. Mr. Stolherg" is a Democrat and he has served as 
school director. He has always heen interested in educational affairs and 
has given his children liberal educations. This family is one of the best 
known and most highly honored in the township or. in fact, the western part 
of the countv. 



WARREX HEDGES. 



The gentleman whose name heads this sketch has for several years been 
prominently identified with the commercial interests of Sweet Springs. Saline 
county. Missouri. His well directed efforts in the practical affairs of life, 
his capable management of his business interests and his sound judgment have 
brought to him prosperity and his life demonstrates what may be accomplished 
by any man of energy and ambition who is not afraid to work and has the 
perseverance to continue liis labors in the face of discouragements which may 
arise. In all the relations of life he has commanded the respect and confi- 
dence of those with whom he has been bnnight in contact and a history of the 
county would not be complete without specific reference to his life record. 

AVarren Hedges was born near Lima. Ohio. Septemlier 12. 1855. and is 
a son of William H. and Harriett ( P^ranklin) Hedges, the latter being a direct 
descendant of America's eminent citizen and scientist. Benjamin Eranklin. 
The mother was a nati\'e of New York and the father of Vermont. William 
H. Hedges was reared a farmer, but when a young man he did some boating" 
on the Ohio river, which was at that time one of the main avenues (^f trans- 
portation through the Middle states and to the South. He emigrated from 
the Empire state to Clark county, Ohio, where he was married, and shortiv 
afterwards he moved to Allen county, the same state, at a time when the coun- 
try thereabouts had been but sparsely settled. He took up land, which he 
cleared and developed into a good farm. There he remained until 1875. when 
he sold his farm and went to Iowa, where he located on a farm and there spent 
the remainder of his days. He was a stanch Republican in politics and in re- 
ligion he was a faithful member of the Disciples church. He and his wife 
were the parents of eight children, namely: Eliza, John. Asa. Marv. Sarah 
Ann, Willie (who died in infancy). Corwin and ^^^'lrren. the immediate sub- 
ject of this sketch. 

Warren Hedges secured his education in the common schools of Ohio 
and his youthful days were spent in assisting his father in the multitudinous 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 563 

duties of the pioneer farm. In 1875 ^^ accompanied the family on their re- 
moval to Iowa, where, witli his father, he farmed and run a dairy until 1902, 
when he moved to Mexico, Missouri. There for two years he was engaged 
in the operation of a dairy, and at the end of that time he came to Sweet 
Springs, Saline county, and entered the mercantile business, in w^hich he has 
since remained, meeting with most gratifying success. He handles a number 
of kindred lines of merchandise, including soft and hard coal. wood, feed, 
Portland cement, brick, tile, Joplin flint paving- material, bee supplies, wagons, 
etc., and he keeps a full and varied stock in each of these lines. His dealings 
are characterized by the strictest integrity and he has from the beginning en- 
joyed a large and constantly increasing patronage, his trade coming from a 
large scope of the surrounding country. He commands the absolute confi- 
dence of the people and aims at all times to give thorough satisfaction to every 
customer, by whom his efforts to accommodate are appreciated. 

On the 226. day of February, 1880, Mr. Hedges was united in marriage 
with Mary Faith, who is a native of Iowa, and the daughter of Thomas and 
Nancy (Frashier) Faith, early settlers of that state. To the subject and his 
wife have been born the following children: Hester; Roy, deceased; Ora. at 
home; Lulu is the wife of Oscar Lewis and they have two children, Alary 
Louise and Helen; Lillie; Clay, who was drowned in the summer of 1909 in 
the river near Sweet Springs. The untimely death of Clay was a sad event 
and cast a gloom over the entire community, he having been a verv lovable 
and popular boy among all who knew him. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hedges are members of the Christian church, to which 
they give a liberal support. Politically he is allied with the Republican party 
and his fraternal membership is with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. 
He is a man of fine personal qualities and readily makes friends, who appre- 
ciate his genuine worth. 



JAMES E. HOCKER. 



It is always pleasant and profitable to contemplate the career of a man 
who has made a success of life and Avon the honor and respect of his fellow 
citizens. Such is the record of the well know^n gentleman whose name heads 
this sketcli. than whom a more whole-souled or popular man it would be dif- 
ficult to find within the limits of the community where he has his home. 

James E. Hocker, justice of the peace and town clerk at Sweet Springs. 
Missouri, is a native son of the old Blue Grass state, where he was born on 



564 PAST AND PRESENT 

the 1 2th day of October, 1845. He is a son of Tilman and Sarah W. (Mor- 
rison) Hocker, both of whom were also natives of Kentucky. Tilman Hocker 
was a son of Joseph Hocker, a native of Maryland, who moved to Kentucky 
in a \er\- early day, and who was descended from sterling' German ancestry. 
Sarah Morrison was the daughter of John and Sarah (Logan) Morrison, also 
born in Kentucky. Tilman and Sarah Hocker met and married in their na- 
tive state and in 1869 they came to Missouri, settling in Cass county, where 
they operated a farm until their deaths, the father dying in 1883. and tlie 
mother in 1885. They were good Christian people and were earnest mem- 
bers of the Disciples church. During the war Tilman Hocker gave his sup- 
port to the Union, and in politics he voted in favor of the Democratic ticket. 
He and his wife were the parents of nine children, as follows: William A., 
Belle M., Samuel. Laura, Leslie, Sophia, Julia, James E. and one that died in 
infancy, unnamed. 

James E. Hocker was reared on the home farm and was early accus- 
tomed to hard work incident to the pursuit of agriculture in those early days. 
He secured his preliminary education in the common schools, supplementing 
this by attendance at a school at Harrodsburg, Kentucky. He then took a 
position as clerk in a store belonging to an uncle at Hustonville, Kentucky, 
and in 1867 he came to Harrisonville, Cass county, Missouri, where he en- 
gaged in farming. He had bought the place and was engaged in its opera- 
tion about four years, when lie sold out and was again engaged as a clerk, 
this time in a store at Harrisonville. In 1880 he came to Sweet Springs, Mis- 
souri, and opened a hardware store, which business he conducted about a year, 
when he sold out and went on the road as a traveling salesman for a large 
wholesale grocer}' house, contitiuing in this line for several years. He then 
moved to Marshall, Missouri, and started a hardware and furniture store in 
partnership with a Mr. Hurt, under the firm name of Hurt & Hocker, but at 
the end of two years he sold his interest to his partner and moved to St. Louis. 
He again was employed as a traveling salesman until 1899, when he moved 
back to Sweet Springs. Immediately after his arrival here he was appointed 
town clerk, and so efficient and satisfactory has been his service in this posi- 
tion that he has been retained in the office continuously since, being the pres- 
ent incumbent. In 1900 Mr. Hocker was elected justice of the peace and still 
holds this office. In the discharge of the duties of this position his acts have 
been characterized by a sense of fairness and justice and his administration 
has been eminently satisfactory to his fellow citizens. In politics Mr. Hocker 
is a Re])ublican and he takes a deep interest in the success of his party. Up 
to 1896 he had given his support to the Democratic party, but on the free- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 565 

silver question he took sides for "sound money," and has since remained al- 
hed with the Repubhcan party. He is a faithful member of the Disciples 
church, to which he gives a generous support. 

In 1872 Mr. Hocker was married to Kittie Railey, who is a native of 
Kentucky, and a daughter of Tarleton Railey. To this union have been born 
the following children: Leonidas O., a lawyer at St. Louis, married Mary 
Berry, a native of Waterville, Kansas, and they have one child, Edward 
Berry; Mary, Arthur, Belle and one other died in infancy. In every relation 
of life Mr. Hocker has endeavored to be true to every trust reposed in him 
and because of this fact and the splendid personal qualities possessed by him 
he has enjoyed at all times the unbounded confidence and regard of all with 
whom he has been brought in contact. He gives his unreserved support to 
every movement which has for its object the advancement of the best interests 
of the community, and is popular with all. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON SMITH. 

The record of the representative citizens of Saline county, Missouri, 
would be incomplete were there failure to make specific mention of George 
\V. Smith, who has given fifteen years of efiicient service as postmaster of the 
thriving town of Sweet Springs. A man of marked business ability and pos- 
sessing personal qualities of the highest order, he has won and retains the un- 
bounded confidence of the entire community in which he resides. 

Mr. Smith is a native son of the old Keystone state, having been born 
in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 2d day of December, 1833. He 
is a son of \\'illiam B. and Mary A. (Shaefer) Smith, the former of whom 
was a native of Maryland and the latter of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. 
AMlliam B. Smith was a shoemaker by vocation and followed this line of work 
all the active 3^ears of his life, his death occurring in Pennsylvania, when he 
bar] reached the age of seventy-eight years. To him and his wife were born 
the following children : William S., Elizabeth, Mariah, Jacob, John, Emily, 
Mary, Louisa, Leah and one that died in infancy unnamed. 

The subject of this sketch was reared in the paternal home and received 
his education in the common schools of the neighborhood. He learned the 
trade of shoemaker under the direction of his father and followed that voca- 
tion for twelve years in his native state. In 1865 he removed to Sterling. 
Illinois, where he was engaged in farming until 1878, when he came to Mary- 



566 PAST AND PRESENT 

\-ille. Missouri, where he operated a creamery, which he had buih there. In 
connection, he also engaged to some extent in agricultural pursuits. Sub- 
sequently he removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he remained but a short 
time, and in 1883 he came to Sweet Springs, Saline county, and engaged in 
contracting and building. He also built and operated the first creamery in 
this place, in which he was fairly successful. He was to some extent em- 
ployed at the trade of carpenter, which trade he had picked up and. being a 
natural mechanic, he developed into a good workman along this line. During 
two years he was employed by the Sweet Springs Company. In 1888. under 
the administration of President Benjamin Harrison, Mr. Smith received the 
appointment as postmaster of Sweet Springs, and held the office during the 
following four years. At the expiration of his official term ]\Ir. Smith and 
his son erected a creamery and operated the same until 1896, when again he 
was appointed to the position of postmaster by President ]\IcKinley, and he 
has held the office continuously until the present time. His administration of 
the duties of the office has been thoroughly satisfactory to the patrons. Mr. 
Smith's courteous manner and evident desire to please all the patrons of the 
office being recognized and appreciated by them. He is a good business man 
and has given to the affairs of his official position the same careful and pains- 
taking attention that he gave to his own private aft'airs, the result being that 
as postmaster he has been a pronounced success. He is a man of sterling 
qualities of character and has at all times enjoyed the fullest confidence of all 
who know him. 

In January. 1854, Mr. Smith was married to ]\Iary A. Tyson, a native 
of Pennsylvania, in which state the ceremony occurred. She was a faithful 
wife and loving mother, and in her death, which occurred on the 3d day of 
July, 1900, her children not only lost a loving mother, but the community 
suft'ered a distinct loss as well. To the subject and his wife were born the 
following children: William F.. who is a successful farmer in North Dakota, 
married Mary A. Burch. and they are the parents of two children, Vernon 
and ^lerle ; John J. lives at Sweet Springs : Amos, who is a farmer in New 
Mexico, married Louisa Kunze, and they have three children, Hazel, Harold 
and Raymond ; Augustus A. is married and lives iji Kansas City, Missouri, 
where he is a cai-penter, paper hanger and painter; Ida, who is single and re- 
mains at home, is her father's assistant in the postoffice ; Mary Ellen, unmar- 
ried, lives in New Mexico; Laura Jane is the wife of J. Harvey Dooly, and 
lives in New Mexico. 

In politics Mr. Smith is a stanch and uncompromising Republican and 
takes an active part in advancing the interests of the party, though his ad- 



SALINE COUXTY, MISSOURI 567 

vancing years now preclude his doing" as much active work as fonnerly. While 
a resident of Pennsylvania during the Civil war, he was a member of the 
state militia and stood ready to be called into active sen-ice. He is a man whr» 
always gives an unquaHfied support to ever\- movement having for its object 
the advancement of the best interests of the community and he has long en- 
joyed a splendid standing in the community where so many of the useful A-ears 
of his life have been passed. Of unblemished character and high standing, he 
exerts a large influence and is rightly numbered amc>ng the leading citizens 
oi his section of the countA*. 



THO^IAS C. BERRY. 



Among all branches of histor\-. there is none more instructive or more 
eagerly sought after tlian that which trutlifully delineates the rise and progress 
of the state, county or communit}- in which the reader lives. There is pleasure 
as well as profit to ever\- intelligent mind in contemplating tlie struggles of 
the early settlers in ever\- portion of the great ^^'est : how they encountered 
and successfully overcome ever\- species of trial, hardship and danger to 
which men in that stirring period were subjected. But these things strike 
us more forcibly and fill our minds with more immediate interest when con- 
fined to our own localit}- where we can yet occasionally meet with some of 
the silver-haired actors in tliose early scenes, men whose braverx* in encoun- 
tering the manifold troubles and misfortunes incident to frontier times has 
borne an important part towards making Missouri what it now is and whose 
acts, in coimection with thousands of otliers in the first settling of our vast 
domain, have compelled the world to acknowledge the Americans an invincible 
people. The great majority of these veterans of the early da}- long since fin- 
ished their work, and to meet and converse with the few living representa- 
tives of the pioneer period, those who came here as children ^ir as ver^- young 
men and women, is one of the peculiar experiences and pleasing tasks which 
falls to the lot of the writers of these pages. To gather up tlie raA-eled and 
noAv mostly broken tlireads of the strange but simple stor\- of their lives, to 
catch the fleeting facts of tlieir histories and hand them on to posterity, might 
well be the ambitious labor of any man's life. Among tlie pioneer workers 
in the de^-elopment of the state of Missouri is he whose name appears at the 
head of this sketch, who is now. at the advanced age of eight}--two years, liv- 
ing in peaceful retirement in the attractive town of Sweet Springs. 



568 PAST AND PRESENT 

Mr. Berry was born in Bcione county, Missouri, on the 19th day of De- 
cember, 1827. and is a son of Tyre H. and Hettie B. (Cofer) Berry. Tyre 
Berrv was a nati\c of Kentucky, born in January, 1800, and a son of John 
Berry. The latter was also a native of the Blue Grass state and emigrated to 
Missouri in 1806. being, it is supposed, the first white man to grow corn west 
of St. Charles. He first settled in Boone county and cleared up a farm (now 
known as the John Harris farm), on which he lived the remainder of his life. 
His was the first body interred in the Sweet Springs cemetery. At the time 
he made the journey from Kentucky to Missouri the route was infested with 
wild animals and still wilder red men and the long and wearisome journey 
was accompanied by many hardships and undesirable experiences. Tyre Ber- 
rv was but six vears of age when the family came to this state. He was 
reared on the Boone county farm and his education was secured in the primi- 
tive schools of that period, the ecjuipment of which was very crude, the seats 
and floors being made of puncheons. Upon attaining maturity Mr. Berry 
took up the pursuit of farming and later became a local preacher of the old- 
line Baptist church. He was a good man, in the truest sense of the word, and 
was well liked as a preacher and popular with those who knew him. He suf- 
fered the loss of much property at the hands of the Kansas raiders, at one 
time his home being burned over the heads of the family. Yet. despite these 
things, he never wavered, either in his faith in God or his faith in the ultimate 
prosperity of this section of the country, his belief being amply justified. He 
was three times married. His first wife bore the maiden name of Hettie B. 
Cofer and she bore him eleven children, namely : Mary, John, William, 
Thomas. Elizabeth, Caroline, James, David, Nancy, Benjamin J. and Jesse. 
Mrs. Hetty Berry died in 1841, and for his second wife Mr. Berry chose 
Nancy Earhart, a widow, who bore him one child, Andrew. She died in 
1863 and subsequently he married Nancy Adams, also a widow. 

Thomas C. Berry was reared on the paternal farmstead in Boone county 
and, owing to the lack of educational facilities, his school days were very lim- 
ited in number, nevertheless, by much reading and close obsei^vation, Mr. Ber- 
ry became a well informed man and one conversing with him would not de- 
tect the lack of education. He remained at home until 1849, when he went 
by ox-team to California, the trip requiring exactly four months. He and a 
brother and a man named Hays were in partnership and engaged in mining, 
in which they met with fair success. They remained in the Golden state over 
a vear and tlien returned t(^ Missouri by wav of the water route and the Isth- 
mus of Panama. On his return home Mr. Berry wisely invested his money, 
buxing a farm in Pettis county, which he improved and developed into one 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 569 

of the best farms in that section of the country. He continued its operation 
with success until 1891, when he retired from active labor and came to Sweet 
Spring-s to spend his remaining years. During his active operations he was 
also extensively engaged in the buying, feeding and shipping of live stock, 
in which also he met with marked success. He is now living in a pleasant 
and comfortable home on South Locust street, Sweet Springs. 

In 1852 Mr. Berry was united in marriage to Mary Jane Prigmore, the 
daughter of Col. Isaiah and Rebecca (Pinnell) Prigmore. She was born in 
Pettis county, Missouri, in 1835, and her death occurred in 1896. The sub- 
ject and his wife became the parents of ten children, namely: Alma, deceased; 
Katie, the widow of Rev. J. B. Wright ; Angle, who remains unmarried ; Ed- 
ward, a successful farmer and stockman of Saline -county, married Mary 
Walker ; Odie and Ossie are twins ; the former is unmarried and remains at 
home, while the latter is the wife of Dr. T. A. Smith ; Maiy T. is the wife of 
Clarence Galoway, of Independence, Missouri ; Rebecca is the wife of W. O. 
Mclntire, and she and her husband are Presbyterian missionaries and teachers 
in the Philippine Islands ; Delora, who was the wife of W. L. Smith, a farmer 
in Pettis county, this state, died in October, 1909: Richard P. lives in Charles- 
ton, this state. 

In politics the subject of this sketch has always been a stanch supporter 
of the Democratic party and has ever taken a commendable interest in public 
affairs, though he has never been an aspirant for public office. His religious 
membership is with the Christian church. A man of quiet and unostentatious 
life, though of positive character, Mr. Berry has always enjoyed to a marked 
degree the high regard of his fellow men and he is numbered among the grand 
old men of Saline countv. 



JOHN W. ^^TLSON 



It is proper to judge of the success of a man's life by the estimation in 
which he is held by his fellow citizens. They see him in all the relations of 
life, in business, church and society, and are therefore competent to judge of 
his merits and demerits. After a long course of years of such observation, it 
would be out of the question for his neighbors not to know of his worth, and in 
this connection it is not too much to say that, among those who knew the sub- 
ject of this sketch during his lifetime, the consensus of opinion is that he 
passed a life of unusual honor, that he was industrious and had the confidence 
of all who had the pleasure of his friendship. 



570 PAST AND PRESENT 

John W. Wilson was a nati\c of Washington county. Tennessee, where 
he was born on the 29th day of August, 1809. His father, who also was a 
native of Tennessee, was a farmer by occupation and died while on his way 
to Missouri. The subject was reared on the home farm in his natixe state and 
received a somewhat limited education in the district schools. In 1838 he 
came to MisscnuM and settled in Polk county. Soon afterwards he went to Bol- 
ivar, Missouri, and secured a position as clerk in the store of Caleb Jones. He 
was a faithful and efficient employee and it was not long- until he had accjuired 
a partnershij) interest in the business. Eventually he moved to Greenfield, 
Dade county, this state, but a few years later he returned to Polk county, wdiere 
he had formerly resided, and acquired an interest in a general store. He was 
so engaged until the breaking out of the Civil war, during the progress of which 
he lost much of his property which was destroyed by Federal troops. In 1870 
Mr. W^ilson came to Sweet Springs, Saline county, and entered into a partner- 
ship with his son in the general merchandise business, in which he achieved a 
distinctive success. He devoted his entire attention to this business, which was 
constantly increased in scope and importance, becoming one of the most im- 
portant houses of this kind in the county. Mr. Wilson remained engaged in 
this business up to the time of his death, which occurred June 3, 1891. He 
was a man of splendid business ability and possessed other qualifications wdiich 
gave him a deserved prominence in the community. Sterling integrity and 
uprightness of purpose characterized his daily life, which was an open book to 
those about him, and he possessed to an unusual degree the friendship of his 
acquaintances, who felt that in his death they had suffered a personal loss. 

Religiously he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, 
of which he was an earnest supporter, being a generous contributor to his 
church and all charitable objects. Fraternally he was a member of the Ancient 
Free and Accepted Masons, the tenets of which he heartilv endorsed and which 
he exemplified in his daily life. 

In 1847 John W. Wilson was united in marriage to Nannie Cowan, who 
was a native of Sullivan county, Tennessee, a daughter of George R. and 
Mary C. (May) Cowan, both also natives of Tennessee. George Cowan was 
a descendant of Robert and Xancy ( Rutledge) Cowan, the latter being con- 
nected with the noted Rutledge family of South Carolina, one member of this 
family having served conspicuously as a member of the United States supreme 
court. Mary C. May was a daughter of Dr. Samuel May. of London. England, 
and who was closely related to the Cockburns, one of the best known families of 
England. Doctor May married a Miss Shelby, of Maryland, though a na- 
tive of Wales. The Cowan family came to Missouri in 1838, the trip Ijeing 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 57I 

made hx water. Thev were carried on a flatboat down the Ohio river to the 
IVIississippi, and then they took a steamer up the Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers to Boonville, Missouri. They first settled as pioneers on government 
land in Polk county, and remained there until 1849. when they removed to St. 
Clair Cfumty, this state, where they resided until the death of the mother. 
Sometime later the father moved to Jasper county, this state, where he spent 
his remaining- days. He was a strong and ardent Southern man in sympathy 
and political belief and voted the Democratic ticket. His religious belief was 
that of the Presbyterian church, of which he was an earnest member. To him 
and his wife were born six children, namely: Catherine, George, Nannie, 
Robert, Mary and Salina. Of these children, Robert is the only one now li\-- 
ing-. To George and Nannie Wilson the following children were born : James 
Taylor, a merchant at Sweet Springs, who has twice been married, first to 
Bettie Cockrel, by whom he had one child, John H., and second to Annie Beat- 
tie, his present wife; R. Shelby, a successful practicing physician at Gainesville, 
Texas, married Fannie Buckner, and they have one child. Perry W. ; Alfred 
Perry, who died in 1901, and who at the time of his death was cashier of the 
Bank of Sweet Springs, married Peachie Railey, of St. Louis, Missouri, who 
now lives at Sweet Springs ; Mrs. Nannie Wilson resided in the old homestead 
on Bridge street, Sweet Springs, until her death, November 3, 1909. She ex- 
tended a warm and cordial hospitality to all her friends, who were numerous 
and who delighted to accept her hospitality. She was a lady of many sweet 
womanly cjualities and was esteemed highly in the community, where she had 
spent so many years. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
South, and took a deep interest in the various activities of the society. 



WADE HAMPTON REAVIS. 

In referring to the lives and deeds of those who initiated the onerous 
work of developing the virgin wilds of Saline county and thus laying the 
foundations for that prosperity and precedence which now characterize this 
favored section of the state, it is imperative that recognition be had of the 
Reavis family, who have been identified with the history of the state from the 
early pioneer epoch and whose members have invariably maintained the high- 
est standard of integrity and honor, commanding unequivocal respect and es- 
teem. The subject of this sketch has during his residence here of a lifetime 
so ordered his actions as to merit the unbounded confidence which is accorded 



^~2 PAST AND PRESENT 

liim by all who know him and he is numbered amongf the representative men 
of the community. 

Wade H. Reavis, who has rendered efficient service as justice of the peace 
in Salt Pond township, maintaining his residence at Sweet Springs, was born 
in the township in which he now lives, on the i8th of February, 1846. He is 
a son of Overton and Xancy (Berr}') Reavis. both of whom were natives of 
N'irginia. The subject's paternal grandfather. ]\Iark Reavis. and the paternal 
great-grandfather. Isham Reavis, were also natives of Virginia. They came 
to Saline countv. Missouri, in 1818, where for several years Isham Reavis 
was engaged in the manufacture of salt, which he supplied to the settlers for 
manv miles amund. Hie long and wearisome trip from Virginia to ■Missouri 
was made in wagons, drawn by oxen, and the brave and hardy pioneers had 
many unenviable experiences on the journey, pushing their way through the 
trackless forests and through bridgeless streams, over hill and through valle} , 
the route being infested with many varieties of wild animals and unfriendly 
Indians. The members of the Reavis family all settled in Saline and ad- 
joining counties and from the beginning they had a prominent part in the 
organization and development of the new country. After settling in Saline 
county these families were obliged to seek safety at forts in Howard and ad- 
joining counties, owing to the hostility of the Indians, but later returned to 
their original locations in this county. It was while sojourning in Boone 
county that one of the important early trials of the court was held at Colum- 
bia. Mark Reavis. grandfather of the subject, had brought a negro from 
\'irginia and the fact became known that a residence of seven months had 
taken place in Illinois while the family was enroute to Missouri, owing to the 
activity and depredations of the Indians farther west. It was contended that 
the stop in Illinois had entitled the negro to his freedom. A trial was held 
and a jury so decided. Two sons of Air. Reavis bound the negro and spirited 
him away to a secluded place on the banks of the Missouri river, awaiting an 
opportunity to dispose of him to some buyer on a southern-bound boat. The 
meteoric shower or falling stars in 1833 occurred while the Reavis party was 
encamped on the river and so frig'htened them that they turned the negro loose 
and all ran for safety. Man\- years afterward it was learned that the negro 
went west to Xew Mexico, married a Mexican maiden and became wealthy. 
James Reavis. one of the sons, returned to Columbia, was arrested and com- 
mitted to jail where he served three days, in November. 1833. for contempt 
of court, all of which is a part of the court records of Boone county. It was 
no doubt the first case e\-er tried in Missouri inxoKing the ownershij) of a 
negro in this state. 



SALINE COl^NTV, MISSOTRI ^"/T, 

Overton Reavis and Nancy Berry were but children when their respec- 
ti\e parents brought them to Missouri, and hea^e they were reared and edu- 
cated, their mental training being received in the old subscription schools 
which were then maintained. In due time Overton and Nancy married and 
became the parents of three children, namely : Thomas, who lives in Sweet 
Springs, this county; Mary L., the wife of Thomas E. Ray, and Wade Hamp- 
ton, the subject of this review. Overton Reavis learned the art of making 
and burning brick, in which he was steadily engaged, and he erected a great 
many of the early chimneys in this locality. In 1850 he went to California 
in search of gold, making the long trip across the plains with an ox team. He 
died while in that state, and his wife passed away in 1864. They were faith- 
ful members of the Baptist church for many years, but after the death of her 
husband Mrs. Reavis became a member of the Christian church. In politics 
Overton Reavis was a stanch Democrat. , 

Wade H. Reavis was reared on the paternal farmstead and secured his 
education in the common and private schools of his neighborhood, supple- 
menting this training by attendance at Yantas Academy at Sweet Springs. 
On the completion of his education he clerked in a store for a time and then 
engaged in business on his own account in Sweet Springs. In 1878 the town of 
Sweet Springs was incorporated and at the ensuing election the subject was 
chosen the first mayor, and so satisfactory was the service rendered bv liim in 
this capacity that he was several times re-elected to the position. He was subse- 
(juently elected a justice of the peace and served several years in that capacity. 
He has also served as constable. In the responsible position of justice of the 
peace his tenure of the office was characterized by a strong sense of justice, 
which led him at all times to act in an impartial and unprejudiced way in the 
disposal of cases coming before him. Of a naturally judicial cast of mind, 
he was able to perceive the merits of a case readily and to decide the same 
upon its true merits. During his service as a justice very few of his decisions 
have been questioned or reversed, his record in this sense having lieen a most 
enviable one. In partnership with Judge M. F. Prigmore, the subject is en- 
gaged in a general insurance, real estate and loan business, in which they are 
meeting with excellent success, and Judge Reavis is also a notary public. 

On February 14, 1871, Wade H. Reavis was united in marriage to Lucy 
A. Smith, a native of Osage county, Missouri, and a daughter of Benjamin 
and Martha (Hoops) Smith, who were early settlers in this state. To the 
sul\iect and his wife have been bom seven children, namely: Malburn, who 
<lied in infancy; Edwin married Margaret Smith and lives at home; one that 
died in infancy; Martha is the wife of F. H. Tisdale, a druggist, and they 



574 PAST AND PRESENT 

have one child named Wade Hamilton ; Charles is at home ; T. G. and Harry 
O. are residents of Roswell. Xew Mexico. 

In 1864 the suhject enlisted in Company F, Forty-fifth Regiment Mis- 
souri Volunteer In.fantry. and served until he was mustered out on March 8, 
1865. He performed much active service during- his enlistment, including 
the skirmishes incident to the Price raid and other duty in Tennessee. In 
politics he is a stanch Democrat and takes a keen interest in the success of 
his partv. His religious membership is in the Christian church, of which he 
is an earnest and generous supporter. His fraternal relations are with the 
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, having been an appreciative member of 
the order for over forty years. Judge Reavis is a man of exceptional personal 
qualities which have won him friends among all classes, and he enjoys an 
enviable standing in the community where all the years of his life have been 
passed. 



GEORGE W. SMITH. 



There is little to interest one more than to observe how different men 
begin and continue the duties of life. Some commence in hesitation and seem 
to hesitate at every obstacle they encounter. Others begin boldly, but after a 
time show bv some defect in execution that they have not properly mastered 
their tasks. Still others commence with steady grasp of the situation, and 
show bv their subsequent accomplishments that they have compassed the 
problem of life: to the last class success always comes and they are the men to 
leave behind them good names and large properties honorably won in life's 
struggle. Their children are left to reap the harvest of good actions. Among 
the leading citizens of Saline county is George \\'. Smith, who, after a course 
of vears honorablv and successfully spent in commercial enterprises, is now 
living in retirement in his beautiful home in Sweet Springs, having turned 
his business interests over to other hands. 

Mr. Smith was born in Belmont county, Ohio, on January 22. 1835, and 
is a son of Adaniram and Emily T. (Strong) Smith, the former a native of 
Vermont and the latter of Erie county. Pennsylvania. The subject's paternal 
grandfather was a native of Vermont and was a soldier in the war of the Rev- 
olution. He came to Ohio in a very early day, spending his remaining years 
in Belmont county. Emily Strong was from a well known and prominent 
Pennsylvania family and early in life went to Ohio with her family, who lived 
on a farm. The subject's parents met and were married in Erie county. Penn- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 575 

sylvania, later moving to Belmont county, Ohio. Adaniram Smith was en- 
gaged in the lumber business in that state, but in 1842 came to Ralls county. 
Missom^i, where he engaged in farming, which he continued successfully up 
to 1890, when he retired from active labor and thereafter made his home with 
his son, the subject of this sketch, in Sweet Springs, until his death, which 
occurred in IQ05, at which time he had attained the remarkable age of one 
hundred years, lacking four months. His wife cUed in 1889. These parents 
were faithful and esteemed members of the Baptist church. In politics Mr. 
Smith was a Republican. They were the parents of the following children : 
Sarah, deceased; George \V., the subject; Brigham, living in Denver. Colo- 
rado; Mary, of Phoenix, Arizona; John K., deceased; Hannah Ann, de- 
ceased; Allie B.. of Monroe City, Missouri. 

George W. Smith was six years old when the family removed from 
Ohio to Missouri, but he retains a distinct remembrance of many incidents 
connected with the journey. The family traveled from Ohio to Hannibal. 
Missouri, by river boat, thence to Ralls county, by w^agon. The boat on which 
they took passage was the "Gloster." Mr. Smith received his education in the 
common schools of Ralls county, supplementing this by attendance at the Van 
Rensselaer Academy. He was reared on the home farm and was earlv inured 
to the hard labor incident to a frontier farm. Before he had attained his ma- 
jority he made an extensive trip through the West, including Montana and 
Salt Lake City, his arrival at the latter place being during what is known as 
the Mormon war. Mr. Smith accompanied a wagon train in the capacity of 
assistant wagonmaster, and after his return from this trip he took a wagon 
train of goods to Denver, Colorado, and Virginia City, Montana. He was 
engaged in this business a number of years and made several trips across the 
plains. During this period he passed through a number of thrilling and some- 
times extremely dangerous experiences, and he possesses the ability to re- 
count these events in a most interesting manner. Returning home. Mr. Smith 
married, and in 1867 he located in Sweet Springs and engaged in the drug 
business, which he conducted for two years. At the end of that period he 
sold the drug business and went into the general lumber business in the same 
town. In this his success exceeded his expectations and for many years he 
was in command of the major part of the lumber trade of this section of the 
county. He at all times carried a large and complete stock of everything in 
the building line and he was accommodating in all his business dealings, so 
that his business was prospered to an unusual degree. In 1908. realizing that 
he had a sufficiency of this world's goods to provide for his remaining vears 
and feeling that he had earned a rest, he retired from the active management 



576 PAST AND PRESENT 

of the business, which he turned over to his sons, Charles K. and George M., 
who are now operating the business. Mr. Smith resides on Locust street, in 
one of the UKtst attractive homes in Sweet Springs, everything about the 
place being kept in the best of shape, and here he extends a hospitable wel- 
come to all of his friends who call. He is rich in his friendships and knows 
how to value them. 

In 1867 George W. Smith married Henrietta Brown, a native of Pettis 
county, Missouri, and a daughter of Judge John and Mary (Beckham) Brown. 
This union has been a most happy and congenial one and has been blessed in 
the birth of seven children, namel\- : Daisy is unmarried and remains at home ; 
Clyde died in 1908; Harry G. died in infancy; Edith is the wife of Arthur 
Bush, of Hannibal. Missouri: they have one daughter. Frances; Charles K. 
married Xellie Owens and they have one child, Sarah Owens ; George is 
single and remains at home; Nellie, at home. 

In matters political Mr. Smith has given his support to the Democratic 
party, while in religion he is a member of the Presbyterian church, in which 
he is an elder. In every relation of life he has performed his full part and 
now. in the golden sunset of life, he can rest in the enjoyment of the fruits of 
his years of conscientious effort. Because of his many excellent personal 
qualities, he is highly regarded throughout the community. 



JOHX H. OWENS. M. D. 

Dr. John H. Owens, who occupies the front rank among the leading 
physicians of Saline county, having his residence at Sweet Springs, was born 
in this place on the loth day of October, 1858, and is a son of William and 
Sarah E. (Bright) Owens. William Owens was born in Lafayette county, 
^lissouri. Januarv' 11, 1828, and his death occurred at Sweet Springs, October 
26, 1 89 1. He was a son of Robert and ^lartha ( Herin) Owens, the former 
a native of Virginia and the latter of Tennessee. Robert Owens was a pioneer 
settler in this part of Missouri, and lived at the fort at Old Franklin for some 
time, owing to the hostility of the Indians. In 1818 he settled at McAllister. 
Saline county, in what is now Liberty township. He entered government 
land and remained there about one year, but, owing to Indian troubles, which 
arose about that time, he went to Lafayette county, this state, where he re- 
mained awhile, later returning to Saline county and settling in Elmwood 
township. There he took up the pursuit of farming, to which he devoted him- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 577 

self until his death, which occurred when he was seventy-five years old. He 
acquired considerable note as a successful breeder and raiser of horses and 
mules. He was public spirited and enterprising and was counted a good cit- 
izen. In politics he was a ^^^^ig and a strong supporter of the Union. His 
wife. Martha, was a grand good woman, the impress of whose forceful and 
consistent Christian character was felt throughout the community. 

William Owens received a meager education in the pioneer schools of 
Missouri, which in his boyhood days were primitive in equipment and methods. 
He was reared on the Saline county farm and when old enough he entered 
the employ of the government transporting goods across the western plains. 
In 1849 he made a trip to California in the hope of finding gold, and re- 
mained there for a time. \Miile there he did some mining and for about three 
years he ran a pack train, which at that time was a profitable business. He 
then returned to Saline county, Missouri, and for a while attended school, 
feeling that he was to some extent deficient in that line. A\'hile there he met 
Sarah Bright, who also was a student, and their marriage occurred in 1854 
He then went into the mercantile business at Sweet Springs, in which he con- 
tinued until 1870, meeting with very gratifying success. In the year named 
he sold that business and started a brokerage and loan business. His experi- 
ence in this line was valuable to him, as it demonstrated to him the practica- 
bility of a local bank. He then was instrumental in the organization of the 
Bank of Sweet Springs, of which he became the president, and this position 
he retained until his death. He was a shrewd and successful business man 
and enjoyed the unbounded confidence of the entire community. He was a 
member of the Christian church for thirty-five years and rendered the church 
efiicient service as deacon and treasurer of the society. He took a deep in- 
terest in the work of the church and was himself largely responsible for the 
growth and prosperity of the local church. He was a public-spirited man, 
lending his support and influence to every movement that promised to benefit 
the community. His widow is still living in the homestead on Bridge street, 
Sweet Springs, and is one of the grand and noble women of the community. 
Her life has been characterized by the highest standard of womanly virtues 
and she is beloved by all who know her. She is a daughter of Jacob and 
Hannah (Wilson) Bright, who came from Kentucky to Missouri in a very 
early day and engaged in farming in Saline county. He was a member of 
the Christian church and helped to organize the church of that denomination 
at Sweet Springs. He died in 1869 and was survived many years by his 
widow, whose death occurred in 1903. William and Sarah Owens were the 
parents of twelve children, three of whom died in infancy unnamed, those 

37 



57<S PAST AND PRESENT 

who reached years of maturity being M. Kate, Fannie (deceased), John H., 
Dolhe, Helen, WilHam, Margaret, Charles and Nellie. 

John H. Owens was reared in the home at Sweet Springs and received 
a good common school education. This he supplemented by attendance at 
Missouri University and a course in the Spalding Business College, at Kan- 
sas Citv, Missouri. Having decided to make the practice of medicine his life 
work, he entered, in 1895, the Medical College of Louisville. Kentucky, where 
he graduated in 1897, receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He im- 
mediatelv came to Sweet Springs and entered upon the active practice of his 
profession, in which he has since been engaged. The Doctor has remained 
unmarried and resides with his mother. The family owns several thousand 
acres of land in Saline and Pettis counties, which requires some attention, and 
in other wavs the Doctor is interested in the material advancement of this 
section of the state. 

In politics Doctor Owens gives his support to the Republican party, in 
the success of which he manifests a deep interest, though he is not in any 
sense an aspirant for public office himself. His religious sympathies are with 
the Christian church, of which he is a member and to which he gives an earnest 
and generous support. 



MASOX GEORGE BROWN. 

It is with marked satisfaction that the biographer adverts to the life of 
one who has attained success in any vocation requiring definiteness of purpose 
and determined action. Such a life, whether it be one of calm, consecutive 
endeavor or of sudden meteoric accomplishment, must abound in both lesson 
and incentive and prove a guide to young men whose fortunes and destinies 
are still matters for the future to determine. The subject of this sketch is 
distinctively one of the representative men of Saline county, Missouri, his en- 
terprise and progressive methods having contributed in a definite measure to 
the growth and development of the county, and a work of this nature would 
be incomplete without specific mention of him. 

Mason G. Brown, president of the Bank of Sweet Springs, is a native 
son of Missouri, having been born in Pettis county on the 21st day of Decem- 
ber, 1842. He is the son of John S. and Mary (Beckham) Brown, the latter 
l)eing a distant relative of ex-Governor Beckham, of Kentucky. John S. 
Brown was born and reared in Frankf<^rt. Kentucky, where he secured his 
education in the jniblic schools. In 1838 he came to Pettis county. Missouri. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 579 

where he bought land, which he cleared and improved and developed into a 
good farm. He continued the operation of this farm up to the time of his 
death. He was a member of the Presbyterian church, while his wife's re- 
ligious faith was that of the Baptist church. In politics he was an old-line 
Whig. They were the parents of seven children: James H., who died in 
Birmingham, Alabama; Sarah J., wife of W. G. Buckner, of Fulton, Mis- 
souri; Mary C, who died in 1865; John T, who is president of the Home 
Savings Bank at Fulton, Missouri; Mason G., the subject; Henrietta, wife of 
G. W. Smith, of Sweet Springs ; Mary Belle died in infancy. 

Mason G. Brown remained on the parental homestead until he was nine- 
teen years of age and in the meanwhile he received a good education in the 
public and private schools. In 1865 he came to Sweet Springs, Saline county, 
and went into business for himself, running a general store with marked suc- 
cess for several years. In 1871 he assisted in the organization of the Bank 
of Sweet Springs, of which he was a stockholder, though he did not become 
a member of the executive force of the bank until 1875, when he entered the 
bank as cashier and assumed the position of president in 1890. This insti- 
tution, which has enjoyed a remarkably prosperous career, was first capitalized 
at fifty thousand dollars, but in 1887 the capital stock was increased to one 
hundred thousand dollars, this being rendered necessary by the rapid increase 
of business which was coming to it. The present officers of the Bank of 
Sweet Springs are as follows : President, Mason G. Brown ; cashier, Lewis 
King ; vice-president, J. T. Wilson ; assistant cashier, George Weber. As the 
head of the Bank of Sweet Springs, Mr. Brown has evinced business quali- 
ties of the highest order and much of the present prosperity of the institution 
is undoubtedly due to his efforts and methods. He gives the closest attention 
to the details of the bank and is liberal, though at the same time wisely con- 
servative, in his treatment of patrons of the bank. As a bank naturally stands 
in a large degree as the consei-vator of the financial prosperity of a community, 
so it is that in Sweet Springs the bank of which the subject is the head has 
to a very great extent had a hand in the material advancement which has char- 
acterized this section of the county. Besides his banking interests, Mr. Brown 
is also the owner of much valuable real estate in this county, which also re- 
quires his attention. His home, on Bridge street. Sweet Springs, is g"eiierally 
considered one of the finest residences in Saline county, being well built, con- 
veniently arranged and furnished with the best of taste throughout. Mr. 
Brown is a close reader of the best literature and is a keen observer of men 
and events, being considered an unusually well informed man. 

In 1866 Mr. Brown married Mary E. Hurt, the daughter of Judge Os- 



580 PAST AND PRESENT 

sinins Hurt, and they have become the parents of one child, Ernest M., who 
is married and hves in Kansas City, Missouri. In poHtics the subject is a 
Democrat and takes a lively interest in local public affairs, though he has never 
held public office of any nature. His genial disposition and worthy cjualities 
of character have combined to \vin for him the unbounded respect and friend- 
ship of all whom he meets. 



REV. COXRAD BERNTHAL. 

Xo people that go to make up our cosmopolitan population have better 
habits of life than those who came originally from the great (ierman empire, 
and the descendants of these people are distinguished for their thrift, honesty 
and mental acumen. Of these excellent people came the subject of this brief 
review. He was born in Saginaw county, Michigan, on July 7, 1867, and is 
a son of Leonard and Margaret ( Veitengrulier) Bernthal. These parents were 
both born in Bavaria, Germany, and came to the United States in 1845, set- 
tling in Saginaw county. Michigan, where they took up government land, be- 
ing numbered among the first settlers of that count}'. 1"hey were faithful mem- 
bers of the Lutheran church and were highly esteemed in the community. 
They were the parents of six children, Leonard, Michael, George. Conrad, Bar- 
bara and Mary. 

The subject remained with his parents on the farm until he was thirteen 
years of age, receiving his education the meanwhile in the parochial school. 
At the age of thirteen years he became a student in Concordia College, at h^ort 
Wayne. Indiana, where he was graduated in 1887. He then went to St. 
Louis and entered Concordia College, the theological seminary connected with 
the Missouri synod of the Lutheran church, and was there graduated in 1890. 
His first ministerial labors w^ere as missionary at Shiner and Serbin, Texas, 
where he remained until 1905, when he came to Sweet Springs, Saline county, 
and became pastor of the Lutheran church, in which relation he has continued 
to the present time. The Evangelical Lutheran church of Sweet Springs em- 
braces a membership of about five hundred and fifty souls, and in connection 
with the church there is a parochial school, with an enrollment of about sixty- 
five students. This church was organized in 1878 by the Reverend W'ille with 
seven members, the charter members including H. Streunng, N. Hofi^mann, W. 
Ehlers, C. Ahlf, C. Wolers, L. Grother and J. Kuntz, who, with their respec- 
tive families, comprised a strong and active nucleus around which the people 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 58 1 

of tlieir religious faith (|uickly rallied and for a number of years this church 
has enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, both materially and spiritually. The 
second minister in charg-e of the church was Rev. Arnold Kuntz, who was fol- 
lowed by Rev. AI. Holls, Reverend Hamm, Rev. I. Gihring. Rev. W. C. 
Brink and then Rev. Conrad Bernthal, the subject of this sketch. The first 
church edifice was a small building, which was soon outgrown, and the pres- 
ent edifice was then built. It is a neat and substantial structure, and is sup- 
plemented by a two-story school building, comprising" three class rooms, which 
are heated by a furnace and well lighted and conveniently arranged. There is 
also the neat and attractive parsonage property, the whole comprising an ecjuip- 
ment of which the parish may justly feel proud. The congregation is an ac- 
tive and aggressive one and is a potential and recognized power for good 
throughout the community. The pastor. Reverend Bernthal, has proved the 
right man for the place he now occupies and under his wise leadership the 
church is moving forward steadily in the work of the Master. Air. Bernthal 
possesses a pleasing personality and in the pulpit is a forceful and convincing 
speaker, his sermons being noteworthy because of their breadth and richness 
of thought. He is of a genial disposition and readily makes friends every- 
where. Because of his excellent personal qualities he is highly regarded by 
everyone in the community. 

In 1891 the subject was united in marriage with Anna Schluckebier. who 
was born in Saginaw county, Michigan, in 1870. the daughter of Peter and 
Sophia Schluckebier. To this union have been born the following children : 
Bertha, Otto, Amelia, Herbert, Arnold and Hildegard. 



O. W. JOHNSTON. 



One of the most popular merchants of Marshall is O. ^^ '. Johnston, who 
handles a large line of hardware, furniture, house furnishings, — in fact, al- 
most everything usually kept in a modern firstclass store. He was born in 
^^'ayne county, Tennessee, April 4, 1857, spending his boyhood days in much 
the same manner as other boys about town, assisting his father in his business 
when he became old enough, attending school in the meantime. He is the 
son of John C. and Dorcas (Smith) Johnston, both natives of Tennessee and 
descendants of prominent and honored old families of Mauiw county, that 
state. John C. was the son of Alexander Johnston, a prominent farmer of 
Maury county and a veteran of the Revolutionary war, having been a com- 
missioned ofificer, serving through the war as such. This family is of Scotch 



582 PAST AND PRESENT 

ancestry. .Vlexandcr Jolinstoii's wife \\as the daughter of John Craig, who 
was also a commissioned otYicer in the Revolutionary war, and who became a 
prominent farmer. Both he and Alexander Johnston were prominent and 
leading citizens of Maury county, Tennessee, and became widely known and 
were highly respected. John C. Johnston w^as born and reared in Tennessee, 
where he married and began life as a merchant in Maury county, doing an 
excellent business until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he closed his 
store and during the conflict remained on a farm, owning a few slaves. He 
w^as not amenable to army service and therefore took no part. He lost heavily 
by foraging parties of both armies. His sympathies were with the South. 
After the close of the war he resumed merchandising which he continued until 
he moved to Mississippi, where he opened a store in Rienzi and lived there 
until 1878, when he moved to^ Texas, locating at Roanoke where he engaged 
in merchandising, finally closing out and moving to Bartlett where he lived 
with his son, O. W ., of this review, and died at Caldwell, Texas, at the age 
of seventy-six years. He was an active worker in the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church and a devoted Christian gentleman. He had no aspirations for 
office, preferring- to lead the c[uiet life of a plain, honest citizen. He was 
three times married. Two children resulted from his first marriage with 
Miss Knott, namely: \\\ A., who became a physician, was captain of his 
company in the Confederate army under General Wheeler ; Pattie, the daugh- 
ter. The mother of these children died and Mr. Johnston married Dorcas 
Smith, daughter of a prominent family. This union resulted in the birth of 
the following children: E. B.. Suella, J. M., a farmer; Virginia and O. W. 
of this review. Dr. E. B. was a physician and died at Columbia, Tennessee. 
This second wife and mother having also been called to rest when compara- 
tively young in years, Mr. Johnston later married Mary Boone, a widow, 
whose maiden name was Patton. This last union resulted in the birth of three 
children, Jennie, Lilly and Annie. 

O. W. Johnston moved with his father from Mississippi to Texas. His 
first employment was with a railroad company as station agent and operator, 
at which he was engaged for a period of six years, then he took a partner 
and launched in the hardware business, also handled furniture at Bartlett, 
Texas, continuing successfully in this until 1889. when he closed out his in- 
terest and opened, by himself, a store at Caldwell, Texas, continuing an ex- 
cellent business until 1898 w^hen he sold out and moved to Marshall, Missouri, 
and purchased the hardware and furniture stock of W. H. Hurt, then oc- 
cupying one room with a stock worth about five thousand dollars, and annual 
sales aggregating al)out twenty-five thousand dollars. His continued success 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 583 

warranted an increase and he now occupies four large rooms and extensive 
warehouses, with a forty thousand dollars' investment and sales amounting- 
to seventy-five thousand dollars annually, and he now easily takes first rank in 
his line of business in Saline county. He gives his affairs, every detail, the 
closest scrutinv ; however, he looks after many other things, hut he is a natural 
organizer and can manage successfully and with comparative ease a business 
that would crush an ordinary man. He is a self-made man and the sole 
builder of his handsome competency and business, by hard work and honest 
dealing having placed himself at the head of large and growing interests. 

Mr. Johnston is president of the Missouri State Hardware Association, 
in which he takes considerable interest. He was a worthy member of the 
Cumberland Presbyterian church and for many years an elder. He is a mem- 
ber of the Masonic fraternity and high in the sublime degrees. He is also 
a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. A Democrat, but 
not an aspirant for political honors. 

Mr. Johnston remained single until he was twenty-eight years of age, 
when, in 1885, he married Carrie I. Ponce, who was born in Independence, 
Texas, the daughter of Dimas Ponce, a native of Georgia and of Spanish 
nationality, an early settler in Texas and a prominent merchant of Caldwell. 
He rendered valiant service as captain in Hood's Texas brigade in the Con- 
federate army, and although he saw hard service he was never wounded or 
taken prisoner. He was always a Democrat, but never very active in party 
affairs. He was a member of the Baptist church and a man whom everybody 
honored. His death occurred at Independence. He and his wife were the 
parents of five children, named as follows: Carrie J., wife of Mr. Johnston: 
Frank. Hurston, Ellen and Sexton. 

Fourteen children, twelve of whom are living at this writing, have been 
born to Mr. and Mrs. O. W. Johnston, named as follows: Florence is the 
wife of A. L. Ritter. who has charge of Majestic Manufacturing Company's 
interests, of St. Louis, in Missouri and Arkansas, and she is a member of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution: Charles B. is assisting his father in 
the store and is head of the carpet department : Frankie. John, a student at 
Missouri Vallev College : Jane, Harry : above named chiUlren were born in 
Texas. Willie, Ruth, O. \\'., Jr., James, Joseph E., Dorcas, Irwin and Elvin. 
the two younger boys being twins, the eight last named being born in Mis- 
souri. Frankie died at the age of eleven years and James died at the age of 
foin^ months. 

The mother of these children, a woman of great intelligence and many 
praiseworthy traits, is a member of the Presbyterian church. 



584 PAST AND PRESENT 

WILLIAM! HENRY WOOD 

It is but in justice due that in this volume should be accorded a tribute 
to the memory of one who was identified with the commercial life of Saline 
county in so prominent a way as was Mr. Wood, whose abilities and unswerv- 
ing integrity in all the relations of life gained to him unlimited esteem from 
all with whom he came in contact. Super-added to this, the memoir is the 
more consistent from the fact that he was a native son of the county and here 
passed practically his entire life, attaining marked success and becoming one 
of the representative and influential men of this section of the state. 

AMlliam H. Wood was born in Arrow Rock township, Saline county, 
Missouri, on September 25, 183 1, and died in New York City on the 8th day 
of July, 1890, having gone to that city for medical treatment. He was the 
son of Charles W. and Sarah (Vest) Wood. Charles Wood was born in Al- 
bemarle countv. Virginia, where he married, and in alxnit 1830 he came to 
Missouri and entered government land in Arrow Rock township. Saline coun- 
ty. This he cleared and developed into a good farm, and he continued its op- 
eration to the time of his death, which occurred in 1871. He and his wife 
were members of the Christian church and were highly respected in the com- 
munity where they lived. They were the parents of six children, namely: 
\\' illiam Henry, the subject of this review ; James, Reuben, David, Charles and 
a daughter that died in infancy. Charles Wood was married a second time, 
his wife's maiden name having been Brown, and to this union were born 
three children, Strother, John and Clifton. 

William H. Wood was reared on the parental farmstead and secured his 
education in the common schools of the neighborhood. On completing his 
education he entered Dover's general store at Arrow Rock as a clerk, but after 
a few years" service in this capacity he started into business on his own account, 
opening a grocery store at Arrow Rock. During the Civil war, conditions 
were such that his business was greatly decreased, and in 1862 he went to St. 
Louis and engaged in the river freighting business, the business at Arrow 
Rock being continued in the meanwhile by his partner, Joseph Huston, Sr., 
whom he had taken into the business as a partner in 1859. At the close of 
the war the firm of Wood & Huston enlarged the scope of their business by 
adding a commission department. This move was but an indication of the 
shiewd and far-sighted judgment which characterized all of Mr. Wood's 
business operations, and it was not long before the firm controlled all the 
warehouses at Arrow Rock, making all the shipments of produce from that 
town, which at that time was the most important commercial center in this 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 585 

part of the state. In 1869 the firm was dissolved, but four years later Messrs. 
Wood and Huston ag^ain united their interests for the purpose of engaging in 
the banking business at Marshall. They were very successful in this enter- 
prise, the bank being located on the northeast corner of the public square in 
Marshall, and being capitalized at twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Wood had 
previously had an insight into the banking business through connection with 
the old Bank of Missouri at Arrow Rock, where he was associated with George 
A. Murrell, \\\ B. Sappington and Henry S. Mills, and in his present capacity 
he gave evidence of business abilities of the highest order, gaining the confi- 
dence of the business world. The Wood & Huston Bank was conducted as a 
private bank with great success until 1882, when it was organized under the 
state banking law and the capital stock increased to one hundred thousand 
dollars. Joseph Huston was elected president of the institution, retaining 
the office up to the time of his death, in 1884, when he was succeeded by Mr. 
Wood, who continued at the head of the bank until his death, in 1890. 

Mr. Wood not only attained prominence because of the able business 
qualities he possessed, by means of which he was enabled to acquire a com- 
petence, but his personal qualities were of so high an order as to at once win 
for him the personal friendship of all who had dealings with him. He was 
public spirited and broad minded and did much for the city of his residence. 
His acts of kindness and benevolence were many and in his charity he was 
unostentatious, not caring for the public to hear of his acts.. He was one of 
the most popular men in Marshall and on the hour of his funeral all the busi- 
ness houses in the city were closed as a mark of esteem. 

Mr. \\^ood was twice married, first to Jennie Fields, the daughter of 
Judge Robert Fields. To this union was born a son, James, who died in child- 
hood. Mrs. Jennie Wood died in 1856 and subsequently Mr. Wood married 
Mrs. Wilhelmina Durrett Potter, the daughter of David Richardson Dur- 
rett and the widow of Jay M. Potter, by whom she was the mother of a daugh- 
ter, Daisy. The latter is now the wife of Charles M. Buckner, of Marshall. 
To William H. and Wilhelmina Wood was born a daughter, Frances, who 
is now residing in the beautiful family homestead on East North street, Mar- 
shall. Her mother died on January 11, 1909, while traveling in France. She 
was a woman of many lovable qualities and was a faithful and consistent 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, to which she gave a liberal 
support. 

David R. Durrett. the father of Mrs. Wood, was a native of Virginia, 
born March 21, 1816, and came to Missouri in early life. He married 
Frances Piper and they located on a farm in Rock Creek township. Saline 



586 PAST AND PRESENT 

coiintN'. near Orearville. With his father he there engaj^ed in nierchanchsing- 
in 1855, and was snccessfnl. He took a deep interest in local |)ul)lic affairs 
and at the time of his deatii he was serving- as sheriff of Saline cnnnty. 

William 11. Wood possessed a kind disposition, holding none hut the 
most friendly feeling for all. and he gave valuable assistance and advice to 
others freely wdien sought. His business ability and sound judgment were 
widelv recognized and in his transactions he was the soul of integrity. Stand- 
ing "four square to everv wind that blows," he was a loving husljand, kind 
father and faithful friend. 



RICHARD PINDELL SHELBY. 

.\ descendant of an honored and prominent ancestr}- of Revolutionary 
fame is Richard Pindell Shelby, an influential citizen of Saline county wdio 
was born in Eayette county, Kentucky, September 2, 181 1, reared in the lap of 
luxury and received a liberal education in the schools of Lexington, Kentucky. 
\^'hen seventeen years of age he was admitted to \Vest Point Military 
Academy, where he remained tw^o terms and made a splendid record. He w'as 
the son of Brig.-Gen. James Shelby, wdio participated in the war of 1812 with 
distinction, and he gained military prominence in other ways, being one of the 
government's most trusted generals. The latter was the son of Gen. Isaac 
Shelby, a native of the Old Dominion, who w^ent from Virginia into the Revo- 
lutionary war as colonel and served with credit throughout the same, being one 
of the leading commanders at the battle of King's Mountain ; he was later pro- 
moied to major-general and served under Gen. William Henry Harrison dur- 
ing the war of 181 2 in subduing the hostile Indians of the lake region, and he 
was leader in command at the noted and hotly contested battle of the Thames, 
gaining a great victory, the battle being fought on Canadian soil, and wdiere 
the noted Indian chief Tecumseh, was killed. General Shelby was then in his 
seventy-sixth year. He was also the first governor of Kentucky and a man of 
great distinction and prominence in advancing pure American ideas and in 
building up good government. He was the son of Evan Shelby, of Virginia, 
who was a general in the war for American independence, and he had four 
sons with him who participated in the great and i)erhai)s the bloodiest of In- 
dian battles, that of Point Pleasant, Virginia. 

Gen. James Shelby married Mary Pindell, a daughter of Dr. Richard 
Pindell, one of the state's most prominent families, the Doctor also being of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 587 

Revolutionary fame, he being a surgeon in the army, and he dressed General 
LaFayette's -wounds at the battle of Brandywine. The Doctor settled in Ken- 
tucky, where he spent the last years of his life. 

Richard Pindell Shelby, of this review, first married in his native state 
Lydia Hickman, daughter of John L. Hickman, of Bourbon county, Kentucky ; 
she died. leaving- one son, James Shelby, who came to Saline county, Missouri, 
and died here in February, 1857. Richard P. Shelby came to Saline county, 
Missouri, about 1835 in company with John Clay, the son of the great states- 
man, Henry Clay, of Kentucky, they being cousins, and he lived on a farm be- 
longing to his infant son, James Shelby, the place being located three and one- 
half miles west of Marshall. John Clay subsequently returned to his home at 
Lexington, Kentucky. 

Richard P. Shelby married his second wife on June 6, 1841 ; she was 
Rebecca L. (Williams) Mitchell, of Saline county, Missouri. She died at the 
country place, known as Richland, the home of Gen. James Shelbv, of Favette 
county, Kentucky, in June, 1849, leaving only one child, Mary Pindell Shelby, 
who became the wife of W. B. Napton, Jr., of Marshall, Saline county, Mis- 
souri, on September 9, 1862, and by this union these children survive, Frances, 
John R. and Roberta. 

The grandfather, Richard P. Shelby, taught school in Saline county dur- 
ing the latter years of his life, and some of his pupils are yet living to testify to 
his worth as a teacher and his excellence as a man. The death of this splendid 
character was sudden, occurring near Marshall in September, 1862. His only 
surviving child is Mary Pindell Napton. 



LEWIS T. PHILLIPS. 



A man who is prominently identified with the agricultural interests of 
Saline county is Lewis T. Phillips, who was born in Campbell county, Ken- 
tucky, April 9, 1834. He was reared on the farm and educated in the old- 
time subscription schools, taught in log houses with crude furnishings. He 
is the son of John and Margaret (Kiggins) Phillips, both natives of Kentucky, 
where they were reared and married and where the father taught school a 
few years. He and his wife both died young in years, of milk sickness, about 
the latter part of 1834; they left two small children, John, now living in Pan- 
handle, Texas, and Lewis T., of this review. But little is known of the family 
of John Phillips. His mother was a daughter of a Mr. Kiggins, of North 



58S PAST AND PRESENT 

Carolina, who was killed at the battle of Cowpens. Later his family moved 
to Kentucky and eventually to Indiana. His children were: Mary, who mar- 
ried a Mr. Gisborn ; Nanc}-, wdio married a Mr. Saide ; Margaret, the mother of 
Lewis T. Phillips of this review; Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Shanklin ; 
Susan, who married a Mr. Ginn; Sally, married; Senith, who married a Mr. 
Parmore ; Ellen, w-ho married a Mr. Perry. Several of these children came 
to Missouri, while others remained in Indiana, near Greensburg. 

Lewis T. Phillips was eight months old when his parents died and he 
and his brother were placed with relatives, John remaining in Kentucky and 
Lewis T. was sent to Lidiana to an uncle, Mathew Gisborn, who gave him as 
good care as was possible at that time. He was a Virginian, upright, hig'hl}' 
respected and a good man in all the relations of life, a devoted member of the 
Baptist church. In 1840 he moved to Missouri and located in Knox county, 
where he bought a farm which he worked successfully until his death in 1848. 
He left four children, two of whom died in Missouri ; one son went to Cali- 
fornia in 1849 '^"'^^ later lived in Salt Lake City. Lewis T. Phillips himself 
took the "gold fever" in 1852 and made the adventurous trip across the plains 
to the distant Eldorado, making the trip with ox teams. He w^orked at such 
labor as he could find to do, farming, teaming and similar w'ork. Li 1863 he 
visited Missouri, coming home by the water route, and in 1864 returned to 
California. In 1865 he resumed farming in Knox county and on December 
16, 1866. he married and in 1868 he came to Saline county, rented a large farm 
and here remained for fifteen years. He was successful and in 1887 he bought 
a farm and still resides on the same, having carried on general farming in a 
most successful manner and has fed stock from time to time, always raising 
what live stock the farm would support. He has lived to see all the best de- 
velopment of the count}-. Being in the far \\'est during- the Civil war. he took 
no part in the same. He is a Democrat, but has never aspired to office or public 
notoriety of any kind. He is a strictly moral, honest, charitable man, a good 
neighbor and friend, and a man who deserves much credit for the large suc- 
cess which he has achieved solely through his own efi^orts, his hard work and 
honest dealing. He finds himself in his old age enjoying all the comforts of 
life, the owner of a fine farm and a C(.mfortable honie. His highly cultivated 
farm is located near Eairville, Miami townshi]), and is one of the best in 
this section. 

Lewis 1". riiillips was married to Sarah E. h^isher, who was born in Ken- 
tucky in 1844, the daughter of \\'illiam and Nellie (Jackson) Fisher, both na- 
tives of Owen county, Fventuck)-. where thev grew to maturity and were mar- 
ried. William's father was Joseph h'isher. who ser\-ed through the war of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 589 

18 1 J. When vrmng he was captured and carried off by the Indian., and was 
kept bv them for a period of eighteen years, becoming a favorite with the red 
men and after his marriage the Indians visited him frequently. He settled in 
Kentucky when he married and there reared a family and died, this family be- 
ing distant relatives of Gov. Claiborne Jackson. William Fisher was a tailor 
l)v trade and he worked at this in the city of Louisville. He was a Democrat 
and a Baptist. He died in Louisville in about 1847. The family returned to 
Bourbon county. Kentucky, and later moved to Knox county, Missouri, where 
Mrs. Fisher kept the family together and reared them. The children born to 
Mr. and Mrs. William Fisher were, James, Jarvis, John W., Joseph, Matilda 
H.. Charlotte A. and Mary E., the last three named dying single; Sarah, wife 
of Lewis T. Phillips of this review; Samuel T. is deceased; Susan died in in- 
fancy. Of these children. Joseph and Sarah are still living. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Lewis T. Phillips only one child was born, John \\'., 
born May 6, 1868, who is a merchant at Fairville, Saline county, carrying a 
general stock of goods; he is a Democrat. He married Bessie C. Davis on 
April 2, 1901, the daughter of James O. and Nannie (Paxton) Davis, the 
former a native of Virginia and the latter of Missouri. ]\Ir. Davis, a man of 
high integrity, was a Democrat, a plain industrious man. a Presbyterian, and 
his death occurred on June 30, 1906. His widow, also a member of the Pres- 
byterian church, still survives, residing in Miami township on the old home 
farm. They were the parents of the following children : Thomas L. is a 
teacher; Mary married B. Cooper; Booker lives at home; Bessie married John 
W. Phillips; Charles is a business man of Marshall, Missouri; Tiny married 
W. Crane ; Ona married E. Haney, sheriff of Saline county. John W. Phillips 
and wife are the parents of one child, Elizabeth, born ]May 6. 1902. 



MONROE FLOYD. 



A highly honored and substantial agriculturist of Elmwood township. 
Saline county, whose record is deserving of emulation by the youth who would 
succeed over the common barriers in the pathway to the goal of success, is 
Monroe Floyd, a scion of a fine old Kentucky family, he himself being a native 
of the Blue Grass state, having first seen the light of day in Pulaski county, 
that state, on June 15, 184 1. He is the son of John and Matilda (Wood) 
Floyd, both natives of Kentucky, the former the son of Singleton Floyd, a 
native of Virginia and an early settler of Kentucky in the days when these two 



590 PAST AND PRESENT 

States were one. He settled first in Garrard county. Kentucky, where he be- 
came a noted hunter of wild game ; but he later moved to Pulaski county, Ken- 
tucky, where he made his permanent home. Singleton Floyd, mentioned above, 
is remembered as an exceptionally honest man, an active member of the old 
Campbellite church. He married Elizabeth Pinic, daughter of James and 
Elizabeth Pinic, and to this union fifteen children were born, named as fol- 
lows: Sarah, Polly, John (father of Monroe of this review), Frank, James, 
Benjamin. David, Lucy. Greenville, Nathan. Singleton. Elizabeth, Lucinda, 
William P.. Franklin. The father of the children spent the last years of his 
life in Pulaski county. Kentucky. Matilda Wood, mother of Monroe Floyd, 
was born in Kentucky, the daughter of Elias Wood, a native of North Carolina, 
in which state he remained until nine years of age, his father having come to 
that state from England. Elias Wood ran away from home when a boy and 
accompanied some emigrants to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and lived there 
until nineteen years of age when he moved to Pulaski county, that state. He 
met Jane Adams at a dance and shortly afterwards married her. At that time 
he had nothing of value except a pair of saddle bags which he sold for five 
dollars and with the money bought an ax. two knives and a fork, also a plow. 
He entered some land, built a rude log house and cleared a small "patch" of 
ground upon which he began farming, making a permanent home there and in 
time possessed cjuite a fortune for that day. He was a remarkable man in 
many respects, was six feet tall, very erect, black hair and eyes, roman nose, 
straight lips, high forehead, large jaw and had a full set of teeth at the time 
of his death, decidedly military in his general appearance; he was known for 
his sound judgment, and although his education was limited, he was a very 
companionable gentleman, being a man of wide information. He was a slave 
owner and a Whig in politics. He w^as a soldier in the war of 1812. He 
never experienced any sickness until that which resulted in his death and he 
never took a dose of medicine until then. His wife, Jane Adams, was reared 
in Kentucky, daughter of Robert and Rebecca (Wiley) Adams, of North 
Carolina, Robert Adams having come to America from Ireland. Mrs. Wood 
was proud of her ancestry and she herself was a firm, noble woman. She 
and her husband were the parents of ten children, named as follows : Ma- 
tilda, mother of Monroe Floyd, subject of this sketch; Joel Bailey, Sarah, 
Polly, Lewis P., Patsy Jane, Alexander, Louisa, Logan Adams. Lafayette. 
John and Matilda (Wood) Floyd, parents of Monroe Floyd, died in Pulaski 
county, Kentucky, the former on January 30. 1856. and the latter in 1846. 
They were members of the Christian cliurch, were slave owners and the 
parents of three children: h"",lizal)eth J., deceased; she married L. B. L}nch ; 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 59I 

Vilethe, who married Hayden Girdler, died in 1866; Monroe, of this review, 
Avac the youngest child. 

Monroe Floyd remained at home assisting- his father with the work about 
the home place until he was twenty years of age, then entered the Union army, 
July 24. 1S61. Company K, Third Regiment Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. 
The regiment cam])e(l in that state in the fall and winter following, and in 
March, 1862, marched to Nashville, Tennessee, and were placed in Haskell's 
brigade. Wood's division, Buell's corps. The following month found them at 
Pittsburg Landing, in which they engaged in two fights. They then proceeded 
to Corinth, Mississippi, followed General Beauregard across northern Mis- 
sissippi and Alabama into Tennessee and into Kentucky, later followed Gen- 
eral Bragg into the mountains, then went back to Nashville. Mr. Floyd saw 
some hard campaigning and fighting. He made a gallant soldier, according 
to his comrades, and was promoted from private to second lieutenant of Com- 
pany C. in the same regiment, receiving his commission November 12, 1861. 

After the war Mr. Floyd engaged in general merchandising at Somerset, 
Kentucky, for a period of three years, when he sold out and took up farming, 
which he followed until 1873, when he left his native state and came to Saline 
county. Missouri, and bought his present farm of one hundred and twenty 
acres, which he has fenced, drained and improved in many ways. He has an 
attractive, comfortable home and good outbuildings. He handles all the stock 
that the farm will maintain, and has been very successful as a farmer and stock 
raiser. He fed sheep in large numbers for several years and is now breeding 
grade sheep. 

July 5, 1864, ]\Ir. Floyd was united in marriage with Alary Ann Cain, in 
Kentucky, who was born in Saline county, Missouri, near Sweet Springs; she 
is the daughter of Andrew and Margaret (Lynch) Cain; the former went to 
California with the famous band of "forty-niners." and died there. The Cain 
family came from Virginia to Missouri in 1840 and Mr. and Mrs. Andrew 
Cain were the parents of three children: \A"illiam, deceased; Mary Ann, wife 
of Monroe Floyd, of this review; Nancy Jane. The mother of these children 
died in 1850. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Monroe Floyd eight children ha\e been born, named as 
follows: John F. married Nettie Burk and they are the parents of one child, 
Monroe, and reside in Oklahoma ; A\'illiam E. married Kate Schien ; he is a 
druggist and lives at Butler, Missouri; Monroe A., who is a distinguished ed- 
ucator, holding' the chair of history in the L^iiversity of Oklahoma, married 
Myrtle Castle and they are the parents of one child, Francis Monroe; Carl W. 
married Mabel DePue and lives on the home farm with his father; Margaret 



592 PAST AND PRESENT 

lar.o is the wife of M\ C. Cox, living in Kansas City; one child was born to 
i!iem, but is now deceased; Mr. Cox is employed at the stock-yards; Andrew 
C. who lives in Bismarck, Missouri, where he is principal in the public schools, 
married Gertie Clark: Nellie V., wife of William Bear, manager of an electric 
plant in Dulutli, Minnesota; Nancy Jane died in early childhood. 

Mr. h^loyd and famih- are members of the Baptist church, and he has long- 
taken an active interest in church work, having been superintendent of the 
Sunday school for ten years at the old Salt Pond church, and he has been 
treasurer of the church for a period of fourteen years, was trustee for twenty 
years and moderator for the same length of time, having been re-elected each 
year during that time. This is sufficient proof of his high standing in the 
neighborhood and of the unsw^erving confidence which his fellow citizens re- 
pose in him and speaks in stronger terms than any which could be employed 
by the biographer. He is a thirty-second-degree Mason, having been a mem- 
ber of this order since 1878, this, too, being" a criterion of his genuine worth. 
He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, having joined 
this fraternity twenty-five years ago. He is a fine man to meet, pleasant, gen- 
erous, gentlemanly, and soon impresses one with his sincerity, general knowd- 
edge and probity of character, and yet he is unassuming and avoids display. 



W. G. DURRETT. 

At the time the first of this name came over here, Saline county was a 
l)arren prairie and given over largely to wild game of all kinds. The coyote 
and prairie wolf had none to fear, the prairie chicken went unhunted, the 
foxes caught cjuail at their leisure and squirrels gamboled in thousands with- 
out disturbance from the guns of boys. Such were conditions when Richard 
Durrett came here from distant Virginia, after making the long trip over 
nK.untain and valley, rivers and roads for hundreds of wearisome miles. He 
soon found, hcnvever, that Saline county was a good place for a poor man to 
come to, as the land was cheap, the soil rich and productive and everything 
readv for the plow. The newcomer lost no time in securing some of this land 
in Clay township, which he cultivated industriously, and when he died, at the 
age of seventy-five, he had a comfortable home and a reasonable share of 
wealth, for those days. Besides other members of his family, he had brought 
with him from old Virginia a bright and promising nine-year-old boy, who 
afterwards became well known as B. B. Durrett. He, too, became a farmer 




W. G. DURRETT. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 593 

and all his working days were devoted to agricultural pursuits. He served as 
a soldier in the Mexican war and ranked high in his community as an honest 
and loyal citizen. His death occurred March 8, 1874, at the comparatively 
early age of fifty-two years, the homestead he had so long occupied witness- 
ing the final scene. He married Mildred Grimes, a native of Fayette count}-, 
Kentucky, who came to Saline county with a sister and here met her future 
husband. She died on August 14, 1906, after becoming the mother of eight 
children, whose names are thus recorded in the family annals: Emma, de- 
ceased wife of S. P. Allen, of Marshall; Richard, who lives at Slater: Lilla. 
wife of J. C. Orear, of Slater; Georgia, deceased wife of Doctor W'insboro, 
who also is dead; Marshall, deceased: David, who resides in Kansas City 
and one that died in infancy. 

W. G. Durrett, eldest of this family of children, was born on his father's 
farm in Clay township. Saline county, Missouri, July 17, 1850. Circum- 
stances arose which presented his leaving the farm and he made his home 
there for fifty-five years, living with his mother after his father's death and 
attending to the agricultural interests and other business connected therewith. 
His education was obtained in the Clay township schools, supplemented by 
one term at Professor Newton's private academy, in Pettis county. Mr. Dur- 
rett was elected county clerk in November, 1906, and entered upon his term 
of office on January 7th, of the following year. 

September 18, 1889, Mr. Durrett married Josie P., daughter of Joseph 
M. Pettis, of Marshall, but formerly of Madison county, Kentucky, where 
Mrs. Durrett was born. There are four children, Joseph W., a student of 
the high school at this writing; David G., Amos and William P. 

Both parents are church members, attending the Christian church, and 
Mr. Durrett is an Odd Fellow. 



DAVID P. VANMETER. 



Prominently identified with farming and stock raising, two of the leading 
industries of Saline county, is David P. Vanmeter, who was born in Miami 
township, this county, March 25, 1879, and while yet young in years he has 
been very successful. He Avas reared on a farm and educated in the common 
schools of Miami township. He later attended Colonel Fleet's Military School 
and while he was a student there the building was destroyed by fire, and he 
then took a course in Musselman's Business College, at Quincy, Illinois, from 

38 



594 ■ PAST AND PRESENT 

which lie was grachiated ; thus he was well equipped for the struggle of ma- 
terial existence. He is the son of David P. and Margaret (Nye) Vanmeter, 
the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Ohio and the daughter of 
George Nye, of Germany, later a prominent farmer of Saline county, Missouri, 
where he owned and resided on his father's old farm, near Laynesville. His 
father, Andrew Nve, emigrated from Germany in 1829 and settled in Ross 
count}-, Ohio, whither he brought his family of four daughters and two sons, 
and his death occurred in that county in 1840, his widow surviving him until 
1854, dying in Missouri. George Nye remained under his parental roof until 
1838, when he married Lucinda ^^'arren, whose people were natives of North 
Carolina, prominent and highly respected. He then went to farming in Ross 
count}-, Ohio, which he continued very successfully until 1853 when he sold 
out and emigrated to Saline county, Missouri, coming on a steamboat, which 
landed at Miami. Here he rented a farm until 1858, wdien he purchased land 
near Laynesville, which he managed very successfully until 1888 when he 
was ushered into the silent land, owning at the time of his death over eight 
hundred acres, and he had given each of his sons one hundred and sixty acres. 
He was a very prosperous farmer and cattle man. The following children were 
born to Mr. and Mrs. George Nye : Andrew ; William ; Rhoda married William 
Mullen ; Christena married A. J. Vanmeter ; Margaret was three times mar- 
ried, first to David P. Vanmeter, father of David P. Vanmeter, Jr., of this 
review-; then she married William Bates, and her third husband w-as J. Allen; 
Felix Nye is deceased ; George, and Louisa, now Mrs. I. Blackburn. The 
mother of these children passed to her rest on May 11, 1889. George Nye, the 
father, was a Republican, but not an office aspirant. His two oldest sons, 
\\'illiam and Andrew-, served through the Civil war in the Federal army. 

David P. Vanmeter, Sr., w-as born in Hardy county, Virginia, and he was 
the son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Parsons) Vanmeter. The latter, born in 
Hampshire county, Virginia, died in Saline county, Missouri, in 1863. Abra- 
ham Vanmeter was born in Hardy county, Virginia, in 1785; his father, Jo- 
seph Vanmeter, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, with Washington, and 
Al)raham X'anmeter served through the war of 18 12. The older Vanmeters 
were all very patriotic citizens. Abraham came wnth his family to Saline 
county, Misouri. in 1835, ^^^^ located in the southern part of the county and 
rented a farm ; he liad brought slaves here from Virginia. Soon afterw^ards he 
entered land in Miami tow-nship, where he moved, and on which he 
built a log cabin, later bringing his family and making permanent settlement, 
placing his farm under cultivation, w-hich was soon self-supporting. He also 
soon became interested in dealing in cattle and other live stock; later he added 
more land to his original |)urchase until he owned a large and valual)Ie tract. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 595 

He fed cattle for the market, which he found by driving his cattle to St. Louis, 
for there were no railroads at that time. He also drove them to other places, 
at one time driving sixteen hundred head of cattle and a large number of sheep 
to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a remarkable feat. In those days it was not 
possible to get hogs that would follow cattle in the feed lot and he used sheep 
instead for this purpose and marketed them with the cattle. The trip to Phil- 
adelphia required four months, one month of which was spent in Ohio, waiting 
for the grass to grow so that the cattle could be properly fed along the road. 
He became the most extensive cattle dealer in northwestern Missouri, con- 
tinuing until old age prevented him from looking after the business properly, 
ttien his son David did the necessary work. The elder Vanmeter was very suc- 
cessful and created a large estate. Religiously he was devoted to the Methodist 
Episcopal church South, which he joined in Virginia. Politically he was a 
Democrat. His death occurred at the old homestead in 1866. His family con- 
sisted of four children, David P., Sr., father of the subject; Mary C. married 
J. P. Henning ; Rebecca A. married Joseph D. Prosser ; A. J. became an exten- 
sive farmer and stock raiser and dealer and he still resides on the old home 
farm. 

When Abraham Vanmeter located in Miami township it was sparsely set- 
tled, game was plentiful and wild beasts roamed at will through the great 
woods, and he and his family made the early history and started the develop- 
ment in this part of the county, undergoing the usual hardships and privations 
incident to a life in a new country. The family became widely known and 
highly respected. 

During his father's life David was "put in the saddle" and carried for- 
ward the work inaugurated by his sire, and after the father's death the property 
was divided and he continued farming and stock raising successfully until his 
death in 1884. He was a Democrat, but never an office seeker. He was a 
man of strict integrity and honor; his family consisted of three children, 
namely : George, who died when two years old ; David P., Jr., of this review; 
Lucinda M.. wife of George P. Haynie, of Miami. After the death of the 
father, the mother of these children married W. Bates, by whom two children 
were born, one dying in infancy; the second child, Martin Bates, is still a 
student at school. After Mr. Bates' death, his widow married J. Allen, who 
now resides at Miami, having retired from active business. Mrs. Allen is a 
member of the Christian church. 

David P. Vanmeter. Jr., was born and reared on the old Vanmeter home- 
stead, in sight of his present home and farm, and he was reared to farming and 



5q6 past and present 

stdck raising. He received a good elementary education and remained under 
tlie parental roof with his mother until he married, on October 4, 1899, settling 
soon afterward on a farm which had been provided for him by inheritance, 
consisting of six hundred and nineteen acres, and, being a judicious manager 
and having applied himself very carefully to his business affairs, he has pros- 
pered and added over six hundred acres to his original tract, making one of the 
largest, best located and most desirable farms in Saline county. It is well im- 
proved and in a high state of cultivation. It is very fertile and never fails to 
attract admiration of the stranger, for it is well kept and everything about the 
place shows that a gentleman of good taste, good management and thrift is its 
owner. After everything had been well started along systematic lines, when 
he first began farming here, Mr. Vanmeter began remodeling the dwelling, 
and he erected a practically new three-story frame house, commodious, attrac- 
tWe and modern in architectural design. He also erected a large red barn and 
other substantial outbuildings, set out a splendid orchard and in various ways 
beautified the surroundings of the home. He has also' three well arranged and 
remodeled houses for tenants. His farm is all under "hog-tight" fence. He is 
faith full V carrying on general farming and stock raising, following up the 
work so successfully begun by his worthy father. He is also the owner of three 
hundred acres in the bottoms, with forty acres in timber for the support of the 
home farm, the balance being under cultivation and on it stands good tenant 
buildings. Mr. Vanmeter is regarded as one of the leading farmers and stock 
men of the county, always abreast of the times, always honorable in his deal- 
ings with his fellow men so that he has both the confidence and esteem of his 
neighbors and acquaintances, and he takes considerable interest in whatever 
tends to promote the general good of his community. Although a strong- 
Democrat, he has not aspired to public office, preferring to devote his time ex- 
clusively to his business affairs. He is a member of the Baptist church and a 
liberal supporter of the same. Mrs. Vanmeter belongs to the Christian church. 
David P. Vanmeter, Jr., married Florence Hisle, a lady of refinement and 
the representative of an excellent old family. She was born in Miami town- 
ship, Saline county, Missouri, and she is the daughter of Samuel J. and Mollie 
(Dobbins) Hisle, both natives of Virginia, in which state they grew to ma- 
turity; however, they came to Saline county, Missouri, when young and were 
married here. Mr. Hisle always followed farming. He is a Democrat but 
never a public man. Both he and his wife are members of the Christian church 
and they are highly respected in their community. They are the parents of six 
children, namely: Florence, wife of Mr. Vanmeter of this review; James 
lives in Kansas City ; Ida married Guy Webster, a popular grocer of Miami ; 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 59/ 

Eldridge is farming: Boyd is attending school and living at home; Lewis is 
also living with his parents and attending school. 

One daughter, Virginia A., has added sunshine to the Vanmeter home ; 
she was born April 17. 1908. 



WILLIAM A. J. GRAYSON. 

A prominent farmer and influential citizen of Miami township. Saline 
count3^ is William A. J. Grayson, who was born in Madison county, Virginia, 
Julv 14. 1849, where he was reared on the home farm and where he received 
his education in the common schools. He is the son of Henry M. and Jane M. 
( Price) Grayson, both natives of Virginia where they grew to maturity, mar- 
ried and settled on a farm, the wedding taking place March 31, 1842. After 
spending a number of years tilling the soil in old Virginia, the results of their 
labor not being satisfactory, in 1856, with a small colony of four other fam- 
ilies, they started on a journey to a new Eldorado, Missouri. Including slaves, 
there were sixty-two in the company, twelve covered wagons and twenty-four 
horses being required to transport them. Twelve dogs followed all the way. 
They camped along the route at night, the trip requiring two months, and, the 
weather being good for the most part, they greatly enjoyed the trip, arriving in 
Saline county in November, 1856. Mr. Grayson located for the winter in Salt 
Pond township and during the following year he rented John Spear's farm, 
on which he remained one year, then rented James Huey's farm near Shackel- 
ford, after which he rented J. Smith's farm, Mr. Smith having been elected 
sheriff of Saline county, consequently Mr. Grayson remained on his place for 
four years. He then rented a farm nine miles east of Miami for one year, and 
then returned to the Spear farm for one year. He made this kind of farming 
pav, and in 1866 he purchased a farm of two hundred and thirty acres, which 
was partly improved. He remodeled the dwelling, built a large barn and made 
good, substantial improvements and increased the acreage of cultivation ; here 
he established a comfortable home. Mr. Grayson w^as the first to sow wheat 
and make garden in this locality. He carried on general farming and raised 
hemp, for which he found a ready market. He also engaged in stock raising, 
fed and handled cattle for the market. One season he raised three thousand 
bushels of wheat, which he marketed at Miami at one dollar per bushel, and he 
became well-to-do as a result of his farming and stock raising. He was a 
Democrat, but never aspired to public oft'ice, and although his sympathies were 



598 PAST AND PRESENT 

with the South during- the Civil war. he took no part in the same. He was <^reat- 
ly annoyed hv tlie l^>deral troops foraging on his farm, and they frecjuently 
compelled his family to cook and feed them, large numbers at a time, taking 
from the farm whatever they wanted. At one time had it not been for a 
Republican friend — a Federal militiamen — he would have been killed, a posse 
overtaking him while he was driving in his buggy, from which they took him, 
ran his horse into a fence corner and were using him rough!}-, when a militia- 
man arri\-ed and persuaded them to desist. The war caused hini hea\'y losses of 
property and slaves. Two of his brothers came to this country from Virginia; 
they were Horace and William Grayson, both dying here, William leaving 
children; both were successful farmers. 

Henry M. Gravson was a model farmer and an honorable and upright 
man in all his dealings, charitable to the afflicted and needy; he was a good 
friend and neighbor, truthful and strictly moral ; however, he was not a mem- 
ber of any church or fraternal society. He was called to his reward on 
February 25, 1895. His wife, Jane M. Price, was born in Madison county, 
Virginia, April 17, 1814; she was the daughter of Emanuel and Sallie Price, 
the father being a prominent farmer of Virginia, who spent his life in his native 
state ; the only member of the family that came west was Jane M. She grew 
up in an epoch when times were hard, when it was necessary for all to work, 
to learn how to do something worth while, so Jane M. not only assisted with 
the work al)out the house but also in the fields, learning to spin, weave, weaving 
rag carpets and from raw flax, spun, wove and made garments and wearing 
apparel for the family ; she took the wool from the sheep's back, spun and wove 
it into clothing; she was an adapt dressmaker, often making dresses and other 
clothing for women of her family and neighbor's families, wove counterpanes 
for the beds, — in fact, there was practically no kind of work that she could not 
do. She was educated in the rural schools, and as long as she could she used 
her spare moments in reading- and keeping pace with the times. She was 
reared in the Methodist church, from wdiich faith she has never departed ; 
however, she has not united with any church. Heaven has given her an unusual 
span of years, she being now in her ninety-sixth year. Her hearing is almost 
gone and her eyesight dim. but her mind is yet clear and her memory fairly 
good, but neither affliction nor the lack of ability to do have taken from her 
that old-time hospitalit}- that has always prevailed at the old Southern home 
where friends are welcomed and wayfaring men are not turned away. After 
the death of her husband William Grayson became her dependence and sup- 
port, and he has given up his own j^leasures and many demands for self-gratifi- 
cation in order to minister to her every want, and his devotion to his mother 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 599 

commends him to the highest esteem of all and shows a very praiseworthy 
trait. Mrs. Grayson-has six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. 

To Henry M. and Jane (Price) Grayson three children were born, namely : 
John was born in A'irginia and came west with his parents and in 1864 entered 
the Confederate army and went south with General Price's command and saw 
some hard service. At Pine Bluff, Arkansas, he took a congestive chill and 
died April 16. 1865; Sarah E.. who was the wife of E. M. Haynie. died in 
October. 1907: \A'illiam A. J., of this review, owns the old homestead farm and 
also another farm nearby. He carries on general farming and raises stock, 
having been very successful at both. He is a Democrat, but does not find 
time to devote to politics. In his devotion to his mother he has not chosen a 
life companion and is still enjoying single blessedness. 



I 



JACKSON LONG. 



A man who has been prominently identified with farming and stock rais- 
ing in Saline county is Jackson Long, who is also known as an honest, public 
spirited citizen, always interested in the progress of his neighbors and the 
community in general. He is a native of Mason county, West Virginia, where 
his birth occurred September 17. 1827, and he has therefore reached an ad- 
vanced mile post along the highway of years, having come down to an old age 
filled with good deeds and honor. He was reared to farm pursuits and edu- 
cated at the old-fashioned log school houses. He is the son of Alexander and 
Catherine ( Yeager) Long, the former a native of Virginia, the latter of Penn- 
svlvania, her parents being of Gennan descent, farmers, and they were early 
settlers of West Virginia, where they started, with others of their type, the 
general development which has resulted in a great state. The subject's paternal 
grandfather, Philip Long, was of Scotch descent and an early settler in U'est 
Virginia. He was an extensive farmer, a Democrat, and led a quiet life on 
his farm, where he died. He and his wife were the parents of these children; 
Alexander, father of Jackson Long of this review ; Joseph died in Virginia in 
1850, leaving four sons and three daughters: Alexander also spent his life in 
the Old Dominion and died there. He was an active Democrat and represented 
Mason county in the state Legislature, but his attention was directed prin- 
cipally to his farm. He was a good citizen in every respect and a man of fine 
personal traits. Fourteen children were born to Air. and Mrs. Alexander 
Long, named as follows, seven of them growing to maturity: David, a strong 
secessionist, died after coming to Missouri: Jackson, of this review: Mary 



600 PAST AND PRESENT 

married H. Brown ; Elizabeth married William Brown : Emily married G. 
Brown : Caroline married H. Johnson; Catherine married j. Johnson; Lucinda 
became the wife of Jndge Hanna ; Ab)roan was drowned; the other children 
died when youni^". 

Jackson Long remained under his parental roof until he was twenty-five 
years of ag-e. In 1852 he came to Missouri and bought land in Knox county, 
then returned home and the following year settled on his place and began im- 
proving it. leading the life of a bachelor. In 1854 he returned to Virginia 
again and married, and he and his wife, with the help of some slaves, developed 
his Missouri farm, continuing to live in Knox county until 1870, when he sold 
out and came to Saline county and bought three hundred and forty-five acres, 
on which there were only slight improvements. He built a commodious house, 
a good barn and improved the place in every way, making it rank with any 
in the county. As he prospered he added to his real estate holdings, finally 
owning several hundred acres of very valuable land. He has given each of his 
children a good home, consequently he now has no land to pay taxes on. Since 
coming- to Saline county he has given his attention exclusively to farming, with 
the result that he has prospered and become one of the leading agriculturists 
of the county. He has been a successful feeder of cattle for the market. 

Mr. Long is a Democrat politically, but he has been too busy to take much 
interest in political affairs or to run for office. He was not subject to service 
during the Civil war, ha\'ing been crippled. But he was much abused and 
troops foraged oft' his farm, taking his stock, corn and wheat; they often made 
him a prisoner, and in order to avoid further molestation, during the latter part 
of the war he took his family to Virginia. He is a self-made man and is de- 
serving of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished. He has shown 
himself to be a broad-minded, intelligent business man and by hard work and 
honest dealing he has created a large estate and is widely known and highly 
respected. He is now. in the golden evening of his life, enjoying the fruits of 
his former years of activity — the fruits of a useful and well-spent life, having 
reached the mellow age of eighty-two years. He has a good memory and is a 
very interesting conversationalist, especially in recalling reminiscences of the 
early days. 

Mrs. Jackson Long was known in her maidenhood as Jane A. Summer- 
ville. born in Mason county. West Virginia, in 1836, and she married in 1854. 
She was the daughter of William Summerville, a native of Virginia, of Irish 
descent; he was a prominent farmer, but had no public record ; he and his w^ife 
both died in West Virginia. They reared two children. E. Green, who is 
living on the old homestead in Virginia, and Jane A., wife of Mr. Long. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 6oi 

To Mr. and Airs. Jackson Long- the following children have been horn: 
William, x\lexander and James, all farmers, living" in Saline county; Lydia 
married E. Hawkins ; George is a farmer, as is also Robert. They are all well 
situated in reference to this world's affairs. 

The mother of these children, who was a woman of beautiful Christian 
character, passed to her rest on November 5, 1906. She was reared in the 
faith of the Presbyterian church, from which she never departed. 



JOHN A. GAULDIN. 



A gallant ex-soldier and one of the most prominent and respected farmers 
of Saline county is John A. Gauldin, a native of Amelia county, Virginia, 
where he was born February 18, 1844, reared on a farm and educated in the 
district schools. He is the son of John S. and Mary A. ( Johnson) Gauldin, 
both natives of Virginia, where they grew to maturity and where they married. 
Alary Johnson was the daughter of Edward Johnson, of Virginia, wdio spent 
his life there on a farm, and reared a large family. Alary being the third in 
order of birth. John S. Gauldin began life in Virginia as a farmer, owned 
slaves and was very successful. In 1848 he moved to Saline county, Missouri, 
bringing his slaves and entering land in Aliami township. He underwent all 
the hardships incident to a life in a new country, but he in time had a well 
improved and productive farm. He made the trip here overland in covered 
wagons, bringing his family and household effects, the way being a tedious and 
difficult one. He was a Democrat, but no public man, but he became well 
known here and was highly respected for his exemplary life. He operated a 
large farm, raised hemp and much live stock. His death occurred in 1850 on 
his farm here; his wife survived and remained on the old homestead, dying on 
April 2, 1880. They were married in 1836. They were members of the Bap- 
tist church, and to them seven children Avere born, namely; James AL, now in 
the Confederate Home ; Thomas J. and Josiah are both deceased, neither 
having- any children; John A., of this rcAiew ; Alartha J., who married J. V. 
Gauldin. died in young womanhood, leaving one son, Thomas J., who is 
now a resident of Slater and secretary c^f the Young Alen's Christian Asso- 
ciation at that place; \\'illis A\\ is a farmer in this county; Richard S. lives in 
Slater. 

John A. Gauldin came from his native home in Virginia with his parents 
to Missouri in 1847 ^^^^ assisted in the establishment of a home in Saline 



602 PAST AND PRESENT 

county, remaining with his parents until the breaking out of the Civil war, 
enlisting in the fall of i(S6i in Company K, Colonel Robertson's regiment of 
infantry, which went into camp at Blackwater; they had no arms except shot 
guns and were preparing to go south to the main Confederate army when the 
Federals surrounded them and took them prisoners, confining them at Mc- 
Dowell's College. St. I.ouis. later at Alton, Illinois. They took the oath of 
allegiance to the government and were sent home. Later Mr. Gauldin re-en- 
listed in Company K. as a recruit. Shank's regiment, Shelby's brigade. The 
regiment soon starting south, joined a larger command and re-organized in 
Arkansas with headquarters at Van Buren. Mr. Gauldin's services were ren- 
dered in Missouri, Indian territory and Texas. He came back to Marshall in 
Shelby's raid and later took part in Price's last raid north. He did much 
skirmishing and was in some hotly contested battles, including that at Helena, 
Arkansas, also Prairie Grove, Cape Girardeau and Springfield, Missouri. 
After Lee surrendered the command went to Shreveport, Louisiana, surren- 
dered and was parolled, the federal government furnishing transportation home 
by steamboat. Although Mr. Gauldin saw some hard service, he was never 
wounded. After returning home he resumed farming, remaining with his 
mother for some time, then began farming for himself which he continued suc- 
cessfully until 1874, when he married. He had purchased forty acres on which 
he yet lives. He moxed into a small cabin when he first settled here, later 
moved to the home of his father-in-law\ where he remained until the latter's 
death, then returned to his farm where he has since resided, now owning a veiy 
comfortable home and a well improved and productive farm. Prospering, he 
has added to his original purchase until he now owns two hundred and forty 
acres, all rich land and in a high state of cultivation. He carries on general 
farming and stock raising in a most successful manner, having at times also 
fed cattle for the market, and he has raised some excellent horses which have 
been widely admired. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never sought office. 
He is a Missionary Baptist in his religious views. He is deserving of the 
greatest credit for what he has accomplished, being a purely self-made man. 
By hard W'Ork and honest dealing he has created a handsome estate and now 
in the bright Indian summer of his age he is surrounded by all the comforts 
of life as a result of his former well spent A-ears. enjoying, too. the undivided 
respect of all who know him. 

Mr. Gauldin was married to Elizai^eth E. r\)pe, who was born in Saline 
county, April 25, 1856, the daughter of Thomas and Ellen (Logan) Pope, 
both natives of Kentucky where they grew to maturity, married and began 
farming and wdiere their first child \vas born. In 1848 they came to Saline 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 603 

county. Missouri, bought land and improved it into a good farm; they made 
hemp and were successful in a general farming business. Mr. Pope was not 
able to go into the army during the Civil war ; however, his sympathies were 
with the South. During, the war he fed soldiers in both armies, attended 
strictly to his own affairs and had no fear of molestation. He was a Democrat. 
He w^as a good and useful man and his death occurred in 1880, his w'lie having 
preceded him to the grave in 1879. She was a member of the Baptist church. 
Their children were, \A\ R. and Daniel T.. both farmers in this county; Eliza- 
beth E.. wife of John A. Gauldin ; John L., who died in August, 1885. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Gauldin the following children were born : Dodson 
J.; who w'as twice married, first on January i, 1904, to Addie Hickman, daugh- 
ter of James Hickman, a prominent farmer, and she died May 29, 1904, at the 
early age of twenty-three years, without issue ; the second wafe was Neoma D. 
McDonald, daughter of J. W. McDonald, a farmer and carpenter ; Thomas 
W., a farmer of Miami township, married Eva How^ell, of Lafayette county. 
Eebruary i, 1907, and they are the parents of one daughter, named Velma 
Louise ; Nancy P. is living at home. The grandmother of Mrs. Gauldin was 
Elizabeth Layer, the second female child born in Kentucky, and she often 
nursed Abraham Lincoln when he was a baby; she lived to the remarkable 
age of one hundred and four years. She was twace married, first to a Mv. 
Brady, by whom two sons were born. Her second marriage was to Thomas 
Pope, by w'honi four sons and three daughters were born, one of the sons be- 
ing the father of Mrs. Gauldin. 



HARDIN D. BAILEY 



The backbone of this country is made up of families which have made 
their ow-n homes, who are alive to the best interests of the community in whicli 
they reside, who are so honest that it is no trouble for their neighbors to find 
it out. Among such is the family represented by Hardin D. Bailey, a vener- 
able and highly honored pioneer of Elmw^ood township. Saline countv. where 
he has long made his home and where he has one of the most valuable landed 
estates in the county, a man in wdiom the utmost confidence is reposed bv all 
who know him and w-ho is eminently deserving of the high esteem in which he 
is held, as one will readily determine by a cursory glance at his life record. 
He is a scion of a fine old Southern family, having been born in Albemarle 
county, Virginia, July 27, 1832. He is the son of John D. and Man- (Dawson) 



604 PAST AND PRESENT 

Bailey, natives of Virginia, the former the son of James L. Bailey, also born 
in the Old Dominion. James and his son, John D., and their families came 
together to Saline county, Missouri, in 1839, when Hardin D.. of this review, 
was seven years of age. They made the long, tiresome journey across the 
Blue Ridge mountains and the long blue grass stretches of "the dark and 
bloodv ground." in old-fashioned covered wagons, camping along- the way, 
fording unbridged streams and traveling unfrequented roads, making the trip 
from L(juisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis, Missouri, on the rivers, and from 
the latter city to Saline county by wagon, bringing their stock along. They 
bouslit from the government the farm where Hardin D. Bailey now lives, in 
1839, soon after their arrival here, for one dollar and twenty-five cents per 
acre. They cleared the land, which was then in primitive timber and altogether 
wild, abounding in various kinds of wild game. They made an excellent farm 
of this, and prospered, both the grandfather and the father of the subject living 
here until their deaths. They were men of sterling worth and integrity, brave, 
courageous, hardworking- and influential. Mary Dawson was born in Vir- 
ginia, the daughter of Jack Dawson, a native of Virginia, an extensive farmer 
and slave owner, he having spent his life in that state. 

To John D. and Mary Bailey seven children were born, named as follows : 
James X. lives in North Dakota on a farm; Charles M. is deceased; Hardin D., 
subject of this review; Hettie is the wife of Charles Tolliver, living in Saline 
county: Sarah is deceased; Mary is the wife of J. W. Sims and lives in Texas; 
Bettie is the widow of Oscar Page, living in Saline county. 

Hardin D. Bailey delights to recall the days when he, a mere lad, came 
to Saline county, where his grandfather and father built a rude log- cabin, in 
wdiich they lived many years. The surrounding woods were full of wild hogs, 
deer, wildcats, wild turkey and many varieties of smaller game. Both the 
elder Baileys were great hunters, and they supplied their table with wild meat 
for many years. Hardin D. also took after his father and grandfather in this 
respect and in his youth he was a renowned and successful hunter as long as 
there was any game, and it is indeed interesting to hear him tell of those days, 
the times when free hospitality reigned and all were happy, though poor. 
James L. Bailey had the distinction of being a soldier in the war of 181 2. 

Hardin D. Bailey has lived for the prolonged period of seventv vears on 
the same farm, having- inherited it from his father. He has taken the very 
best care of the place and. notwithstanding the long years it has been under the 
plow, it is still very jiroductixe and yields abundant harvests, owing to the 
skillful farming of its owner. Mr. Bailey received a meager education in the 
primitive schools taught in the old log school houses, with puncheon floors 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 605 

and greased paper in lieu of window panes. He also attended school three 
seasons at Sweet Spring-s, this county, eventually getting a good common 
school education for those early times, and he has always been an extensive 
reader, consequently is a well infoniied man on general topics and a most in- 
teresting conversationalist, retaining an excellent memory. He remembers 
well the trip the family made from Virginia here and he has lived to see that 
faithful and happy family circle disbanded by the common fate that awaits us 
all, and. one by one, laid to rest in the "narrow house" in the old family bury- 
ing ground, confident in a final reunion beyond this "bank and shoal of time." 

Mr. Bailey has devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and he has made a 
great manv improvements on his farm of about one hundred and seventy 
acres, which he now rents, his advanced years making it necessary for him to 
merely oversee his farm, leading a practically retired life. His home is a neat 
and cozv frame cottage in the midst of beautiful surroundings and he has large 
and substantial outbuildings. 

Mr. Bailey was married in 1858 to Mary W'inslow, a native of Virginia, 
the daughter of Henry B. Winslow, an early settler of Saline county, Missouri, 
ha\'ing come here about 1850. Mrs. Bailey was called to the unseen world 
about 1889 and he has never re-married. Nine children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Bailey, named as follows: Ella, wife of L. D. Harrison; Lizzie, wife of 
C. M. Mopin ; Anna, who married Jennings Mopin ; Mattie is single and living 
at home: John H., a farmer living in Pettis county, Missouri, married Lela 
Urtin : Drucy is the wife of Robert Ash ; Sarah is the wife of Austin Ash : the 
two youngest children died unnamed. 

^Ir. Bailey is a member of the Providence Baptist church and a trustee in 
the local congregation, being interested in the afiairs of the church and a liberal 
supporter of the same. Politically he is a Democrat. 



ROBERT CAMPBELL, Sr. 

Robert Campbell, Sr., formerly a merchant in ^Marshall, but now living- 
retired, is a native of Forres, Scotland, born July 9, 1833. His parents, James 
and Janet Campbell, were also of Scotch birth, the former a son of James Camp- 
bell, who was a soldier in the British army. Both he and his wife were members 
of the Presbyterian church, in the faith of which they died and have long 1)een 
sleeping the sleep of the just beneath the soil of their native heath. James Camp- 
bell, his father, was reared to maturitv in Scotland, married, when a voung 



6or> PAST AND PRESENT 

man, Janet Finley, and lived near the place of his birth until 1849. Then he 
emigrated to Canada, settled near Toronto, thence removed to Southampton, 
Ontario, and engaged in farming, which he continued for a number of years, 
and died aged about eighty-four years, his wife having died when about sixty 
years old and they are both buried in the cemetery at Southampton. The chil- 
dren of James and Janet Campbell, seven in number, were named as follows : 
Mrs. Ann Ross, who died in Canada : Catherine, who also married a Mr. Ross 
and departed this life while living in Canada; Elizabeth died in Marshall, 
Missouri ; James died in childhood ; Jane, who married John Anderson, died in 
Canada; James the second is living retired in Chicago; Robert of this reviev^^ 
is the sixth child in order of birth. 

The family moved to Inverness, and after acquiring an education in the 
high school there, Robert Campbell, Sr., having spent his childhood in his na- 
tive town of Forres, studied law in the office of Duncan McLennan, expecting 
to fit himself for a Scottish lawyer. He remained in Inverness until 1849. The 
family moved to Canada, and shortly after this Robert secured a clerkship in 
a store at St. Catharine's, Ontario, afterwards in Whitby, holding these posi- 
tions until he had become familiar with the mercantile business, when he em- 
barked in business upon his own account. After a fairly prosperous career of 
about thirty years at that place, he closed up all his affairs in Canada and 
moved to Saline county, Missouri, locating at Marshall, where again for a 
short time he engaged in the mercantile business, selling out in 1894 and retir- 
ing from business. Since then, however, he has dealt in real estate, owning 
at this time several farms in Saline county. Mr. Campbell gives personal 
attention to his various business interests and in this way keeps the time from 
becoming a burden on his hands. 

Mr. Campbell is a Democrat in politics, but in matters purely local has 
always stood for law and order and advocated the election of the l)est men for 
office, irrespective of party ties. Although of foreign birth, he is proud of his 
adopted country and to all intents and purposes is as true and loyal a citizen 
of the United States as if he had been born and bred on American soil. 

Mr. Campbell was married in Canada in the year 1864 to Eliza Byrne, 
daughter of Rev. James Byrne, a native of England and for many vears a well 
known and popular minister of the Congregational church. Four children 
were born to this union, viz: Robert, who died in Marshall, Missouri, at the 
age of thirty-six; James B., a farmer of Saline county: Edith married Dr. B. 
M. Spotts. a physician of Marshall, and Frank W., a real estate dealer of Mar- 
shall. Mr. Campbell's second marriage was solemnized in 1885, with Jean 
Laird, who was born in Scotland, but when quite young accompanied her par- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 607 

ents to Canada, where she grew to maturity and received her education. After 
a lingering ilhiess of two years, she passed to her reward on May 26, 1908, 
the union being without issue. 

]\Ir. Campbell was reared by pious parents and grew up under the in- 
fluence of the Presbyterian church, to which he has ever proved loyal and of 
which he is now a member. His second w'ife was also identified with the same 
religious body and exemplified her faith by her daily life and triumphant death. 



ROBERT BURNS RUFF. 



Though still in the prime of life it is not too much to say that the above 
lamed gentleman is one of the leading and most successful lav^'yers now prac- 
ticing at the Missouri bar. The family is of Scotch origin and claims kinship 
ri\h the immortal bard who sang- so sweetly of the loves and hopes of the 
:ommon people. James A. Ruff, a nephew of Robert Burns, was born near 
xlinburg and after coming to America located near Hagerstown, Maryland, 
/■here he engaged in the manufacture of silks. He left a talented and enter- 
)rising son in the person of John A. Ruff, who was only three years old wdien 
rbrought by his father to the United States. His youth, early manhood and 
reneral education was obtained at Hagerstown. He followed his father as 
silk manufacturer, but also operated a line of steamtoats plying the waters 
of Chesapeake bay. While still a young man he removed to Audrain county, 
Missouri, where for several years he was engaged in the manufacture of 
wagons. Subsequently he located on a farm near ^^'inchester, Illinois, in the 
cultivation of which he spent twelve years. Removing to Roodhouse, in the 
same state, he continued farming there until 1881, when he came to Missouri 
and purchased a farm in Marshall township. Saline county. From that time on 
he was closely identified with this section and became an extensive landowner, 
including the ownership of several fine farms and valuable business property in 
the city of Marshall. During the Civil war he served as captain in a Missouri 
regiment of the Federal army. His fraternal relations were confined to the 
order of Odd Fellows and his religious views were with the old-school Pres- 
byterian church. He died in March, 1897. when about sixty-three vears old, 
and left a name that enjoyed general respect. In early life he had married 
Lucy Ann Norris, who died in 1895. 

Robert Burns Ruf¥, their distinguished son, was bom at Winchester, 
Illinois. July 29, 1869, but obtained his education in the schools of Roodhouse 



6o8 PAST AND PRESENT 

and llie Marshall high school. After the completion of his studies he devoted 
two Nears to the management of his father's farm, then entered the law office of 
Scott & Cooney at Marshall, studied hard and effectively, and was admitted to 
the bar of 1891. his first practice being at Marshall, part of the time in connec- 
tion wath J- S. Chiswell. He was successful from the start, and few lawyers 
can show such a career of uninterrupted mastery of his undertakings. At 
present he is regarded as one of the best criminal lawyers in the state. The 
Democratic party, of which he has always been an enthusiastic member, ap- 
pointed him city attorney of Marshall in 1894, and by reappointment extended 
his term to 1898. However, he resigned before his official time was out. in 
order to devote his energies exclusively to his rapidl}- growing practice. He 
has sensed as chairman and secretary of the Democratic congressional central 
committee of the seventh cong-ressional district of ^Missouri, and as a leader, 
worker and adviser is hig'hly valued b}' his party associates. His record as a 
criminal lawyer has been exceptionally brilliant and he has successfully de- 
fended more men accused of murder than any of his contemporaries, in his 
home county and throughout the state. A noted case in Saline county in 
which he acted as counsel for the defense was that of Frank ]\Iason, accused of 
killing his father-in-law, Ferdinand Schwartz, in 1896. Another case was that 
of James Kirby, charged with killing William Hughes. In both of these 
causes, which were generally regarded as "bad cases." Mr. Ruff succeeded in 
obtaining- ac(juittals. James W. Ming, who was indicted in March, 1900, for 
killing Emmett Craddock, was acquitted on the ground of insanity, but not 
without much skillful w^ork on the part of his lawyer. Thomas O. Purcell was 
con\-ictcd of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to imprisonment for 
thirty years, after a trial lasting tw^o weeks. In this famous case, one of the 
most important ever tried in Saline county, the popular clamor demanded the 
death penalty, and Mr. Ruff was highly complimented for saving his client's 
life. Possibly the most famous criminal case in the state of Missouri, and in 
w^hich Mr. Ruff took the leading part for the defense, was the State of Mis- 
souri vs. Agnes Marguerite Myers ("Aggie Myers"), jointly charged with 
l-'rank Hottman with murder in the first degree for killing her husband in 
Jackson county. Missouri. For more than four years this case was fought in 
the various state and federal courts and finally going upon writ of error to the 
supreme court of the United States, where same was heard twice. This case 
was submitted to a jury in Clay county, Missouri, and a verdict of guilty and 
the death penalty assessed against both defendants. Then the strenuous battle 
began for the life of the woman and covered two years and finally the sen- 
tence commuted to one of imprisonment in the state penitentiary. This case at- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOIRI 609 

traded national attention and comment and stands as Missouri's greatest legal 
battle. Mr. Ruff also enjoys a large corporation practice, and his ability in that 
difficult branch of the law attracts the most important clients. He owns resi- 
dences both in Marshall and Kansas City, his family residing in the last men- 
tioned place, and he also maintains an office there in the New York Life 
Building. He owns several farms, coal properties and much valuable business 
property in Marshall, including "The Ruff"" and "The Southern." two of the 
handsomest hostelries in Missouri. He belongs to several of the secret frater- 
nities, including the Elks. Odd Fellows and others. 

June II, 1891, Mr. Ruff" married Elizabeth E., daughter of Andrew M. 
Holmes, of Saline county, this union resulting in the birth of five children; 
Mary Ellen. Robert Burns, Jr., and William Harrison are now living. Mr. 
Rnft" is a man of strong personality, possessing remarkable energy and a fond- 
ness f(ir that hard and obstinate work which has been described as genius. 
To his endless capacity for details is added a most generous and genial char- 
acter and the combination has proved a winning one among people in all walks 
of life. 



LOUIS CALHOUN NEEL, M. D. 

The present age is essentially utilitarian and in the life of every success- 
ful man are found lessons which, told in contemporary narrative, are produc- 
tive of much good in shaping the destinies of others. There is, therefore, a 
due measure of satisfaction in presenting, even in brief resume, the life and 
achievements of such men. and in preparing the following history of the well 
known, capable and highly esteemed physician, agriculturist and stock raiser, 
whose name initiates this paragraph, it is with the hope that it may prove not 
only interesting and instructive, but also serve as an incentive to those who 
contemplate making the medical profession their life work, or following any 
given line of endeavor which requires a definiteness of purpose, persistency of 
effort and nobility of character. 

Dr. Louis Calhoun Neel is a descendant of an old family of sterling 
worth, having been born in Monroe county. West Virginia, August 25, 183 1, 
the son of Abner and Catherine (Osborne) Neel, both natives of West Vir- 
ginia and each representative of influential families. Abner Neel was the son 
of Owen Neel, a native of Pennsylvania, but an early settler of West Vir- 
ginia. He devoted his life to farming and his death occurred before Doctor 
Neel was born. Catherine Osborne was a daughter of George Osborne, a na- 

39 



6lO PAST AND PRESENT 

tive of Virg-inia and a farmer by occupation. The Osborne family were na- 
tives of Green Brier county. West Virginia. The Doctor's parents spent their 
hves in \\est Virginia, the father dying in 1874 and the mother in 1881. 
They were the parents of six children, named as follows : Amanda, deceased ; 
Dr. Louis Calhoun, of this review; Allen G.. deceased; Cyrus lives in Staun- 
ton. Virginia : Harvey A. is a resident of Monroe count)-. West Virginia ; 
Catherine is deceased. The parents of these children were staunch members 
of the Presbyterian church. Abner Neel was later in life a Democrat, but in 
his youth he supported the Whig party. He took considerable interest in po- 
litical affairs, especially locally, and he at one time served very acceptably as 
justice of the peace for many years at his home in West Virginia. 

The Doctor spent his youth on the old family homestead, where he as- 
sisted with the lighter work in his boyhood, attending the district schools dur- 
ing the winter months, also attending high school. Actuated by a desire of 
long standing, he began reading medicine under Dr. J. Lewis W^oodville. and 
in 1854 he entered the Virginia Medical College, at Richmond. Virginia, from 
which institution he was graduated with a very creditable record in 1857. He 
then decided to follow the trend of migration to the \Vest. and accordingly 
started on the long journey, making part of the way on horseback, part by 
boat and part by train, landing at Lexington. Missouri. Soon afterwards he 
came to Saline countv, where he purchased land in what is now Elmwood 
township. He began the practice of medicine here, meeting with success from 
the start and continuing until about 1896, when he retired, having gained a 
liberal competency and won a reputation second to none in this part of the 
state, his services having been in great demand throughout this locality. It 
is indeed interesting to hear the Doctor tell of his adventures while practicing 
here in the early days, when the country was undeveloped and most of his 
practice was done on horseback. He had great success as a general practi- 
tioner, being well grounded in the science, keeping well abreast of the times 
in all matters pertaining to the same and possessing the innate attributes neces- 
sary to gain and retain the confidence of the public. He is reg^arded with the 
respect due the pioneer ]:)hysician of such a thri\ing community. 

Doctor Neel was c|uick to see the g'reat opportunities existing here, the 
possible development of the country from the first, consequently he purchased 
land from time to time until he is now the owner of between one and two thou- 
sand acres of very productive and valuable land in Saline county, and he now 
spends the major part of his time looking after the same. He keeps his land 
well improved and properly cultivated and it is all very desirable property. 
The Doctor is an admirer of good livestock and he is an excellent judge 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 6ll 

of all varieties, raising large numbers of all kinds, especially mules, for which 
he finds a ready market at fancy prices owing to their excellent quality. He 
has one of the best large farms in this favored section of the state, having 
greatlv improved the land in eveiy way, especially by erecting first class 
Iiouses. barns and outbuildings in general — in fact, his possessions never fail 
to attract the admiration of all. 

Doctor Neel was married in 1859 to Sophia E. Miller, a native of Saline 
countv, the daughter of Samuel and Julia (Francisco) Miller, natives of Vir- 
ginia, but early pioneers of Saline county, where they have become established 
as among the most representative citizens. Mrs. Neel was reared and edu- 
cated here and she is a woman of excellent personal traits and refinement. 
Two children have graced this union, namely: Samuel is single and is living 
at home, assisting in managing the farm; Kate has also remained single and 
is still a member of the family circle. 

Mrs. Neel is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Doctor Neel 
is a loyal Democrat and interested in the welfare of his county politically and 
everv other way ; however, he is no politician. He is interested in Masonry, 
having been a member of that ancient and honorable order since 1865. Per- 
sonally the Doctor is a pleasant and interesting man to know, always affable, 
gentlemanly, hospitable and at once impressing the stranger as a man of 
learning, poise, culture and fortitude. 



THOMAS AUSTIN SMITH. 

The gentleman whose name initiates these paragraphs has well earned 
the honor to be addressed as one of the progressive, public-spirited men of 
Saline county, and it stands to his credit that he has attained prosperity through 
his own efforts, since he started in life with little other reinforcement than 
that implied in a stout heart, willing hands and a determination to succeed 
through honest and earnest efforts. 

Thomas Austin Smith was born in Monroe county, \\>st Virginia, Sep- 
tember 6, 1840, the son of Madison and Julia (Neel) Smith, natives of West 
Virginia, the former a son of William Smith, a native of Virginia. Madison 
Smith was a blacksmith and wag'onmaker, and died when his son. Thomas 
Austin, was small. He and his wife were the parents of three children : Isa- 
bella died in young womanhood : ^^^illiam O. died in 1906; Thomas Austin, of 
this review. The mother of these children died in the seventy-fifth year of 



6l2 PAST AND PRESENT 

her age. Both parents were from excellent old families and were upright and 
industrious. 

Thomas Austin Smith was reared on the home farm in West Virginia, 
and received his education in the old-fashioned district schools. In 1869 he 
came to Missouri and worked for Doctor Neel for some time. Later he 
bought one luindred and twenty-three acres of land and began farming for 
himself and together with land inherited by his wife. The present homestead 
consists of four hundred acres, which is one of the best places in Elmwood 
township, highly improved and under a fine state of cultivation ; only a small 
portion of the place is not cultivated. It is well fenced, well stocked with a 
varietv of good live stock, and a modern, commodious and attractive dwelling 
and excellent outbuildings are to be seen here — in fact, everything about the 
place shows thrift and good management. 

Mr. Smith was married in 1873 to Elizabeth Francisco, a native of Sa- 
line county, Missouri, the daughter of Andrew M. and Mary (Lewis) Fran- 
cisco, natives of Virginia and Kentucky and early settlers of Saline county, 
people of excellent worth. Mrs. Smith was reared and educated in this county. 
She is the mother of seven children, named as follows: Mamie, wife of Dr. 
Luther Woods, of Elmwood township, this county ; Nellie, wife of John Mil- 
ler, living in Marshall, and they are the parents of one child. Hazel ; Charles 
married Comora Harrison and they have one child, Aubra; Hugh married 
Ollie ^^'heelen, a farmer of Elmwood township, and to them one child, Irene, 
has been born ; Belle married F. Miller, and they have two children, Kenneth 
and Lucile ; Laura and Austin are both single and living at home. 

Mr. Smith is a Democrat and while he takes more or less interest in po- 
litical affairs, as he does in all matters looking to the good of his vicinity, he 
has never sought or held office, preferring to devote his attention exclusively 
to his own affairs. 

Mr. Smith served in the Confederate army during the war between the 
states, enlisting in 1862 in Company B, Twenty-sixth Virginia Battalion. He 
saw much hard fighting, having been in several hot engagements, such as 
TuckAviler's Hill in Green Brier county, Virginia, also at Dry Creek; he 
served in the Shenendoah Valley under Gen. John C. Breckenridge, and was 
in the battle near Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg, Cold Harbor, Lynchburg, 
having been wounded by a shell in the last named engagement, while fighting 
in the trenches; he was also in the battle at Monocacy river, Winchester, 
Fisher's Hill. Cedar Creek and Currinstown. He served some on detached 
sennce, assisting in procuring forage in the winter of 1864-1865. also helped 
guard prisoners at Danville, Virginia. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 613 

Mr. Smith and his family are hig-hly respected and among the best known 
and influential in Elmwood township. 



• JAMES G. CARSON. 

Of a most excellent family from the Blue Grass state comes James G. 
Carson, a successful farmer of Elmwood township. Saline county, he himself 
havino- been born in Rock Castle county. Kentucky, September 2, 1839, the 
son of William and Louisa (Dysart) Carson, both natives of Virginia, repre- 
sentatives of the best Southern families of the Old Dominion. Both the Car- 
son and Dysart families were early settlers of Kentucky. William Carson's 
father was named Campbell Carson, a Virginian, who, in an early day. moved 
with his family to the Blue Grass state and in 1853 came to Buchanan county, 
Missouri, where he farmed until his death, which occurred during the Civil 
war. He was a Southern man in sentiment. William Carson, father of James 
G.. came to Buchanan county. Missouri, in 1851 and there farmed until his 
death, in 1886. at the age of seventy years, having been born on November 15, 
1816. He owned a valuable stone quarry. The record of Campbell Carson 
as a soldier in the war of 18 12 was one of which his descendants are justly 
proud, having risen from a private t(T captain of a company by reason of his 
bravery and ability. William Carson and wife were the parents of nine chil- 
dren, named as follows: James G.. whose name initiates this sketch; Agnes. 
Charles. Andrew. Mary J.. Georgia. Mitchell, Walter and Robert. The 
mother of these children, Louisa Dysart, was born in Virginia, and her death 
occurred in 1902 at St. Joseph. Missouri. She and her husband were mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian church, having been devout Christians since early 
childhood. They made the trip from Kentuckv to their new home near St. 
Joseph. Missouri, in an old-fashioned wagon drawn by an ox team, and set- 
tled on unimproved land, where they developed a good home in time by hard 
work. 

James G. Carson was educated in the common schools and remained at 
home until he reached manhood, assisting to clear the place on which his father 
settled. He enlisted in the Confederate army in April. 186 1. taking a definite 
stand early in the conflict ; he was in Capt. Henry Smith's company. Boyd's 
battalion, under Colonel Gates' command, and most of his service was in Mis- 
souri and Arkansas. During the period of sennce in Boyd's battalion he was 
wounded at the fierce engagement at Pea Ridge. Later he became a member 



6l4 PAST AND PRESENT 

of the Thirty-second Arkansas, known as Matlock's regiment and McKay's 
brio-ade. in which he was elected lieutenant of Company G, and served in that 
capacity until the spring of 1865. He then resigned and joined General Mar- 
maduke's escort, with which he served until the close of the war. After the 
war he returned home and for several years he freighted on the plains from 
Denver, Colorado, to Salt Lake City, Utah, for Claggett & W'ellis: later he 
went to Montana and freighted for some time until 1869. His life in the 
\\>st was often fraught with hardship, but it was one that ai)i)ealed to his 
youthful, adventurous spirit and. although beset with dangers of various kinds, 
was picturesque and developed an independent and courageous spirit that has 
led to success in his subsequent life. After returning to Missouri he bought 
and shipped cattle while living in Sweet Springs. He came to his present fine 
farm in 1875, and in that year he married Anna Dysart, who was born in 
Elmwood township, Saline county, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth B. 
(Beatie) Dysart, both natives of Kentucky. Elizabeth Beatie was the daugh- 
ter of James E. Beatie, a native of Virginia, but an early settler of Kentucky, 
and in 1836 came to Saline county, Missouri, settling on government land on 
which he remained until his death. He was a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church South. Thomas Dysart, father of Mrs. Carson, was the son of 
Samuel, a native of Kentucky. The former came to Galloway county, Mis- 
souri, where he remained awhile, then moved to Elmwood township. Saline 
county, settled and improved the farm where Mr. and Mrs. James G. Carson 
now reside and on which Mrs. Carson was born. Her father died in 1881, his 
widow surviving until 1888. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church South, and politically the father was a Democrat. Thomas Dysart was 
one of the famous band of "forty-niners." who crossed the great plains in 1849 
when the gold "fever" spread over the world from California. He returned 
to Missouri and resumed farming. He and his wife were the parents of five 
children, namely: James B., Anna, wife of James G. Carson, of this sketch; 
Martha. William and Samuel. One child. Bessie, has been born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Carson ; she is single and still a member of the home circle. 

Mr. Carson's farm now consists of about two hundred acres, well im- 
proved and under a high state of cultivation. He is a very skillful agricul- 
turist in a general way. The Carson home is a comfortable and substantial 
one, surrounded by good outbuildings and an ample orchard and garden. 

Mrs. Carson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South. Mr, 
Carson is a Democrat and he has taken more or less interest in local affairs 
for some time, having served very faithfully as township commissioner and 
clerk of the board from 1901 to 1907. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 615 

JOSHUA BARBEE. 

This name bring's up pleasant recollections of one of the most estimable 
and high-minded men that ever figured in the citizenship of Saline county. 
His business was to "call souls to repentance." and his work chiefly among 
the religious bodies, but he was a go(^d "mixer," and found time to get ac- 
quainted with the common people, by whom he was much beloved. Iliough 
he passed away at a comparatively early age. the period of his active life was 
made busy by missionary work among all sorts of people, and much good was 
accomplished by this pious man for the welfare of individuals as well as that 
of the various communities in which he resided. He was alwavs found on 
the right side of public cjuestions, which had a moral phase and could be de- 
pended upon to be on hand when the forces of evil were t(^ be smitten and 
the cause of reform advanced. Joshua Barbee was born in Boyle county, 
Kentucky, and grew to manhood in his nati\-e state. Always of a religious 
turn of mind, his ambition was to become a clergyman, as he decided that 
there was more good work to be done in that field that in any other. He came 
to Missouri about 1866, and settled first in Pettis county, but soon after cast 
his lot with Saline, and for many years was an influential figure in the re- 
ligious, social and moral movements of the county. He was a Presbvterian 
minister and had devoted his whole life to that calling, the principal and best 
part of his efforts being expended during his long residence in Saline county. 
In the early nineties his health began failing and in 1892 he removed to Excel- 
sior Springs. Missouri, in hopes of obtaining relief. These expectations were 
not realized, and slow but sure decline brought him to his death, in October. 
1900. He was married in Johnson county to Mary Medora Morrow, a na- 
tive of Fayette county. Missouri, who is at present making her home with her 
son. There were three children, the eldest being Rev. Iliomas M. Barbee. a 
Presbyterian minister at Palmyra. Missouri. Mary, the onlv daughter, resides 
with her mother. 

Joshua Barbee. the third and youngest child, was liorn on a farm five 
and one-half miles southwest of Marshall. September 23. 1874. He remained 
under the parental roof, assisting in the farm work, until the completion of 
his eighteenth year, when he began making plans to confront the struggles 
of life. He had been attending the common school at intervals for some \'ears 
and later had the benefit of higher education at Westminster College in Fulton. 
Missouri. He entered that institution in 1891, and four years later left it the 
proud possessor of a diploma, which conferred upon him the degree of Bach- 
elor of Arts. Immediately following he became a teacher of Latin in the ]\Iar- 



6l6 PAST AND PRESENT 

shall high school, a position he held for a period of two years. In the fall of 
1897 he entered the law school at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was graduated 
in the spring class of 1900, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He began 
practice at Marshall in the fall of 1900. in partnership with George Davis, 
son of Judge Samuel Davis, under the firm name of Davis & Barbee. This 
partnership was dissolved after one year, and Mr. Barbee practiced alone 
until 1905. when he formed a partnership with James L. Roberts, which still 
continues. In 1906 Mr. Barbee was elected prosecuting attorney of Saline 
county, was re-elected two years later, and has given entire satisfaction to his 
constituents by his alertness in looking after evil doers during his terms. He 
is regarded as a young man of promise, his friends predicting for him a suc- 
cessful legal career and he is quite popular with the general public. The 
name of his father is an asset of value to him and it is a guarantee that he 
belongs to a good family and so far in life he has proven a worthy son of a 
worthy sire. Mr. Barbee is a member of the Presbyterian church at Marshall, 
belongs to the Masons and Elks, is a Democrat in politics, and unmarried. 



JACOB CARTER KEITHLEY. 

Among the best known and most highly respected citizens of Elmwood 
township. Saline county, is Jacob Carter Keithley, a descendant of sterling 
pioneer ancestors and he himself a product of pioneer days and a man who 
has done his full share of the work that has fallen to the past generation in 
developing this section of the state, for he has been public spirited, delighting 
in the advancement of his neighbors, leaving nothing undone in the way of 
promoting the general good ; but all this has been done with no desire for the 
praise of his fellow men. but merely through his innate desire to be of service 
to others. Such qualities as he possesses are always rewarded and he is today 
one of Saline's honored and trusted representative citizens. He was born in 
Ralls county,, Missouri. March 4. 183 1. the son of Levi and Fanny (White) 
Keithley, each representatives of excellent old families. For a complete his- 
tory of the subject's ancestors the reader is directed to the concluding para- 
graphs of this article. 

Jacob C. Keithley was the eighth child of a family of nine children, of 
the first of his father's five marriages, and he was reared on the home farm, 
assisting in developing the same from the wilderness; he worked out for his 
brother about six months. He received a good education for those early days 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 61/ 

in Missouri, attending the old-fashioned district schools and the high school 
at Westely, Marion county. He then taught school for one year, and entered 
Van Rensselaer Academy in Ralls county, where he took a two-years course ; 
following this he taught school two years in Monroe county, this state. De- 
siring to gain a higher text-book training he entered Westminster College, in 
Fulton. Missouri, where he spent the years 1855 and 1856, then taught school 
for a period of five years very successfully. He came to Saline county in 
1857. Having saved his earnings, he bought two hundred acres of good 
land which comprises his present farm and which he has brought up to a 
high state of cultivation through skillful farming, improving it in a manner 
that makes it rank with the model farms of the county. When he bought the 
place it was all in wild prairie. He has erected a commodious, substantial 
and attractively located dwelling, a substantial barn and other convenient out- 
buildings. He is not only a modern agriculturist in all its diversified phases, 
but he has handled live stock very successfully, showing that he is a good 
judge of the same, and altogether he has been very successful. 

Politically Mr. Keithley is a Democrat and he has taken more or less in- 
terest in political affairs for some time. In 1866 he was elected treasurer of 
Saline county, Missouri, but he gave up the of^ce before his term expired. He 
is a liberal supporter of the Presbyterian church, in which he is an elder. 

Mr. Keithley was married to Jane Vawter on October 27, 1857. She 
was born in Monroe county, Missouri, the daughter of Col. William Vawter 
and wife, this being a prominent and influential family in that county, where 
Mrs. Vawter was reared and educated. Mrs. Keithley is a woman of culture 
and has a host of friends here and in her native community. This union has 
resulted in the birth of eight children, named as follows : Erving W. is single 
and is living at home; Herbert R. married Hattie Tinker; Flora is single 
and is a member of the home circle; Ella is the wife of George Buchanan; 
George E.. single, is a Presbyterian minister at Cripple Creek, Colorado; he 
was born in 1868, graduated from the Westminster College at Fulton, Mis- 
souri, and also from the McCormick Theological Seminary at Chicago, and 
was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian church in 1893; li's first charge 
was at Duluth, Minnesota, then at Coronado, California, then at Cripple 
Creek. Colorado. The sixth child of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob C. Keithlev was 
Joseph, who died in infancy; Stanley also died in infancy; Roland H. mar- 
ried Mary Tuttle and they have one child named Susan. 

Mr. Keithley was elected and served some time as trustee of Elmwood 
township, during which time he built four school houses. He is a well in- 
formed man on all current topics, a good conversationalist, broad-minded. 



()|,S PAST AND PRESENT 

o^eiitlemaiily and hospitable, and he is regarded by all as one of the leading- 
citizens of the county and is held in high esteem. 

Reverting to the subject's ancestral history, it may be noted that the 
Keithleys are of German extraction, the first member of ^vhich came to Amer- 
ica prior to the Revolutionary war and settled in Pennsylvania, and where- 
e\e'- his descendants have dispersed they have been leaders in various walks 
of life, one of the most sterling and successful having been Levi Keithley, 
who was born in Warren county, Kentucky, in 1794. and after a long and in- 
teresting career died in Ralls county, Missouri, October 28, 1875, over eighty- 
one vears of ag'e. He was one of the pioneers of Missouri, and he was the 
son of Jacob Keithley, a native of Pennsylvania, who was born before the 
commencement of the Revolutionary war, and while the country west of the 
A]:)palachians was still the domain of the various warring savage tribes he 
came to Kentucky and located in Warren county, where he spent the remainder 
of his life, pioneer fashion, developing a farm from the wilderness, and rear- 
ing an unusually large family, consisting of eighteen children. He was the 
son of Samuel Keithley, who was born in Pennsylvania and who. with his 
three sons, Jacob, Isaac and Daniel, emigrated to Kentucky and established a 
home in Warren county. Jacob reared his thirteen sons and live daughters 
there, three of the daughters emigrating to St. Charles county, Missouri, be- 
fore it was admitted to the Union. Nine of the sons also emigrated to the 
same place, this county then being controlled by the Indians. Following are 
the names of Jacob Keithley's children : Abraham, who emigrated to Missouri 
as early, it is thought, as 1796, and was killed by the Indians in St. Charles 
county in 1812; Polly married Isaac Hostetter and they came to Missouri 
about 1798; Joseph ran away from home in Kentucky and about 1800, when 
a boy, came to St. Charles county, Missouri ; Samuel, William, Daniel, Ab- 
salom and Obediah, all came to the same locality from about 1808 to 1817: 
Roland settled there about 1808 and in 1817 went to Ralls county, this state; 
Levi arrived in St. Charles county in 181 7, moved to Pike countv the follow- 
ing year and from there to Ralls county in 1827, settling on Salt river: John 
died in Kentucky ; Elizabeth married Casper Rolan : Patsy married a Mr. 
Detherage. The other five children died in infancy. Samuel, a brother of 
Levi Keithley. and uncle of the subject of this sketch, left the following chil- 
dren : Obediah, Samuel, Julius, John, Simion, Dare, Murvin. Griffith. George, 
Julian, Hcmiasynlhia. Lucy Mary and Cordelia. Daniel, also a brother of 
Le\i, was the father of the following children; Daniel. King. Mary, Bedford, 
Sally Woodford, John S. Another brother, Obediah, left three children, El- 
len, Henry and Dan. The children of Absalom Keithlev were: John, facob. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 619 

Wilshire. Harrison, Mack, Dock, Abraham. Hiram. Caster, Henry, Mary. 
Usella and Sarah. Polly Keithley, who married Isaac Hostetter, lived to be 
seventy-five }'ears old and her husband seventy-four; to them the following- 
children were born: Amnion, Enoch, Gabriel, Anna, who reached the age of 
ninety-nine years. Mrs. Polly Hostetter accompanied her husband from 
Kentucky to Missouri in a canoe, sixty feet long, which carried them and two 
other families down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers 
to St. Charles county, Missouri. This canoe was hewn from a huge poplar 
tree found on the banks of the Licking river in Kentucky, the work being' ac- 
complished by three men. 

Levi Keithley was reared in Kentucky, and when twenty-one years of 
age he married Fannie White, near Bowling Green, Kentucky. Two years 
later the young couple left their native state and came to Missouri, three years 
before the state was admitted to the Union. They settled in St. Charles coun- 
ty, and after a year's residence there, moved to Pike county, where they re- 
mained nine years, and, as already stated, moved to Ralls county in 1827, 
where M\\ Keithley farmed until his death. It was very interesting to hear 
him relate incidents of the early days here, when the red men and all kinds 
of wild and ferocious beasts roamed the dense forests, then scarcely familiar 
to the ring of the woodsman's axe. He literally hewed his way into the forest, 
made a clearing' for his rude log cabin and soon had a small place in cultiva- 
tion, which he developed as the years went by. The bears, wolves and other 
animals devoured his pigs, lambs, calves and poultry. Landing on Spencer 
creek in November, he began erecting a rude shelter for the winter, five miles 
from any other house. His first year in Ralls countv was attended by severe 
hardships, privations and dangers, but he was a typical pioneer, hardy, a 
stranger to fear and he delighted in battling with an adverse nature and 
wresting a living from the soil and the forest. He manufactured his own 
shoes and many other necessities for himself and family and eventuallv had a 
pleasant home, which he finally sold and moved to the fann on Salt river, 
which he developed from similar primitive conditions and on which he spent 
the remainder of his life. By industry, frugality and perseverance he ac- 
quired a competency, nature rewarding abundantly his labor. He was one of 
the brave men who served in the Black Hawk war. He was an honest and 
kind hearted man, always hospitable. He was a member of the Christian 
church for over thirty years. He delighted to tell in later life of his earlv ex- 
periences, of his battle with snakes and wild beasts and of his establishment 
of a home in the primeval woods, of his service against the Indians under 
Captain Matson. He was a man of marked force and soliditv of character. 



620 PAST AND PRESENT 

Avitli daiintiess energy, and he believed that success was attainable to every 
vouth who applied himself in a proper manner, the word fail having little place 
in his vocabulary. He despised all kinds of chicanery and sophistiT, and be- 
lieved in strict honesty in all his walks of life. 

Levi Keithley was five times married, and by his first wife, of whom 
mention has already been made, nine children were born, named as follows: 
Nancy, 1816; Martha, 1817; Edwin, 1819; Malissa, 1821 ; Louisa, 1822; 
Zelda. 1826; Mary, 1828; Jacob, 1831 (mentioned fully in preceding para- 
graphs) ; Robert, born in 1834. Levi Keithley 's second marriage, which was 
to Helen Bell, resulted in the birth of four children, namely: John W.. born 
in T837; Joseph. 1838: Frances, 1839; Levi. Jr.. 1841. His third wife was 
Drusella Thompson, who died without issue, after which Mr. Keithley mar- 
ried Mary Kouch, by whom two children were born: Benjamin F., 1857, and 
Margaret, i860. After the death of the mother of these two children, Mr. 
Keithley married Ailsey Hail, who lived several years after his death, making 
an excellent step-mother for his children. 



GEORGE H. ALTHOUSE. 

The cashier of the Bank of Marshall is a man well worth knowing. Quiet 
and unassuming in manner, he possesses a reserve force that makes him valu- 
able as a business man and as a counsellor to others. Whenever there is a 
movement on foot to establish a new industry, organize a new corporation or 
take other steps to benefit the city. Mr. Althouse is one of the first men to be 
consulted. His advice is sought for and is always found to be safe and sound. 
He is generous as well as enterprising and no worthy man or cause is turned 
away with indifl'erence. Lnpecunious young men of ambition and talent have 
often sought his assistance, and not in vain, as he sympathizes with the un- 
fortunate and is always ready to extend a helping hand. He comes from 
German lineage on both sides of the family. His father. George Althouse. 
was born in Germany and after coming to America first settled in Pennsyl- 
vania, where he lived several years and then decided to tr\- his fortunes in 
the \Wst. In 1836 he came to Missouri and found a location in Howard 
county, where for a number of years he manufactured plows and wagons by 
the process in use before the adoption of machinery for this work. Li the 
early fifties he bought a farm and cultivated it with fair success until the time 
of his death, which occurred in Januai-y. 1881, when he had reached the age 
of sixty-nine. Before leaving Pennsylvania he had married Catherine Hester, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 621 

also a native of Germany. She died in July. 1900. after completing the eighty- 
fiftli year of her age. This worthy pioneer couple had nine children, of whom 
there are only three surviying; Mrs. L. Hunker, the eldest, is a resident of 
Roanoke, Missouri, and her sister, Mrs. Eliza Althouse. liyes at Boulder, Col- 
orado. 

George H. Althouse, the other surviyor, was l)()rn at Roanoke, Howard 
county. Missouri, September 4, 1855. He was four years old when his parents 
moved upon a farm and his earliest experiences were those of the country boy 
"doing chores." It was, however, a healthful and invigorating experience, as 
many a man has found out, and Mr. Althouse never regretted the drastic 
training of the farm. He went to school at Roanoke for some years, and also 
attended Jones Commercial College in St. Louis, where he was graduated in 
1876. Before his graduation, however, he had some experience as clerk in a 
store at Glasgow and shortly after leaving college he came to Marshall, first 
engaging in the grocery business. He continued in that line for ten years, and 
in 1886 went to Kansas City to secure a larger field for his operations. Em- 
barking in the wholesale grocery and produce business, he prosecuted it on a 
considerable scale for six years and then determined to come back to Marshall. 
In 1892 he organized the Bank of Marshall, and has ever since held the posi- 
tion of cashier in that popular and well managed financial institution. His 
good judgment, watchfulness and close attention to business have been essen- 
tial factors in building up a successful banking business. 

In 1880 Mr. Althouse married Elizabeth B., daughter of Capt. Alex 
Denny, of Roanoke, Missouri. The only child by the union was Alex Denny 
Althouse, who was born in October, 1881. and died in May. 1899. Mr. and 
Mrs. Althouse are members of the Presbyterian church, of which the former 
is a ruling elder. He is also treasurer of the Missouri Valley College. Mar- 
shall's most important institution of learning. 



JACOB VAN DYKE. 



Measured by the highest standards of civic usefulness, Jacob Van Dyke, 
of Marshall, occupies a conspicuous place among the worthy and substantial 
citizens of Saline county, where he has made his home continuously since nine 
years of age. Coming from a long line of distinguished ancestry. Mr. Vnn 
Dyke was born in Princeton, New Jersey, May 22, 1843. The Van Dyke 
family comes of good old Knickerbocker stock, the first members of the family 
coming from Holland in 1652 and settling in New York state. This was Jan 



f)22 PAST AND PRESENT 

Thomasse Van Dyke (or VanDyck). who, with his wife. Teuntje Haegen. 
settled at New Utrecht, Long Island. They had eight children, namely: 
Thomas ]nn^. Derrick Jans. Achias Jans. Hendrick Jans. Jan Jans, Karel Jans, 
Annatie Jans and Peter Jans. 

Jan Tans Van Dvke. the tifth son of Jan Thomasse Van Dyke, of New 
Utrecht. Long Island, was born in Amsterdam, Holland. Married May 9. 
1673. to Teuntje Tysson Van Pelt (wdio died 1725), by whom he had two 
sons. Jans and Mathys, and three daughters. He died in 1735 or 1736. Jan 
Van Dyke, of Brunswick, New Jersey, first son of Jan Jans Van Dyke, was 
born at New Utrecht. Long Island, and died December 18, 1764. He mar- 
ried Anna Van Kleck, June 6, 1706, and they became the parents of ten chil- 
dren. Mathys Van Dyke, fifth son of Jan Van Dyke, born August 28, 1714. 
and who became a resident of Mapleton, New Jersey. He married. June 12. 
1746. Noltys Laen, and had eight children. The second of these eight chil- 
dren was Matthew, born January 8. 1752, at Mapleton, New Jersey, and died 
September 18, 1832. He was a private in the Revolutionary war. He mar- 
ried Lvdia Longstreet. January 25, 1774. by whom he had seven children. 
The first born, Mary, became the wife of James Carnahan. D. D.. who was 
president of Princeton University. Isaac, the fourth child, was born July 29, 
1787. at Mapleton, New Jersey; died April 25, 1877. He married Ann Van 
Dvke. October 5. 1809. by whom he had six children. Matthew^ the third 
son of Isaac, was the father of the subject of this sketch, and was born March 
8. 181 5. near Princeton, New Jersey. He came west in April, 1853 and set- 
tled in Saline county, Missouri, on a farm in Blackwater township. He was 
a farmer all his life and died November 18. 1903. on the old farm where he 
had settled, at the ripe old age of eighty-eight years. The mother of the sub- 
ject was Anna Louisa Napton. who was a native of New Jersey, born July 
31. 181 1. She was a daughter of John and Susan Napton. who removed from 
Princeton. New Jersey, to Saline county, Missouri, in April, 1853. She died 
January 28, 1899. at the age of eighty-seven years. To Matthew^ and Anna 
Louisa (Napton) Van Dyke, who were married October 21,, 1838. were born 
eight children, who are briefly mentioned as follows: Susan, born August 31, 
1839. lives in Marshall; James Alexander, born May 24, 1843, died March 
28. 1843; Jacob, the immediate subject of this sketch; Melinda. born Julv 31, 
1845. lives in Marshall; Emma Theresa. l)orn May 29. 1847, became the wife 
of James J. Scott, a farmer living in Blackwater township. Saline county; 
Georgia, born December 9. 1848. married Jacob V. L. Davis, and died April 
7. 1889; Florence, born October 13. 1851. resides at Ontario. Oregon; Wil- 
liam Barclay, born March 10. 1854, lives in Malheur county, Oregon. 



i 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 623 

Jacob Van Dyke came to Saline county with his parents when nine years 
old. He received his primary schooling in a country log school house and 
from private instruction given him by his mother, who was a teacher. He 
began the active duties of life by assisting in the labors of the home farm, 
where he remained until the outbreak of the Civil war. At the age of eighteen 
years he enlisted in the Federal army, becoming a member of Company D, Sev- 
enth Cavalry Regiment of the Missouri State Militia. He enlisted in 1862 
and served until 1863, taking part in much active service in Missouri and Ar- 
kansas. At Boonville his company joined in the pursuit of Poindexter. His 
regiment was then ordered to Springfield, and then to vSpring Creek, and was 
placed under the command of General Totten. Mr. Van Dyke was here taken 
do\A'n with typhoid fever and was taken to Mudtown, Arkansas, and from 
there to Fayetteville. that state. His regiment was ordered to Missouri, he 
being left at Fayetteville, but subsequently he was removed to a temporary hos- 
pital at Cassville. Missouri. Here all the patients died except Mr. Van Dyke 
and one other patient, and after another move the other patient died. The 
subject was afterward removed to the hospital at Springfield, Missouri, and 
was able at the attack of General Marmaduke, to join a group of men from 
the hospital called the "Quinine Brigade," to help in the defense of the place. 
He then rejoined his regiment, but was not physically fit for duty and was 
compelled to go to the hospital again. His father then took him home and 
he was discharged because of disability. 

After Mr. Van Dyke had recovered his health he went to St. Louis and 
took a complete course in a business college, and was then emploved for a 
while as bookkeeper in that city. He then came back to Saline countv for 
some time and was engaged in teaching country schools. In 1866 he came 
to Alarshall and entered the office of Head & Chase, abstractors, with whom 
he remained a short time. In 1867 he entered the circuit clerk and recorder's 
office as deputy, remaining there until 1871. He then compiled a complete 
set of abstract books for Alexander & Sandidge, and he remained with this 
firm and their successors until 1875, when he went into the abstract business 
for himself. He is thoroughly equipped for this work and is considered one 
of the most reliable men in this line in Saline county. He also does consider- 
able real estate business, and has handled a number of large land deals suc- 
cessfully, besides hundreds of minor importance. From 1882 to 1900 he was 
associated in business with T. C. Rainey, under the firm name of Van Dvke 
& Rainey. Afterward the business was conducted under the firm name of Van 
Dyke & Company, J. T. Conway at one time being a member, and later R. B. 
Taylor becoming a member of the firm. Since 1901 and until March. 1909. 



()2.\ PAST AND PRESENT 

Mr. Van Dyke and his son, Leonard W., together with James T. Fisher, com- 
l)ri^ed the firm, but since Leonard W. Van Dyke became postmaster, the senior 
V^an Dvke and Mr. Fisher have continued tlie business. 

Mr. Van Dyke is a member of the city school board and is now serving' 
efficiently as its treasurer. He is secretary of the Ridge Park Cemetery As- 
sociation, of which he was one of the organizers, and in which he takes a 
s])ecial pride. Mr. Van Dyke and his former partner, Mr. Rainey. are the 
owners of a splendid farm located two miles from the city and to this he gives 
some attention. 

In politics Mr. Van Dyke has always given his support to the Republican 
party, and has ever taken a deep interest in local public affairs. In religion 
he and his wife are members of the First Presbyterian church, in which he 
holds the office of elder. 

On March 8, 1871, Mr. Van Dyke was united in marriage to Rachel Re- 
bekah Shepherd, who was born in Virginia, but who moved first to Ohio and 
thence to Missouri. To this union have been born eight children, namely : 
Ella Maud, born December 4, 187 1, died November 4, 1874; Frank Barclay, 
born November 18, 1874, died July 6, 1876; Percy Hampton, born January 
21, 1877, married Lulu Empie and lives at Newport, Arkansas, where he is 
an editor of a newspaper; Leonard Wilson, born September 11, 1879, and 
who is postmaster of Marshall, married Julia Scott, the daughter of L. W. 
Scott, of Marshall; Anna Louise, born March 19, 1882, is the wife of N. E. 
McLeod, of Brookfield, Mississippi; Rachel Miller, born September 26, 1884; 
Jacob Rainey, born November 30, 1890; Paul Shepherd, born February 27, 
1893- 



SAMUEL L. BLACK. 



A descendant of an honored pioneer family is Samuel L. Black, a farmer 
living near Slater, Saline county, who is a native of Knox county, Missouri, 
where he was born August 30, 1858, reared on the home farm and educated in 
the common schools. He is the son of John L. and Nancy J. (Porter) Black, 
the latter a native of Crawford county, Illinois, and the former of Virginia. 
They came to Missouri in the early days and were married here. John Black 
was born June 9, 1820, in Augusta county, Virginia, and he came to Mis- 
souri with his father and the rest of the family in 1834, then fourteen years 
of age. His father settled in Wayne county and engaged in farming, dying 
soon after he had established a home there; his wife kept the children to- 




MRS. NANCY J. BLACK. 




JOHN L. BLACK. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 625 

gether, rearing- them to farming pursuits. John L. Black remained with his 
mother, growing to manhood in Wayne county until his marriage, and en- 
gaged in farming on his own account. In 1850 he moved to Knox county 
and bought eight hundred acres of land, w'hich he improved to a good farm, 
on which he remained successfully until 1865, when he moved to Saline county, 
Missouri, locating in Miami township, buying six hundred and seventy-one 
acres, on which he made substantial improvements and permanent settlement, 
remaining there until his death, January 25, 1890. He was a prominent farmer 
and slave owner and as a result of the war agitation he g-ave freedom to all 
his slaves. He opposed secession, but was a strong Southern sympathizer, al- 
though he took no part in the war. He devoted his attention exclusively to 
farming and stock raising. He was an ardent Democrat, but never an office 
seeker. He kept well informed on political matters and general topics of the 
day, and he was an influential man in his community. He belonged to the 
Masonic fraternity, and was highly respected for his exemplary life, his public 
spirit and industry. He was a good business man and a stockholder in the 
Miami Savings Bank and the Citizens' State Bank of Slater. He had no as- 
sistance in the accumulation of his splendid estate, but always relied upon him- 
self entirely. 

In 1845 John L. Black married Nancy Porter, daughter of David Porter, 
a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Crawfordsville, Illinois, and in 1833 
he located in Missouri, being a civil engineer and in the employ of the govern- 
ment. He first settled in Wayne county, this state, wdiere he established gov- 
ernment surveys, and he did much sur\reying there. His wife died in Illinois 
and he brought the remainder of his family to Wayne county, where he re- 
mained, but during the Civil war he returned to Crawford county, Illinois, 
where he died in 1866. He was a man who made friends readily, for he was 
honest and of good habits. He and his wife were the parents of one son and 
one daughter, namely; Washington, who was a soldier and died in the Mexi- 
can war, and Nancy J., mother of Samuel L. Black, of this review. 

Eleven children were born to John L. Black and his estimable wife, all 
of whom grew to maturity; they were named as follows: David P., of Slater; 
John N., deceased; Nancy J., now Mrs. Croff; Mary E., now Mrs. Phillips; 
Andrew W., who remained singie, is deceased ; Alexander is living in Mon- 
tana; Samuel L., subject of this review; Cyrus, living- in San Erancisco; Sallie 
E., who married Jerrold R. Letcher, living in Salt Lake City; Virginia B. 
has remained single ; William L. is living in Chicago ; Anna N., now Mrs. 
McCormack. The mother of these children reached an advanced age, passing 
to her reward on August 15, 1909. 

40 



626 PAST AND PRESENT 

Samuel L. Black was reared on the home farm, and he has preferred to 
remain on the same, having- jun-chased the interest of the other heirs in the 
same and he is carrying on very successfully general farming and stock rais- 
ing, having greatlv improved the old place. He has given his exclusive atten- 
tion to his work here and has been very successful handling stock, preparing 
cattle and hogs for the market. He was reared a Democrat and he has never 
departed from the party of his choice. He has led a quiet life and is a member 
of the ]\rasonic fraternity. 

Mr. Black was married in 1900 to Ida Martin, who was l)orn in Ken- 
tuck\- in 1873, the daughter of John and Emma (Jones) Martin, both natives 
of Kentuck^•, where they were married, later moved to Missouri, locating in 
Saline countv on a farm. He was a Democrat, but led a quiet life on the farm, 
win.ning the respect of all who knew him. His death occurred in 1907; his 
widow lives on the home farm. • They were the parents of ten children, Ida, 
wife of Samuel L. Black, being the fifth in order of birth. 

Three interesting children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Black : Helen. 
l)oin i'.i 1902; Samuel H., born June, 1905; John L., born September, 1906. 



JOHN JOHN. 



Germanv is famous the world over for its remarkable universities, for its 
learned men and for the patience, industry, morality and sturdiness of its cit- 
izens. Idiese qualities have been brought to this country by the immigrants 
and are now part and parcel of our wonderful nation — its progress in domestic 
economy, its advancement in ever}^ branch of material improvement, and its 
love of country and home. Of this praiseworthy class of citizens, many of 
wdiom reside within the borders of Saline county, comes John John, a progres- 
sive farmer in Elmwood township, who was born in St. Louis, Missouri, July 
26. 1852. In tracing his ancestors we find that his parents, Peter and Barbara 
(Shafer) John, were both born in the province of Bavaria, Gennany, the 
father the son of Philip John, of the same country. They came to America in 
about 1817, making a tedious voyage in an old sailing vessel. After landing 
on our shores they began another long trip to the middle of the continent, final- 
ly locating at St. Louis, where they remained for a period of seven years. 
They then settled in St. Clair county. Illinois, on a farm where they lived and 
prospered until 1882, when they moved to Marshall, Missouri, where they 
spent the remainder of their days. Thev and their children were members of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 627 

the Catholic church. To Mr. and Mrs. Peter John the following children were 
born: Barbara, Maggie, John (subject). Christian, Lizzie and Lena. 

John John was reared on the home farm in Illinois, working on the place 
during the summer time and attending the district schools in the winter 
months. In 1882 he was married to Crescentia Schifferdecker, who was born 
in Freeburg, St. Clair county, Illinois, the daughter of Philip and Kunigunde 
Schifferdecker. Philip Schifferdecker was born in Grosherzogthum, Baden. 
Germany, August 20, 1816. He came to this country in May, 1854. going- 
direct to St. Louis, Missouri, where he remained a few months, then going to 
Belleville, Illinois. In 1855 he located at Freeburg, Illinois, and there, on 
December 11, 1856, he was married to Kunigunde Ranch. The latter was 
born May 20, 1817, in Machle, canton Argau Bezirk, Rheinfelden, Switzer- 
land, and came to the United States in 1848. The father was twice married, 
Mrs. John being the only child of the second marriage. Six children resulted 
from the first marriage, namely: Andrew, Christian, Philip, A\'illiam, Lena 
and Rosa. The mother of Mrs. John was three times married. The follow- 
ing children resulted from the first marriage: Frances, Casper and Amelia; 
there were also three children born of her second marriage. Kunigunde, 
George and Jacob. The third marriage was to the father of Mrs. John, she 
being the only child born to this union. The father of Mrs. John lived and 
died in Freeburg, Illinois, passing to his reward on August 19, 1885, having 
been preceded to the silent land by his wife, on September 12, 1884. 

Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. John, named as follows : 
Frieda is the wife of Milton Kuykendall, a farmer of Salt Pond township. 
Saline county; Bertha is single; Lena is the wife of August Reith. a black- 
smith in Blackburn, the western border of Elmwood township; Ella is single 
and living at home; William and Theodore are also at home; George died in 
infancy ; Hilda died in early childhood ; John lives at home and is attending 
school ; Josephine and George are at home. 

Mr. John and family came to Elmwood township. Saline county, Alis- 
souri, in 1881, and moved on their present farm in 1892. It lies four miles 
south of the village of Mt. Leonard and consists of one hundred and forty 
acres, it being one of the best improved farms in Saline county and is verv 
rich, yielding abundant harvests from year to year. Mr. John has remodeled 
the dwelling and has made it attractive and comfortable, and he has built two 
excellent barns, buggy sheds and made many other substantial improvements 
about the place. He has a fine orchard, taking much interest in horticulture, 
which he keeps well informed on, and no small part of his income is derived 
from this source. He is an up-to-date farmer in every phase of the work, and 



628 PAST AND PRESENT 

he and his brother, Christ, who lives on an adjoining- farm, were the first to 
introduce clover growing in Saline county. He handles an excellent grade of 
live stock. 

Mr, John is a Republican and he has sei-ved as a member of the local 
school board. The John family stands high in social circles, being hospitable, 
honorable in their relations with their neighbors and they make all feel heart- 
ily welcome who cross their threshold. 

Considering the somewhat unpromising start of Mr. John and the pres- 
ent prosperity which he enjoys, one must accord him all praise for what he 
has accomplished, for it has resulted from long, persistent labor in definite 
lines and by honorable dealing- with his fellow men, whatever the relation may 
have been, and he therefore is w^orthy of the high regard which the people of 
Saline county have for him. 



EDWIN H. HAYNIE. 



The family of this name in Saline county is of Virginia stock on both 
sides of the house. The ancestors were part of the army of pioneers that left 
the Old Dominion state to join the hosts engaged in the conquest of tlie West. 
They did their full share in this grand but arduous work and left worthy 
names in the various communities where they settled and expended their ener- 
gies. Missouri was selected as the field for the operations of one branch of 
the family and E. M. Haynie. the well known farmer and stock raiser, was a 
descendant. He was born ip Saline county in 1838, grew up on a farm, even- 
tually became a farmer himself and has devoted all his active life to this pur- 
suit. At present he resides in Marshall and is practically retired from active 
business. He married Sarah E. Grayson, a native of Virginia, who died in 
October, 1907, after becoming the mother of eleven children. The six of these 
now living are Edward H., John R., who lives on a farm in Miami township; 
Robert L., a resident of Miami township; Price G., a farmer of the same local- 
ity; Mary J., wife of Jesse Roberts, of Marshall; Angie F.. widow of Shelby 
Porter. 

Edwin H. Haynie, eldest of the surviving children, was born in Saline 
county, Missouri, October 13, 1868. He was trained to farm life and as he 
grew up had all the experiences common to Missouri farm boys. He was 
taught to work, to keep regular hours, to look after the stock, help in the fields 
and his education was obtained by attendance during the winters at the dis- 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 629 

trict schools. He remained under the parental roof nntil he completed his 
twenty-fourth year, when he removed to Marshall and engaged in the livery 
business, which occupied his time for eight years. In 1900 he was offered and 
accepted a deputyship under Sheriff Joseph \\'ilson. which place he filled ac- 
ceptably for a year, then returned to the farm. He spent the intervening 
Acars at his old occupation until 1908, when he was nominated for sheriff" and 
elected in the November election. He took office January i, 1909, and has 
served so satisfactorily as to increase his already well recognized popularity. 
He is a man of influence in the political world and stands well in business 
circles. 

December 18, 1902, Mr. Haynie was married to lone V., daughter of J. 
O. Davis, of Miami township. Mr. Haynie is of social disposition, easy ad- 
dress and a friend-maker, his acquaintance being substantially inclusive of the 
countv's citizenship. He is not only well known and well liked, but is recog- 
nized as one of the leading citizens. His fraternal connections are confined 
to membership in the order of Knights of Pythias. 



FRANK M. LATIMER. 



The Saline county family of this name is of English stock, and the first 
emigrants were identified with this country from a very early period. One 
iMTiP-ch located in Virginia and from this sprang Randall Latimer, who in early 
life migrated from the Old Dominion state to Kentucky. There his son, 
George W. Latimer, was born, who, A^'hen a young man, removed to Saline 
county, Missouri. He married Elizabeth Bell, a native of Missouri, who now 
resides at Marshall. Her husband was a lifelong farmer, but learned survey- 
ing, and bv repeated elections served for twelve years as county surveyor. He 
was killed in a runaway accident November 2, 1906. He left four children, 
of whom the eldest. Ida Bell, died in February, 1908. William Randall, the 
oldest son, is a resident of San Francisco, and E. R. is in the grocery business 
at ^Marshall. 

Frank M. Latimer, youngest of the family, was born two miles west of 
Sharon, Saline county, Missouri, November 12, 1881. He was educated in 
the schools at Marshall and studied suiweying under his father. In 1899 he 
went ^^ est in the employment of a large railroad contractor, following civil 
engineering for two years. Returning home, he worked with his father in the 
surveyor's office until July, 1905. when he accepted a position with the Kansas 



630 PAST AND PRESENT 

City Bridge Company, with which corporation he remained until the death of 
his father, whose unexjiired term as surveyor was left open, and he was ap- 
pointed to same. In November, 1908, he was elected to this office, but in ad- 
dition is county highway engineer, a new office created recently, to which he 
w^as appointed January i, 1908. He is a Democrat in politics and one of the 
local leaders of his party. He is a young man of promise and popularity, who 
has a bright future before him, and his business acquirements are such as to 
make him a useful man to the people. He is thoroughly trained as a sur- 
veyor and civil engineer, is studious and painstaking in methods, energetic in 
action and possessed of an alert, progressive mind. 

In August, 1907, Mr. Latimer married Stella, a daughter of E. B. Hitt, 
of Marshall. The family enjoys high social standing and a wide acquaintance, 
with all of whom they are popular and highly esteemed. 



PHILIP H. FRANKLIN. 



The ancestors of the family of this name, as immigrants from England, 
settled at Chester, Pennsylvania, before the Revolutionary war. Thomas H. 
Franklin, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born at Chester, but 
was reared in Virginia and served as a soldier from that state during the 
struggle for American independence. After the war he returned to his Vir- 
vinia home and the family was long identified with the history and develop- 
ment of Campbell county. His son, Henry R. Franklin, was born in Camp- 
bell county, became a farmer and spent his whole life of ninety-three years 
within the limits of his native bailiwick. He married Rhoda G. Watkins, a 
native of Buckingham county, Virginia, whose ancestors settled Malvern Hill, 
the scene of a notably bloody battle during the Civil war. Her grandfather 
took part in the Revolutionary war and was present at the surrender of Corn- 
wallis. She died in 1873 at her old Virginia home, after the completion of 
her sixty-second year. Of the four children of this fine old Virginia couple, 
all are living but one. J. W. was a surgeon in the Confederate anny, went 
through the siege of Vicksburg and died a year after the close of the war. 
Cornelius H. resides in Campbell county and Mrs. Johanna V. Nelson at Alta, 
Texas. 

Philip H. Franklin, youngest of the family, was born in Campbell county, 
Virginia, near Lynchburg, July 4, 1841. When he had reached the age of 
nineteen, the country was convulsed by the outbreak of the Civil war, and he 



SALINE COUXTY, MISSOLRI 63 1 

was one O'f the wildest and most eager to go to the front in defense of the 
rights of his native state. He enhsted in the Lynchburg Home Guards, an 
eld company that had been organized some years before, which became Com- 
pany G, Eleventh Regiment, Virginia Volunteer Infantry, was mustered into 
sen-ice April 24, 1861, and w'as the first organization of Virginia troops that 
reached Richmond. The Eleventh was hurried to Manassas, the assembling 
point of the Confederate army, and a few weeks later took part in the first 
great battle of the war, which resulted in a signal N-ictory for the Southern 
army. !Mr. Franklin took part with his command in man}- other battles and 
engagements, ami^ng them l)eing W illiamsburg. Se\'en Pines, Fiazier's Farm, 
Fredericksburg-, Gettysburg, Bull Run, Dranesville, AX'arrenton Junction. Cold 
Harbor, Five Forks. Drury's Bluff, Vorktown and Suft'olk. He was taken 
prisoner at Frazier's Farm, but was exchanged after two months, when he 
rejoined his regiment. He was wounded in the shoulder by a bullet, at Wil- 
liamsburg, May 5, 1862, and still carries the lead in his body. At Gettysburg, 
July 3, 1863, during Pickett's famous charge, he was again wounded by a 
shrapnel shot in the back. ]\Iay 16, 1864, at Drury's Bluff, he was hit by an- 
other bullet. Few men have such an honorable and continuous record of mil- 
itary service as he went through the whole war of four years with no vacation 
except those enforced by capture or wounds. After hostilities ceased Mr. 
Franklin returned to Campbell county and resumed the peaceful pursuits of 
farming. In February, 1868, he removed to Missouri, located in Saline 
county and was engaged for a while in the insurance business. August 20th 
of the same year he established a drug store at Cambridg-e, but after remain- 
ing there nearly nine years decided to remove to the county seat. In July, 
1876, he opened a drug store at Marshall and soon afterwards sold the con- 
cern at Cambridge. For forty years he has been continuously in the drug busi- 
ness in Saline county. About seventeen years ago, he moved into his present 
rooms, which accommodate two distinct stores, a drug and book and stationery 
business, occupying separate space under the same roof. He was appointed a 
member of the state board of pharmacy by Governor Crittenden and served 
in that ofiice for ten years continuously. 

In 1872 ]\lr. h^-anklin married Mary F.. daughter of F. H. (lilhrun, one 
of the pioneers of Saline county, at present residing at Marshall, in the 
ninety-fifth year of his age. He estal)lished the first store at Cambridge. Mr. 
and Mrs. Franklin have had two children, both of whom are dead. Philip 
H. died when seventeen years old. Daisy C. married Rev. A. A. Mc- 
Geachy. a Presbyterian minister, and died at Sherman, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. 
Franklin are members of the old-school Presbyterian church, of which the 



632 PAST AND PRESENT 

former is an elder. He is a Mason and has been honored with the deg-rees up 
to the thirty-second, and is a member of the Knights of Pythias. He has long 
been recognized as one of the best citizens of the county, honorable in deal- 
ing, public spirited and a man of the hightest integrity. His character has 
been tried in the war and peace and passed through the ordeal as pure as gold. 



ABIEL LEONARD. 



The members of the family of this name have figured conspicuously and 
honorably in the history of Missouri in the various walks of life. Originating 
in New^ England, the first settlers came west at an early day and were identi- 
fied with Missouri during its formative period. Nathaniel Leonard, who was 
born at \A'indsor, Vermont, in 1799, removed to Missouri when thirty years 
old and located in Cooper county, after the establishment of the colony founded 
by Daniel Boone. He was of an adventurous disposition and, yielding to the 
call of the wild, became a fur trader on an extensive scale during his first 
years of residence in the West, before he finally settled down in Cooper county. 
His expeditions covered a wide range, often taking him to the great emporium 
of fur trade at Mackinaw. At a later period he owned an extensive farm in 
Cooper county, which he so highly improved that it became known as one of 
the handsomest and most productive in the United States. He was a man of 
unbounded influence in his community and during his entire career was never 
known to do an act which from any standpoint could be regarded as dishon- 
orable. He closed his long and useful life in 1875 at the home he had beauti- 
fied and made the abode of genuine Southern hospitality. His brother, Hon. 
Abiel Leonard, was one of the most distinguished jurists of the state and for 
several years occupied a seat on the bench of the supreme court of Missouri. 
He was a man of extraordinary legal talent, of the utmost integrity and high 
public spirit. Nathaniel Leonard married Margaret Hutchinson and Abiel 
Leonard, one of the children l)y this union, was born at Bellair, Coo]:)er 
county, ^Missouri, Alay 24, 185 1. After the usual experience in the district 
school he prepared for college at the Kemper Military Academy at Boonville. 
and in 1868 entered Dartmouth College, where he studied for three years. In 
1872 he came to Saline county and with his brother, ^^"ilham H., began the 
operation of a farm in Elmwood township. The situation was in the western 
part of the county at a point afterward named Mount Leonard, in honor of 
the family who had done so much for the development of the community. Mr. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 633 

Leonard continued in charge of this farm for twenty years, with his brother 
as a partner, making a specialty of Shorthorn and Scotch polled cattle. During 
this period the brother imported from Spain numbers of jacks and jenneys, 
which they bred on an extensive scale, their herd being one of the most noted 
in the nation. In fact the Leonard brothers were pioneers in this branch of 
the live stock industry in Missouri. From 1883 to 1886 they imported hun- 
dreds of loads of high-bred cattle. Their importations of black polled cattle 
equaled those of any other stockmen in the country. In 1892 Mr. Leonard 
removed to Marshall and engaged in the real estate business, first with H. G. 
Allen, and subsequently with G. W. Newton, who is his present partner. In 
1888 he became identified with the Farmers' Savings Bank of Marshall, as a 
diiector and served in that capacity until June. 1900. Though he has disposed 
of his farming interests at Mt. Leonard, he retains a valuable farm in Black- 
water township. Though an earnest supporter of Democratic principles, Mr. 
Leonard has steadily refused to become a candidate for office. He has, how- 
ever, been deeply interested in the cause of education and always ready to 
serve the public welfare in that cause. From 1896 to 1899 he was president 
of the board of education at Marshall and from 1895 to 1899 was a trustee of 
Westminster College at Fulton. Under appointment of Governor John S. 
Marmaduke and re-appointment by Governor Francis, he served as a member 
of the state board of agriculture for eight years. He is an elder in the Presby- 
terian church, in which his wife also is a verv active and earnest worker. 
Since 1885 he has been identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has 
risen to the rank of Knight Templar. He is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, 
affiliating with the Ararat Temple, of Kansas City. 

May 10. 1883, Mr. Leonard married Mittie S., daughter of Joseph L. 
Ste])hens, and sister of former Governor Lon V. Stephens. They have four 
children, Horace Holly, Joseph S., Margaret Nelson and Speed. 



EDGAR RIVES PAGE. 



Contractor and builder and for fifty-four years an h()n(^red resident of 
Saline county, the subject of this sketch was born at ]\Iadison Mills, near 
Orange, on the Rapidan river. Virginia, April i, 1837. His father was Rob- 
ert F. Page, a native of Nelson county, that state, and a descendant of one of 
the first English families that settled in Virginia. By occupation he was a 
miller and spent all of his life near the place of his birth, dving in Greene 
county, Virginia, at the advanced age of eighty years. Prior to her marriage 



034 PAST AND PRESENT 

to Robert F. Pag-e, the subject's mother bore the name of Sarah Jones, whose 
l)irth occurred in the county of Albemarle and who died in 1898, v>hen about 
ninety years old. The family of this estimable couple consisted of ten chil- 
dren, of whom the following survive: C. G. Page, of Marshall; Z. K.. who 
has been clerk of Greene county, Virginia, for over thirty years; W. B.. of 
Crockett, Texas, and for several years a member of the Legislature of that 
state. 

E. R. Page spent his early life in Virginia, and while still a mere )-outh 
gave evidence of decided mechanical skill, which he subsequently utilized as 
a carpenter, which trade he learned at his native place and at which he soon 
acquired much more than ordinary proficiency. Thinking the West abounded 
in better opportunities for a young man than his own state, he severed home 
ties in September, 1855, and in the following November reached Saline coun- 
ty, Missouri, where he immediately found remunerative employment at Jiis 
trade. Being a skillful workman, his services were soon in great demand, not 
only in the locality where lived, but throughout a large area of the county as 
well, and from that time on his progress was rapid and his success assured. 

At the breaking out of the Civil war Mr. Page went west and from t86i 
to 1866 inclusive was engaged in contracting and mining in Nevada. In the 
latter year he returned to Saline county and resumed his trade at Marshall, 
where, during the ensuing twenty-five years, he erected more buildings than 
any other contractor, and to him as much as to an}- one man is due the material 
advancement of the city from that time to the present. It is a fact beyond dis- 
pute that he practically built the thriving county seat, the majority of the busi- 
ness blocks, public edifices and finer class of residences being the result of his 
mechanical skill,. in addition to which he also erected many dwellings through- 
out the rural districts and in other towns. Among the more noted evidences 
of his workmanship in Marshall are the Missouri Valley College buildings, 
several beautiful and imposing church edifices, private residences of a number 
of the leading citizens and various other structures, all of wdiich bear witness 
to his efficiency as a master of the calling- and which will long stand as monu- 
ments to his energy and skill. 

Mr. Page's financial success was commensurate with the ability displayed 
in his labors. As a man and citizen he always manifested a lively interest in 
the growth of his adopted city, and all enterprises having for their object the 
moral welfare of the community received his encouragement and support. He 
always stood for law, order and a high standard of citizenship, while his social 
status and personal integrity were ever above reproach and all (^f his promises 
religiously kept. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 63$ 

Mr. Page was a Democrat, but made politics secondary to his business 
affairs, although well informed on the leading questions of the day and abreast 
of the times on current events. Fraternally he was a Mason of high degree, 
belonging to the three branches of the order, and in religion he held to the 
faith of the Methodist church, with which body his family are also identified. 
The death of Mr. Page occurred November 8, 1909. 

In the year 1866 Mr. Page was united in marriage with Caroline W. 
Sims, a native of Greene county, of the Old Dominion state, in which she 
was born and reared, the ceremony taking place in the same neighborhood 
where they spent their childhood and youth. Of the twelve children result- 
ing from this union, one lives in Seattle, Washington, two in old Mexico, and 
the rest in or near Marshall, Missouri, where the family is so well known and 
so Ifio-hlv esteemed. 



JAMES A. WALKER. 

The face of the late Dr. Francis J. C. W^alker was familiar to thousands 
in this section for nearly two generations and through him and relatives the 
family name has been made widely known. He was a son of an old Caro- 
lina pioneer, James T. ^^^alker, born in 1795, who located in Kentucky at 
an early day and afterwards joined the emigration to Missouri. He was a 
planter and as a side line followed the trade of a saddle-tree maker. His 
son Francis became eminent as a physician, having begun practice over sixty 
years ago. Born in Casey county, Kentucky, December 5, 1826, he came 
with his parents to Missouri in 1843, when sixteen years old. The family 
located in Pettis county, where Francis studied medicine with Dr. William 
M. Lowry for two years and in i860 entered the McDowell Medical Col- 
lege at St. Louis, from which he obtained a degree a year later. After prac- 
ticing a while at Longwood, he removed to Liberty township. Saline county, 
where he remained, in active practice for forty-five years. He died January 
I, 1908. after a long career of usefulness and a life that was free from blame. 
In early manhood he married Sallie M., daughter of Judge James R. Davis, 
whose father came from Virginia to Missouri during the state's formative 
period and founded a family of influence. Doctor and Mrs. ^^'alker had six 
children: James A.; Charles L., of Los Angeles; Mrs. Margaret McMahan ; 
Mary; Mrs. Nellie Boatright, of IMarshall. and Mrs. Katherine Alc^Iahan, 
of Long Beach, California. The mother died JanuarA- 28. 1905. 

James A. Walker, eldest of the children, was born in Saline county. 



636 PAST AND PRESENT 

^Missouri. Julv 12. 1868. He grew up on the old homestead farm near Mar- 
shall, and remained under the parental roof until the completion of his 
twentv-third vear. Besides the usual routine in the puhlic schools, he at- 
tended a private academy at Sweet Springs and took a course in the busi- 
ness college at Ouincy. Illinois, from which he was graduated in 1888. After 
spending two years on the farm he taught school for three years and then 
obtained a ]X)sition in the Bank of Marshall, where he sj^ent a year. In 
1902 he was elected to the office of county collector and ser\cd four years, 
or two terms as it was under the then existing law. .\fter two years' va- 
cation he went to St. Louis and accepted a position with the Johnson-Rand 
Shoe Com])any, with \\hich he was connected for nine months. In Jul}-, 
1908, he went to Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and secured a controlling interest 
in the First National Bank and became ])resident of that institution. April 
15. 1909, he resigned and returned to Marshall where he accepted the posi- 
tion of assistant cashier of the Bank of Marshall, in which capacity he still 
ser\-es. 

Januar^• 14, 1890, Mr. Walker married Gabriella, daughter of James 
^^^ Clravson, of Sweet Springs, and the two children of this union are ]\Iar_\- 
Frances and Ruth. The parents are members of the Christian church and 
Mr. Walker's fraternal connections are with the Masons and Odd Fellows. 
He is a Democrat in politics and a man of unusual popularity. His ad- 
dress is capti\ating and his ])ersonal a|)])earance striking, his features being 
clear-cut, his height over six feet and weight about one hundred ninety pounds. 



ROBERT j. McMAHAN. 



It was far back in the hislor\- of Missouii as a state that the hrst re])- 
resentatives of this well known family became identified with this section. 
James McMahan, who was a Kentuckian by birth, crossed the Mississippi 
when Indians still roamed over the fertile |)lains and all sorts of wild game 
were so abundant as to be an incumlirance. Before lea\'ing the old com- 
mor.wealth of Boone, he had married Helena Jones .and after coming to 
Missouri they hrst settled at C'oojjer's I'ort, but later took up some new Jand, 
in the improvement of which the newcomer devoted a large amount of ex- 
haustive labor. By the exercise of that thrift and frugality known only to 
the earlv jjioneers he was able to purchase additional land until he owned a 
farm of five hundred eighty acres in Cooper county. On this place he ex- 



SALINE COUNTYj MISSOURI 637 

pended all his efforts, reared a large family, and li\'ed iii peace with all the 
world until his death, in October, 1857. He had nine children: Arminta. 
the eldest, is now ]\lrs. John H. Sutherland : Asenath, the second child., is 
Mrs. Robert K. Taylor; Jesse X. is dead; Jane married W. H. Wallace, 
but is now dead; Melissa became the wife of W. id. Wallace after the death 
of her sister; Mary is deceased; Laura L. is the deceased wife of Dr. Wade 
tlnward; and Sophia T. is the wife of George A. Murrell, of Marshall. 
The mother died in 1867. 

Robert J. McMahan, eighth child in order of birth of this interesting- 
family, was born in Cooper county, Missouri, June 23, 1833. He remained 
at home assisting his father until 1854. \\hen he went to California, bv the 
overland route, made popular by the gold-seekers of the preceding years. 
On returning from the Pacific coast he remained on his father's farm until 
the opening of the Civil war, for which he enlisted on the Confederate side. 
He was captured at Black Water, and sent as a prisoner to McDowell Col- 
lege and later to Alton. On the Doctor's advice he took the oath of alle- 
giance and came home and here he remained until 1865, ^vhen he decided 
on a western trip. Embarking for Alontana with a mercantile stock, he 
was engaged for a year freighting goods, but then abandoned the enter- 
prise. After returning to Cooper county he farmed until 1871, when he 
went to Arrow Rock to engage in the mercantile business, which occupied 
his attention until the fall of 1880. In that year he was elected clerk of 
Saline county, but during the interval before taking office he was in the 
grain business, being interested in the Marshall elevator. After serving two 
years as clerk, he was elected for a four-year term and later, in 1890, was 
honored by still another election for four vears and re-elected in 1894, serv- 
ing fourteen years in all. His conduct of the office ^^•as such as to give 
universal satisfaction as is proA-en by his repeated and popular choice at the 
polls. In 1899, the year following his retirement from office, Mr. McMahan 
removed to Denver, where he engaged in the wholesale coal business, ow'ning 
and operating a coal mine near that city in partnership with his son, Robert 
W., and Arthur E. Huston. Two years later Mr. McMahan disposed of 
his interests in Colorado, owing to failing health on account of the high alti- 
tude, and returned to Marshall, since which time he has been associated with 
the Rea & Page Milling Company, of Marshall, one of the best equipped in- 
stitutions of its kind in the state. 

November i, 1859, Mr. McMahan married Sarah E., daughter of Free- 
man Wing, of Cooper county. To them have been born seven children, five 
of whom are living as follows: Virginia K., Helena R., Stella B., Sophia 



638 PAST AND PRESENT 

A., and Robert \\'., the lallei" being also engaged with the Rea & Page Mill- 
ing Company. Those deceased are Laura Freeman and Bessie Ella. Mr. 
McMahan has long been a member of the Masonic order, but has not af- 
filiated with any of the newer fraternities. He is a fine type of the old- 
school gentleman, who learned the lessons of life in the crucibles of the 
pioneer period and the later more terrible experiences of the Civil war. He 
is one of the oldest nati\'e-l)orn Missourians now living in Saline county, 
and is full of interesting" reminiscences of the olden times. He can also 
talk entertainingly of conditions in the West before railroads, as the result of 
his two trips across the plains and the Rocky mountains. No man stands 
higgler in Saline county and no history of its people and development would 
be complete without containing the name of Robert J. McMahan. 



LEONIDAS WINFIELD SCOTT. 

As a sample of the poor boy rising in the world 1)}' his own efforts 
and making a fine success in life, it is not necessary to seek farther than 
this popular and progressive lawyer of Marshall. He has gained wealth, 
which is the chief ambition of most men, but with it he has also earned what 
is far better — the sincere esteem of his neighbors and influence in the com- 
munity which comes from character and intellect. The Scott family is of 
Irish and Scotch stock, the kind that has made its mark in the world wher- 
e\'er found. Though born in Dublin, Ireland, W^illiam Scott, the emigrant 
ancestor, was educated at Edinburgh, Scotland. He came to the United 
States in the flush of youth, located in what is now West Virginia, where 
he taught school and gave promise of a brilliant career, but his life was cut 
short when still a young man. His son, George \\'infiel(l Scott, left his 
native Virginia mountains in early life and found a home in Boone county, 
Missouri. There he engaged in business as a millwright for a few years, 
but caught the gold fever in 1849, started to California with the Argonauts 
and perished of cholera on the way. He married Sarah, daughter of Wil- 
liam B. and Sarah Oldham, of Clark county. Kentucky, where she was born 
and reared, but subsequently went with her parents to Missouri. She died 
in Boone county about 1832, after becoming the mother of four children, 
of whom one died in infancy. Virginia, the eldest of these children, mar- 
ried William Tuttle, of Boone county, but died some years ago. Fremon- 
tie, wife of Richard F. Crews, of Howard county, died October 2. 1909, 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 639 

in Boone county. I.. W. Scott, the only son, was Ixirn in Boone countv. 
Missouri, and received his primary education in the puljhc schools. Later 
he entered the Missouri State Uni\-ersity at Columhia and obtained two de- 
grees from that institution. Always ambitious for the legal profession, he 
entered the office of James Gordon, a prominent lawyer of Boone county, 
and studied for some time under his competent instruction. Subsecpiently 
he was in the office of J. C. V. Karnes, of Kansas City, and in the fall of 
1867 came to Saline county, opened an office at Marshall and has been here 
ever since. He achieved success and he has grown steadily in reputation as 
a lawyer. He owns a large body of land in Black Water township. Saline 
count}-, besides considerable real estate in Marshall. When he reached Saline 
county, forty-two years ago, he had practically nothing but the clothes on his 
back, but he was young, resolute, ambitious, sober and industrious, qualities 
that, united with talent, never fail to win success. 

In 1876 Mr. Scott married Nellie Holland, a resident of Saline county, 
but a native of Warsaw. Benton county, Missouri. Of the four children 
by this union Fratie F. and Sarah died in infancy. Robert Holland, the 
only son, married Edna Chilton, of Boonville, Missouri, and resides on the 
farm in Black Water township. Juliet Lay is the wife of Leonard Xan 
Dyke, postmaster of Marshall, and they make their home in that citv. The 
mother died in igo2 and in 1905 Mr. Scott married Elizabeth Hancock, of 
Saline county. Mr. Scott is treasurer of the Farmers' Mutual Fire and 
Lightning Lisurance Company of Saline county, and for twelve years (three 
terms) held the office of public administrator of Saline county. Mr. and Mrs. 
Scott are members of the Christian church and he has been treasurer of the 
Sunday school over twenty years. 



ADAM TABLER SWISHER. 

The founder of the Saline county family of this name was Henrv 
Swisher, born in eastern Virginia, near the Blue Ridge mountains in 1774. 
but lived most of his life in Berkeley county. He was a farmer hx occu- 
pation, served in the war of 1812 and was at Baltimore when General Ross 
was killed. In 1858 he removed to Kansas, where he died at the age of 
eighty-four years. His son, also named Henry, was bc^rn in Berkeley countv 
in April, i8c8. adopted the carpenter's trade and remained in his native place 
until 1857, "^vhen he migrated to vSaline countv, ^lissouri. \\here he remained 



640 PAST AND PRESENT 

unlil his death in iHjs. He married J^^Hzabeth Barnes, who was born in 
Berkeley county in May, 1809. and (bed in 1885. They liad five children, 
all sons: Adam T. ; Vinyard B., who was born in 1840 and resides in 
Saline county near Norton; Michael S., who was born in 1842 and lives 
at Slater; F. L.. born in 1847. lives near Norton; Mathias D., born in 1849 
and died in 1905 near Norton. 

Adam T. Swisher, eldest of the five boys, was born in Berkeley county, 
\'irg-inia. October 13, 1838. The only education of the children was ob- 
tained at the old-fashioned subscription schools, then common in Virginia, 
but after coming" to Saline county, in 1857. Mr. Swisher attended two terms 
in one of the educational institutions of this \-icinit)'. Before reaching his 
majority he began learning- the carpenter's trade, which he followed with- 
out a break until his election as county recorder in 1902. Beginning the 
following year, he served a two-year term and was re-elected in 1906. He 
had no opposition in the primary, which in Democratic Saline county is 
equivalent to election. 

Mr. Swisher has a creditable record as a soldier in the Confederate 
army during the Civil war. Answering the first call, he joined the Saline 
county Jackson Guards under (ieneral Marmaduke. enlisting in April, i86t, 
and being first ordered to Jefferson City. Besides participating in the 
skirmish at Boonville. he was in the battle of Lexington. In September, 
1861. he was brought home sick with typhoid fever, but returned to the army 
in December, was captured at Black Water and taken to St. Louis, where 
he was kept a prisoner until February and then removed to the federal 
prison at Alton. Illinois. July 11. 1862, he was paroled to report to the 
provost marshal at St. Louis, by whom he was released, and shortly after 
made his way home. He was forced to sign an oath of allegiance without 
knowing what it was. disregarded it and left for the south where he re- 
entered the Confederate service, being with Shelby's brig'ade until the close 
of hostilities. He was in a number of engagements, including the battle 
of Prairie Grove and all the fighting around Little Rock. He received a light 
gunshot wound at the battle of Lexington, but aside from that escaped un- 
scathed. 

In 1867 Mr. Swisher married Mary Katharine Hedges, who was born 
in Berkeley county. Virginia, within two miles of his own birthplace. His 
seven children are all living and doing well in their respective lines. David 
A. resides near Napton, in Saline county ; Catherine E. is the wife of Ezra 
Baker, professor in Trinity University of Waxahatchie, Texas ; Harry A. 
is a resident of Saline county, near Norton ; Joseph F. is a bookkeeper in 



SALINE COUNTYj MISSOURI 64I 

the Bank of Saline at Marshall; May E. married Robert J. Kiser and they 
live in Saline county near Blosser ; Ada V. is a teacher in the public schools 
at Marshall and still remains under the parental roof; Adam T., Jr., lives 
with and assists his father as deputy recorder. Mr. Swisher is a member 
of the Knights of Pythias, the Maccabees and the Masons. He is regarded 
as one of the reliable and solid men of the county, faithful in all the rela- 
tions of life and as a consequence enjoying the confidence and esteem of 
the public. 



VIRGIL V. HUFF. 



Originally English, the family of this name was long settled in Ten- 
nessee, and from that state sent off-shoots into other parts of the West. 
Peter Huff was born in Tennessee during the last quarter of the eighteenth 
century and became an extensive landowner; he brought his family to Mis- 
souri and located in Saline county about 1816, when it was still a territory. 
He was a charter member of Good Hope Baptist church, which was or- 
ganized in Saline county in 18 18 and became famous among the pioneer re- 
ligious denominations. He contributed the land on which this church was 
built, was a very enthusiastic adherent and was long regarded as a very pil- 
lar of the faith. He died in this county and his remains were very appro- 
priately consigned to rest in the cemetery of the church which he did so 
much to establish. In John Huff he left a son well worthy to wear his 
mantle. Youngest of the family, he was born in Tennessee, but came with 
his parents to Missouri when a child. After he grew up he engaged in 
farming and followed that pursuit until his death, August i, 1881. He 
married Jane Hampton, who claims descent from the celebrated English 
statesman of the Cromwell period, and is a relative of the late Gen. Wade 
Hampton, of South Carolina. She was born in Saline county October 10, 
1835, and is still living near Gilliam. She had eleven children, to-wit : 
Mrs. Sarah E. Davis, of New England, North Dakota; Mrs. Leona Davis, 
deceased; William J., who resides near Gilliam; Daniel B., of Gilham; 
Christopher P., near Gilliam; Mrs. Levina Gauldin, near Gilliam; John 
S. M., near Slater, Missouri ; Mrs. Idena Howe, and Alexander, deceased. 

Virgil V. Huff, youngest of this family, was born in Saline county, 
Missouri, near New Frankfort, March 2^, 1876. He remained on the pa- 
rental farm until 1892, receiving his primary education in the famous Good 
Hope public schools, and was graduated from Gilliam high school in 1891. 

41 



642 PAST AND PRESENT 

His next move was to enter the Missouri Valley College at Marshall in 1892, 
and he secured the degree of Bachelor of Arts from that institution in 1898. 
He then attended the law department of Washington University at St. Louis, 
from Avhich he was graduated in 1900. Without loss of time, he hegan 
])ractice of his jM'ofession at Marshall and has continued steadily at work, 
constantly increasing his l)usiness and growing all the time in popularity. 
Mr. Huff was a memher of Governor Folk's military staff, being an aide 
with the rank of colonel, and serx'ed during his entire term of office. Mr. 
Huff was the recipient of the Sappington school fund, which enabled him 
to obtain an education. This fund was left for the education of poor and 
deser\ing youths, and Mr. Huff gratefull}' acknowledges his indebtedness 
to the same. He is a very bright young" lawyer and is rapidiv fulfilling all 
the promises made for him by his admiring friends. 

July 15. 1903, Mr. Huff was married to Belle, daughter of Henry W. 
and Sarah M. Campbell. She was born near Winchester, Scott county, Illi- 
nois, but her parents were living in Saline county at that time. Mr. Huff 
is a member of the Masonic order and the Baptist church, while his wife 
is a Presbvterian. 



JUDGE MILES F. PRIGMORE. 

Miles F. Prigmore, who is rendering efficient service as judge of the 
court for the second district of Saline county, is a native son of the state 
of Missouri, having been born in Pettis county, about eight miles southwest 
of Sweet Springs, on February 7, 1850, and is the son of Benjamin and 
Jane (Taylor) Prigmore. The subject's mother was born and reared in 
Pettis county, being the daughter of Elijah Taylor. The latter, who was 
one of the pioneer settlers in Pettis county, was one of the first justices 
of the peace in that county and held the first county court at Pinhook Mills. 
He was a farmer and miller and operated one of the earliest of the old 
horse-power mills in the count}-. His death occurred in 1856. His wife was 
a member of the Christian church, and they were the parents of three chil- 
dren, namely: Jane, mother of the subject of this sketch; Mary, the wife of 
T. W. Dickinson, of Pettis county; William Y., of Kansas City, Kansas. 
Benjamin Prigmore was lx)rn in Kentucky in 181 1 and his death occurred 
in 1900. He was a son of P)enjamin Prigmore, who came from Kentucky 
to Pettis county, Missouri, in 18 18. but, owing to Indian troubles, he moved 
to Lexington, this state, where there was a small settlement. In 1820 he 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 643 

located at what is now known as the Tom Berry farm, in Pettis county, 
where he bought one hundred and twenty-five acres of land and also took 
up four hundred and forty acres of government land. He lived there dur- 
ing the remainder of his life, and is now buried there on the farm. He and 
his wife were members of the Christian church. They were the parents of 
ten children, namely: Sarah, William, Joseph, Isaiah, Benjamin (father of 
the subject), Polly, Elizabeth, Nancy, Sophia and Duke Y. Benjamin Prig- 
more, the subject's father, was a lad of eight years when the family came 
to this state. The trip was made l^}- ox teams and the Mississippi river was 
crossed at St. Louis in 1818, the trip l^eing characterized by many exciting 
and dangerous experiences. Benjamin was reared on the home farm and 
received a meager education, owing to the primitive educational facilities 
of the new country. He served as a teamster during the Mexican war, 
serving faithfully throughout that struggle. On his return he took up the 
occupation of farming in Pettis county. He was also engaged in peddling 
"Sappington's Anti-Fever Pills" all through the South, in which he was 
very successful. He later engaged in driving a "freighter" across the plains, 
his western terminal point being Sante Fe, New Mexico. He and his wife 
were members of the Christian church. They were the parents of six chil- 
dren. He had been twice married, the first time to Mary Wingfield, a na- 
tive of Johnson county, Missouri, by whom he became the father of two 
children: Benjamin, of Pueblo, Colorado, and Charlie \\'.. who died in 
1864. Benjamin Prigmore enjoys the unbounded confidence of all who know 
him and was the first postmaster at Bee Branch, Missouri, the mail at that 
time being carried by stage. 

Miles F. Prigmore was reared (jn the home farm in Pettis county and 
received his education in the district schools, which in that early day lacked 
many of the educational facilities and aids which characterize the modern 
schools. The school houses were rudely built, the floor and seats being made 
of puncheons, and the school literature being scant and comparatively crude 
in selection. However, despite these drawbacks, some of the brightest minds 
of this country received their first mental discipline amid such conditions, 
and the subject of this sketch left school fairly well equipped to take up 
the battle of life. At the age of nineteen years, he commenced agricultural 
operations on forty acres of land which his father had given him and so 
successfully did he carry on his operations that he was able to add to the 
original tract from time to time until he became the c^wner of one hundred 
and forty-six acres, comprising the old homestead. In October, 1893, he 
left the farm and came to Sweet Springs, Saline county, and entered into 



644 PAST AND PRESENT 

a partnership with W. H. Reavis in the real estate and insurance business, 
in which he is still engaged. 

While residing in Pettis county, the sul)ject served ten \-ears as jus- 
tice of the peace, acquiring a splendid reputation for his evident fairness 
and his ability in handling cases that came before him. In 1896 he was 
elected mayor of Sweet Springs, and gave so able an administration of the 
affairs of the office that he was re-elected in 1898 and again in 1900. He 
is also a notary public. In 1908 he ^vas elected to the office of county 
judge from the second district of Saline county and is now discharging the 
duties of this responsiljle position with marked ability and to the entire sat- 
isfaction of the people of the county. 

In March, 1869, Judge Prigmore married Henrietta Smiley, a native 
of Pettis county, Missouri, who died on November 19, 1906. To them were 
born two children, namely : Charles S., a farmer in Johnson county, this 
state, married Lou Welch and they have one child, Henrietta; Benjamin T., 
who is unmarried, is connected with the Coulter Hardware Company at 
Sweet Springs. The subject and his wife also reared an orphan girl named 
Rosa Folkerth, who is now a resident of Lexington, Missouri. Politically, 
Judge Prigmore has ever given staunch support to the Democratic party and 
has been active in advancing its interests. His fraternal relations are with 
the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is an appreciative mem- 
ber. At the age of sixteen years he became a member of the Christian 
church, but does not now take an active part in church work. The Judge 
is a man of splendid personal qualities and is popular in the circles in which 
he moves, being numbered among the representative men of the county. 



CHASTAIN GARLAND PAGE. 

This well known citizen has been connected with the manufacturing and 
industrial development of Saline county for more than fifty-three years. Dur- 
ing that time he has done his full share towards helping on the community. 
at present occupying several posts of responsibility and trust. He was born 
in Madison county, Virginia, August 7, 1835. and remained in his native 
state for twenty-one years, when he was attracted to the West as affording 
good opportunities for young men who were willing to work and knew 
how to do things. His father, Robert F. Page, was a native of Nelson 
county, Virginia, and worked during most of his active life at his trade as 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 645 

a miller. He ^Yas a substantial man, of fine character, moral impulse and 
an integrity that could not be swerved. He died in 1884, when seventy- 
four years old, a consistent member of the Methodist church, to which he 
had belonged for many years. He married Sarah Jones, a native of Albe- 
marle county, Virginia, v^ho reached the unusual age of ninety years be- 
fore her death, which occurred only a few years ago. This worthy couple 
had ten children, all of whom have passed away except three, Z. K., a resi- 
dent of Virginia ; William B., who lives in Texas, and the subject. E. R., 
deceased, is represented in a sketch elsewhere in this volume. 

Chastain G. Page, the eldest of the family, obtained his training and 
early education in the Old Dominion, but as soon as he reached legal age he 
turned his foot-steps to the rapidly rising region beytjnd the Mississippi. He 
had decided to locate in Missouri, and reached Saline county in 1856, from 
which time, with a short intermission of two years spent in the Rocky 
Mountains, he has made his home here. His first work after reaching the 
county was as a carpenter and for several years he relied on that good old 
trade for a living. About 1889 he became one of the organizers of the Rea 
& Pag'e Milling and Elevator Company, at Marshall, and now holds the po- 
sition of vice-president of that organization. This is one of the best mills 
in the state, having a daily capacity of two hundred and seventy-live bar- 
rels, and its establishment in Marshall has made a valuable contribution to 
the city's industries. Mr. Page is also vice-presicient of the Wood & Hus- 
ton Bank, of Marshall, a financial institution which does a g'ood business, 
and is a worthy member of many agencies engaged in strengthening the city's 
credit and pushing its industries. 

Mr. Page married Anna Hafford, of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and has 
two children: C. G., Jr.. and Nelhe C. The parents belong to the old- 
school Presbyterian church. 



EDWARD S. LEE. 



The subject of this sketch hails from Virginia and is an honorable 
representative of the noted Lee family which since the Revolutionary period 
has figured prominent!}' not only in the Old Dominion state but in national 
affairs as well. Gen. Robert E. Lee. distinguished Confederate leader dur- 
ing the late Civil war, was a third cousin of the subject, and the latter is also 
connected with a number of others of the same name whose deeds have be- 
come historic. Wyatt Lee, father of Edward S., and a wealthy planter and 
large slaveholder, was born in Campbell county, Virginia, in the year 1800. 



646 PAST AND PRESENT 

He Spent his life in his native state, married when a young man and reared 
a family of seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the sixth 
in order of birth. VVyatt Lee was a man of intelligence and wide influ- 
ence and socially stood high in the rank of Virginia's old-time gentry. He 
departed this life in t86o, his wife, Emily, preceding him to the silent land 
in the year 1851. 

Edward S. Lee was bom December 6, 1833. ''^ Campbell county, Vir- 
ginia, received a good education in the district school and remained on the 
home plantation until his father's death. When the Civil war broke out he 
espoused the cause of the Confederacy and in June, 1861, enlisted in the 
Eleventh Regiment Virginia Infantry, under Colonel Leftridge, and in due 
time was with the Army of the Potomac, experiencing all the vicissitudes 
and hardships through which the force under General Lee passed. After 
remaining with the infantry^ until 1863, he transferred to the heavy artil- 
lery under Major Hughes and from that time until the surrender of the 
Confederacy he served as a gunner and took part in many of the bloodiest 
battles of the war. He was present at Appomattox when Lee's forces laid 
down their arms, and carried away a piece of the famous apple tree in the 
shade of which the articles of surrender were signed by the two great gen- 
erals. Grant and Lee. This little piece of wood he still retains as a me- 
mento of one of the most trying experiences of his life and as a relic of a 
war which caused so much desolation and bloodshed. 

At the close of the war, Mr. Lee returned to the old homestead and re- 
sumed the pursuit of agriculture on the part that fell to him by inheritance, 
where he continued to reside until 1887. when he disposed of his interests 
in Virginia and moved to Saline county, Missouri, locating in Cambridge 
township, where during the nine years ensuing he cultivated a farm belong- 
ing to Judge Gilliam for a portion of the proceeds. At the expiration of 
that time he transferred his residence to another farm in the same township, 
but two years later discontinued agriculture and moved to the town of Gil- 
liam, purchasing in 1899 the Gilliam Hotel, which, with the exception of 
one year, he has since conducted. 

As a host Mr. Lee is deservedly popular and his hotel has a large and 
lucrative patronage. Since moving to the town he has been actively iden- 
tified with its interests and as a public spirited man who keeps in touch 
with the times on all matters of import he wields a wide influence and is 
highly regarded by his neighbors and fellow citizens. Like the majority 
of Virginians, he was reared in the old Democratic school and has ne\er 
swerved in his allegiance to his political faith, being one of the leaders of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 647 

his party in Caml)ridge township, besides manifesting a lively interest in 
county and state affairs. 

On December 21, 1863, Mr. Lee and Mildred Bruce were united in 
marriage, the union resulting in the birth of eleven children, all living. Mrs. 
Lee is a native of Campbell county, Virginia, born October 14, 1844, and 
is a daughter of Morton and Sallie (Brown ) Bruce, both natives of the 
Old Dominion state and descendants of well known families of the same. 
The following are the names of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Lee : 
William W. and Robert E., of Cambridge township; Mrs. Cora S. Bryant, 
of Malta Bend, Missouri ; J. Otto, a druggist of Albany, Oregon : Charles 
C, a farmer of Cambridge township; Edward B.. of Kansas City; Mrs. 
Amia Huff, who also lives at that place; Wyatt C, of Washington, D. C. ; 
Lonnie, of San Bernardino, California; Mrs. Sallie Leinsbrock, of Gilliam, 
and Howard, a druggist of the latter town. 

William W. Lee, of Cambridge township, the oldest of the above fam- 
ily, was born in Campbell county, Virginia, December ji, 1865. and re- 
ceived his preliminary education in the public schools, this training being 
afterwards supplemented by one term at Bedford Springs Academy. He re- 
mained under the parental roof until attaining his majority, when he rented 
a farm and engaged in agriculture for himself. In 1899 he moved to Sa- 
line county. Alissouri, and purchased one hundred -icres of land in Cam- 
bridge township, which he has since brought hi a high state of tillage and 
which in 1909 he increased by an additional forty acres, the farm being well 
improved and admirably adapted to general agriculture and stock raising. 

Mr. Lee is a progressive farmer and his beautiful and commodious res- 
idence, situated on a romantic elevation overlooking the Missouri river and 
a large area of surrounding country, is known far and near as "High Point 
Farm." He raises every year an average of twelve hundred luishels of 
wheat, and one thousand bushels of corn, most all of which is fed to his 
livestock, principally horses, mules and hogs, which he markets in consid- 
erable numbers and from the sale of which no small part of his income is 
derived. In politics he is pronounced in his allegiance to the Democratic 
party, but with the exception of school director, which position he has tilled 
for several years, he has never sought office nor aspired to any kind of pub- 
lic honors. Fraternally he belongs to the Modem Woodmen of America, 
and religiously is an active and influential member of the Methodist church, 
being, with his family, connected with the congregation at Gilliam and deeply 
interested in all the activities of the same. 

Miss Morgie West, who became the wife of Mr. Lee on January 4. 1888. 



648 PAST AND PRESENT 

is n. daughter of Whitefield and Florvilla (Wood) West, and was born De- 
cember 9, 1872, in Campbell county, Virg-inia, where her parents still re- 
side. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Lee has l)een blessed with three chil- 
dren, namely: Walter Price, born October 15, 1888: Samuel J., December 
12, 1889, and Myrtle, who first saw the light of day May 18, 1891, all liv- 
ing and with their parents on the home farm. 



JACOB W. TILLOTSON. 



One of the best known agriculturists and stock raisers of the younger 
generation in Cambridge township, Saline county, is Jacob W. Tillotson, who 
is a native of the vicinity where he still resides, being a descendant of worthy 
ancestors on both sides of the house, his birth having occurred here on No- 
vember 29, 1872. He was educated in the public schools of Saline and Sher- 
idan counties, this state, receiving a very good text-book training. He is the 
son of Edward and Louisa (Keith) Tillotson, the former born in Sheridan 
county, Missouri, May 17, 1842, and the latter in Grundy county, this state, 
in 1844. Both families were well and favorably known in their respective 
counties for several generations. Edward S. Tillotson located in Saline county 
after the close of the war between the states, he having served through the 
same in the Confederate army, gallantly passing through many trying cam- 
paigns and hard-fought engagements. He first settled in Cambridge town- 
ship, where he married and where he bought a farm of forty acres and made 
his home here until 1879, when he returned to Sheridan county, this state, 
where he remained until 1890, when he moved to Arkansas, where he still 
makes his home. He is a hard working man and has been fairly successful, 
and he is a man whom his neighbors like and respect. He married Louisa 
Keith in 1868. She is the daughter of Jacob and Mary (Wilson) Keith, the 
father having been bom near Louisville. Kentucky, in 1810, and the mother 
in Ross county, Ohio, in 1823. They moved from their respective homes to 
Grundy county, Missouri, when they were young, and here they were married 
and made their home until 1861, when they moved to Tarrant county, Texas, 
where they lived until October, 1867. when they returned to Missouri and 
located in Cambridge township. Saline county. Here Mr. Keith bought 
eighty acres of land in 1869 and later added forty acres more to it. Li 1889 
he sold "out and moved to Slater, where Mr. and Mrs. Keith lived until their 
deaths. They had a comfortable home and were people of high integrity. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 649 

Mr. Keith was a local Methodist minister for many years and he did a great 
amount of good in the various communities where he lived. His death oc- 
curred in February, 1904, his wife having preceded him to the grave in 1891. 
They were the parents of five children, one dying in infancy ; three are living. 
Mrs. Louisa Tillotson being the third child in order of birth. She was called 
to her reward while she and Mr. Tillotson were residing in Sheridan county, 
in 1879, leaving four children, the oldest son dying, leaving three now living, 
Jacob W., of this review; Katie Eva Dimity is residing near Slater; Mary L. 
Dodson is living in St. Joseph, Missouri. Edward Tillotson married again 
in Sheridan county, and is now living in Arkansas. 

Jacob \^^ Tillotson made his home on the farm with his father until 
1890, when he came to Cambridge township. Saline county, rented land and 
farmed. In 1907 he bought forty acres in section 24, township 52, range 20, 
moving to this farm in the spring of 1908, where he still lives, having a neat 
little farm which is well kept and which yields abundantly. Mr. Tillotson has 
worked with threshing machines since he was fifteen years of age, and for 
several years he has owned a traction engine and a complete threshing outfit. 
During the summer months he threshes wheat and saws wood in the winter, 
thus keeping busy all the year. He also owns one of the largest sugar cane 
mills in- Saline county and has a wide reputation as a syrup or sorghum 
maker, his annual average being over twelve hundred gallons, which are 
eagerly sought after, always finding a ready market. 

Mr. Tillotson is a member of the Modern A\'oodmen of America, and 
politically he is a Democrat. 

December 8, 1898. Mr. Tillotson married Emma Nickell, who was born 
in Clay township. Saline county, Missouri, December 6. 1877. She is the 
daughter of Andrew and Penelope (Cameron) Nickell, an excellent Clay 
township family. Mr. and Mrs. Tillotson are the parents of four children, 
namely: Mary Lee, born January 24. 1900; Edward A., born January 13, 
1903: Nellie L.. born June 3. 1905, and Mattie Emily, born June 25, 1908. 



JAMES WALLER. 



One of the most successful agriculturists and stock raisers of the north- 
ern part of Saline county was the late James Waller. There were in him ster- 
ling traits which commanded uniform confidence and regard, and his memory 
is todav honored bv all who knew him and is enshrined in the hearts of his 



630 PAST AND PRESENT 

manv friends. He was born in Clinton county. Ohio, April 26, 1850. and he 
died at his home near Malta Bend. Missouri, November 21, 1909. He was 
the son of William and Hester (Powell) Waller, the father being- a native of 
Virginia and the mother a native of West Virginia. William Waller was the 
son of James Waller, also a native of the Old Dominion, and he came in an 
earlv day to Boone county, Missouri, where he lived until his death. William 
Waller, father of James Waller, of this review, grew up in his native state, 
married and settled in Ohio where he owned a small farm and also followed 
his trade of cooper. He died in July, 1874, and his wife, the mother of the 
subject, died in 1904. She was a member of the Christian church. \N'illiam 
Waller and family moved to Boone county, Missouri, in 1857. where William 
Waller worked as a cooper and farmer until his death. He was a Democrat 
and Southern sympathizer during- the Civil war. He and his wife were the 
parents of eight children, named as follows: John H., deceased; James, of 
this review : Elizabeth is the wife of a Mr. Prichard ; Mary is deceased ; 
Pauline, who married R. A. Carter, is deceased ; Martha is the wife of G. M. 
Holoway, living in Missouri ; Emma died in childhood ; Catherine lives in 
Arizona. 

James \Valler was seven years old when the family came to Missouri. 
He remained at home until he reached maturity and, it being necessary for 
him to assist with the work about the place, he received only a limited educa- 
tion, but he later read extensively and became a very well informed man. He 
worked out by the month on farms and, being economical, soon had a start. 
He came to Saline county in 1874 and went to work by the month for John 
Holoway. Later he rented a farm for a short time, finally bought the old Car- 
thea farm on the plains, which consisted of one hundred and sixty acres. Dis- 
posing of this, he bought the farm where his family now resides near Malta 
Bend, in Grand Pass township. He was a good manager and a hard worker, 
and he left a very valuable estate of several hundred acres of fine farming 
land. He also handled a good grade of live stock and fed some cattle from 
time to time. He desen-ed a great deal of credit for what he accomplished, 
being purely a self-made man, having never accepted a cent from any one: 
but he worked hard and saved what he made until he had a start. He was a 
model farmer and a good neighbor and a pleasant man to meet. He favored 
higher education and at the time of his death had his three children in college. 

Mr. Waller was married in No\'ember, 1888, to Marv L. Down, who 
was born in Ross county, Ohio, the daughter of John and Angeline ( Win- 
chell) Down, natives of Ohio, but early settlers of Saline county, Missouri. 
They were people of highest integrity and prosperous farmers. Three chil- 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 65 1 

dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. James ^^'a]ler, named as follows : Alice. 
James Wesley and John M. Politically Mr. Waller was a Democrat, but he 
never aspired to political office. 



GEORGE A. JETER. 



A resident of Cambridge township, Saline county, Missouri, who is de- 
serving of mention in a work of the province assigned to the one at hand, 
owing to his life of consecutive endeavor and his strict adherence to those 
principles that stamp him as a man of integrity, is George A. Jeter, who was 
born in Lunenburg county, Virginia, the son of James E. and Sarah J. 
(Tucker) Jeter, also natives of that county, the former having been born on 
March 24, 1824, and the latter on July 30, 1828. James E. Jeter's parents 
were farmers and he grew to manhood on the home place. On February 20, 
1852, James E. Jeter married Sarah J. Tucker and soon afterward bought a 
small farm where they lived for a number of years, but soon after the close 
of the Civil war Mr. Jeter sold his farm and took charge of the poor farm 
in Lunenburg county, being superintendent of that farm for a number of 
years. Mr. and Mrs. James E. Jeter were the parents of four children, name- 
ly: Mrs. Lucy A. Marshall, who lives in Virginia: George, of this review; 
James L., of Cambridge township, Saline county; John L., who is living in 
Virginia. The father, James E. Jeter, was called from earth on May 3, 1885 ; 
his widow, a fine old lady whom everybody admires and respects, is still living 
at her home in Virginia. 

During the Civil war James E. Jeter was for some time a member of the 
Home Guards, but in 1864 he entered a regiment of cavalry in General Lee's 
armv and served as a private until the close of the war. 

George A. Jeter, of this sketch, made his home with his parents until 
188 1, when he rented land and farmed until in March, 1885, when he moved 
to Saline county, Missouri, locating in Cambridge township, where he rented 
land for four years. He had received a fairly good education in the common 
schools of Virginia and very early decided to devote his life to farming. Li 
November, 1889, he bought two hundred acres in section 13, township 52, 
range 20, later adding one hundred and sixty acres to this. He remodeled 
and improved the dwelling and outbuildings and made many other substan- 
tial and important improvements, thus bringing his farm up to the standard 
of Saline county's best farms. He was always a good manager and exer- 



652 PAST AND PRESENT 

cised excellent judgment in his farming and handling of stock, consequently 
he i)rospered and became one of the most substantial citizens of his town- 
ship in due course of time. He carries on general farming and devotes con- 
siderable time to raising cattle and hogs for the market, his stock always find- 
ing a ready sale owing to their high grade. In 1908 Mr. Jeter bought twenty 
acres in section 14. and in June of that year he also purchased one hundred 
and sixty acres in sections 11 and 12. All his land is in one body, thus mak- 
ing him one of the most valuable farms in this locality. His place is known 
as White Hall and is one of the "show" places of this community. 

February 12, 1879. Mr. Jeter married Lelia V. Hill, who was born in 
Lunenburg county, Virginia, January 9, 1859. She is the daughter of Sam- 
uel H. and Jamima D. (Worsham) Hill, the fonner born August 4, 18 17, in 
Appomattox county, Virginia, and the latter born January i, 1824, in Notto- 
way county, Virginia. The parents of Samuel H. Hill were farmers, but 
wdien he was a young man he left home and learned the tanner's trade, after 
which he launched into that line of business for himself in Nottoway county, 
Virginia, later moving to Lunenburg county, that state, where he remained 
until 1885, in which year he followed the trail of emigration westward and 
settled in Saline county, Missouri, taking up his penTianent abode in Cam- 
bridge township, buying a farm in the Good Hope settlement, where he lived 
until his death. During the Civil war Mr. Hill was not compelled to join the 
army and devoted his time to tanning leather for use for the Confederate sol- 
diers. He was a member of the Baptist church. Mr. and Mrs. Hill were the 
parents of nine children, six of whom are living at this writing, namely : Mrs. 
Margaret G. Price, living in Virginia; Algernon A., living in Slater, Mis- 
souri: Philip M., a resident of Cambridge township, Saline county; Leha V., 
wife of George A. Jeter, of this review; Lee J., living in Kansas City; Sam- 
uel H., who is managing the home farm in this township. The father of these 
children died October 4, 1906, his widow having died January 28, 1897. 

Mr. and Mrs. George A. Jeter are the parents of nine children, eight of 
Avhom are living at this writing', namely: Ernie N.. born January 16, 1880, 
wife of George W. Hains. a resident of Cambridge township. Saline county, 
Missouri; Lee A., born July 7, 1881, lives on the farm adjoining that of his 
parents: on l^>bruary 27, 1908. he was married to Bessie dinger, a native 
of Miami township, this county: Sadie D., the wife of Grover C. Hatfield, 
residing in Slater, Missouri, was born June 4. 1885: (jeorge R. was born 
January 26. 1887: Percy M. was born April 5, 1889; Lelia E. was born July 
3. 189T : Bernard L. was born April 14, 1897: Margaret E. was born July i, 
1900. The last five named make their homes with their parents. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 653 

Politically Mr. Jeter is a Democrat. He belongs to the Court of Honor 
and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he is a member of the Baptist 
chnrch, to which his wife also belongs. Mr. Jeter is spoken of by his neigh- 
bors as a man who merits the utmost respect. He always has a kind word 
for those he meets and he is jovial and genial, believing in scattering sun- 
shine along life's pathway. 
i 

CHARLES A. SENGES. 

Among the large class of enterprising German citizens who have hon- 
ored Saline county with their residence and thereby contributed to the gen- 
eral development of this locality and at the same time greatly benefited their 
own condition, should be mentioned Charles A. Senges, an enterprising farmer 
of Elmwood township, a native of Baden, Germany, where he was born Au- 
gust 16. 1863, the son of George Adam and Margaret Susan (Ridinger) 
Senges. The father is still living in the old country at an advanced age, being 
a man whom all his neighbors admire for his honest life as a tiller of the soil. 
His wife has passed on to her rest. They were always members of the Prot- 
estant Evangelical church. Christ Philip Senges, paternal grandfather of 
Charles A. Senges, of this review, was also a farmer in Germany, and died 
there on Good Friday, 1878, full of honors for a well-spent life. Margaret 
Speier was the maiden name of the subject's maternal grandmother, she being 
a native of France. 

Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. George A. Senges, named as 
follows: Charles A., of this review; Mike, born in Gennany, but who came to 
America and died in California in 1900; Susan is the wife of Henry Klein, 
and lives in Germany; Johanna is the wife of August Grabenstein and also 
lives in Germany; Freda Barbara is the wife of John Stammer and lives in 
Belleville, Illinois. 

Charles A. Senges was reared on a farm in the Fatherland, which he 
worked during the crop season and attended the common schools the remain- 
der of the year, gaining a good education. When a boy he conceived a plan 
to trs^ his fortunes in the new republic of the West, having had his youthful 
imagination fired by the stories of the ease with which a competency could be 
gotten together here, consequently, when eighteen years of age, he set sail 
across the broad Atlantic for America in 1880. One reason for his coming 
here was to avoid the compulsory service in the Germany army. He landed 
in New York city on April lOth, and he has been in various sections of the 



6:;4 PAST AND PRESENT 

United States and worked at various things, including Columbus and San- 
dusky, Ohio, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and Louisville, Kentucky, awhile in 
St. Louis. Missouri, then Belleville, Illinois, remaining at the last named place 
about twelve vears working on a farm by the month. All the while he was 
picking up valuable knowledge of our customs, institutions and business 
methods, and thus by direct contact with the world at large he has become a 
well informed man. 

On October 29, 1890, Mr. Senges came to Saline county. Missouri, and 
worked one winter for George Seibert, now his father-in-law. He was eco- 
nomical and saved his money until he could get a secure foothold here, and in 
1893 he bought his present farm of eighty acres, which was formerly known 
as the George Harris farm. , Mr. Senges has greatly improved this place with 
excellent buildings of all kinds, fences, orchard, garden, and everything that 
goes to make life in the country pleasant and profitable. His place is rich and 
yields abundant crops. 

Mr. Senges was married in 1891 to Clara Seibert, who was born in Il- 
linois; she is the daughter of George Seibert, now living in Saline county. 
A full history of the Seibert family is to be found in the sketch of George 
Seibert in this work. 

One child, Albert George, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Senges, a bright 
boy, now attending public school. Both Mr. and Mrs. Senges are members 
of the Evangelist church. Politically Mr. Senges is a Democrat. He and 
his wife are cordial and hospitable and they have many friends in this town- 
ship or wherever they are known, for their lives have been above reproach. 



LEVI KRAMER. 



.\ j)n)minent agriculturist and lumberman of Grand Pass township. Sa- 
line county, is Levi Kramer, who has long been identified with the progress 
of this locality, where he has attained gratifying success in connection with 
the development of its resources, now owning one of the most productive 
landed estates in the county, which he maintains in a manner that shows him 
to be fully abreast of the times in this line. He was born in Wayne county, 
Ohio. December 17, 1853. the son of Henry and Lydia (Plank) Kramer, the 
mother born in Pennsylvania and the father in Germany. The>- were early 
settlers in Wayne county, Ohio, where they lived on a farm, but in 1857 they 
came to Illinois and settled in McLean county, farming there until 1876. They 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 655 

were successful and people whom their neighbors trusted and honored. The 
paternal grandfather of Levi Kramer was Henry Kramer, a native of Ger- 
many who came to America in the early days, located in Pennsylvania first, 
later went to Ohio and to Illinois. He was a farmer and he and his family 
were members of the Lutheran church ; later, however, they joined the Evan- 
gelical church. Henry Kramer, father of Levi, served in the German army. 
Lydia Plank, his wife, is still living in Corder, Missouri. She is the daughter 
of Jacob Plank, a native of Amrath, Pennsylvania, but her father was born 
in Germany. Idie parents of Levi Kramer, of this review, were each twice 
married, the father marrying first in Germany and six children were born of 
the union, Christ, John, Mariah, Henry, Kate and Lucy. He married his sec- 
ond wife, mother of Levi Kramer, in Wayne county, Ohio, and they became 
the parents of nine children, namely: Levi, of this review; Jacob lives in 
Kansas; William lives in Illinois, as does also George; August resides in Kan- 
sas; Mary in Kansas City; Anna lives in Greenfield, Missouri; Casper and 
Christ are twins. The mother of Levi Kramer had no children by her second 
marriag'e ; she is still living in Corder, Missouri. 

Levi Kramer was reared on the farm, educated in the common schools, 
and remained at home until he reached manhood. He moved with his parents 
to Illinois and there rented a farm for a time; but in 1878 he followed the tide 
of emigration then setting in strongly toward Kansas. He took up a govern- 
ment claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Harper county, proved up on 
the same and sold it, and in October, 1880, moved to Saline county, Missouri, 
working a while in the milling business at Marshall. In 1884 he went to 
Lafayette county, this state, and there successfully conducted a sawmill until 
1892. when he moved to his present fine farm of one hundred and twenty 
acres, which was at that time all in brush and woods; but. being a hard worker 
and a good manager, he cleared up the place, erected comfortable and sub- 
stantial buildings, making- one of the prettiest homes in Grand Pass township, 
and he has one of the best improved and most productive farms in the same. 
His large two-story frame house contains eight rooms, is modern in everv 
respect, frame, lighted with acetylene lights, and he has a very convenient 
and substantial barn and other good outbuildings for his stock and grain. 
He is the owner of two hundred and forty acres of good land near his present 
farm, located in Lafayette county. He also conducted a threshing machine 
for a period of twenty-five years, becoming known as one of the leading men 
in this line in the county. He is also interested in eight hundred acres of 
timber land in Arkansas on which he and his partner have a sawmill in op- 
eration. Mr. Kramer handles much live stock and is an enthusiastic feeder, 



656 PAST AND PRESENT 

being a good judge of all kinds of stock — in fact he makes few mistakes in 
his business transactions and he has made a success of whatever he has turned 
his attention to, his keen discernment and ability to foresee the future out- 
come of a present transaction enabling him to carry to successful issue any 
undertaking, and, considering the fact that he is a self-made man and started 
in life under none too favorable environment, he is deserving in every way 
of the high esteem which is accorded him wherever he is known and for the 
eminent success that has attended his efforts. 

Mr. Kramer was married in 1883 to Ella Carpenter, who was born in 
Indiana; she is the daughter of George Carpenter, a native of Pennsylvania, 
but who, in early life, came to Indiana and settled among the pioneers. He 
also lived some time in Illinois; he is now deceased. The mother of Mrs. 
Levi Kramer was known in her maidenhood as Orphia Ann Dunn, a native 
of Pennsylvania and in an early day a resident of Indiana. 

Mr. Kramer is a Democrat, a member of the Masonic fraternity at 
\\'averly, Missouri, having attained the master's degree, and one would judge 
from his honorable dealings with his fellow men and his past exemplary rec- 
ord that he believes in carrying the sublime precepts of the same into his 
everyday life. 



PHILIP LEININGER. 



One of the most prominent facts in relation to the national population 
statistics is the remarkably large number of Germans and people of Germanic 
descent now living in the United States, there being today more Germanic 
blood here than any other. This being the case it is easy to account for the 
prosperity and morality of the country. Germany is famous the world over 
for the industry, patience, intelligence, morality and sturdiness of its citizens. 
These qualities have been brought tO' this country by the immigrants and are 
now part and parcel of our wonderful nation — its progress in domestic econ- 
omy, its advancement in every branch of material improvement and its. love 
of country and home. 

Philip Leininger, one of the best known citizens of Napton, Arrow Rock 
township. Saline county, Missouri, was born in Lamsheid, Germany, on Oc- 
tober 16, 1834, and is the son of Jacob and Anna M. (Christ) Leininger. He 
was educated in the schools of his native land and was reared on the paternal 
farmstead, being the eldest of the three children born to his parents. At the 
age of fourteen years he was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith's trade, under 




PHILIP LEININGER. 



k 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 657 

the direction of his uncle, Peter Christ, with whom he remained for two years, 
becoming a proficient workman in that Hne. He then went to the town of 
Neindorf, on the Rhine, where he waa employed for two years, at the end of 
which time he went to Kreitzger, where he remained a short time. He then 
returned to Neindorf, where he remained a month. In 1853 he was about to 
be impressed into the German army, to avoid which he determined to escape 
to America. A friend of his, John Smith, whose residence was in Jackson- 
ville, Illinois, but who had been on a visit to his former home in the Father- 
land, gave him material assistance in the matter. He placed Mr. Leininger 
in a dry goods box, and shipped him as freight on a Rhine steamer l^ound for 
Holland. The subject remained in his uncomfortable quarters until the boat's 
destination was reached and from that point he came across the Atlantic as 
a regular passenger. Landing at Philadelphia, he first went t() Chicago, 
where he remained three or four months, at the end of that time joining his 
friend at Jacksonville. He remained in that city a year and then spent six 
months at Whitehall, Illinois. In 1856 Mr. Leininger came to Saline county, 
Missouri, locating in Jonesboro (now Xapt(3n), Arrow Rock township, where 
he engaged in the blacksmith business. He was successful in this, enjoying a 
large patronage, and, being industrious and economical, he was soon enabled 
to branch out. He purchased a water mill and soon afterwards he built a 
good steam mill. 

In 1861 Mr. Leininger enlisted in the Confederate army, under Colonel 
Robinson, and was taken prisoner on Blackwater creek. He was sent to Mc- 
Dowell's College, St. Louis, where he remained from December ist to Jan- 
uary 15th, when he with other prisoners were transferred to the prison at Al- 
ton., Illinois, where he was confined until May, 1862, when he took the oath 
of allegiance and was released. He then returned to Napton, but a short time 
later went to Montana and w'as engaged in the blacksmith business at Helena 
for about two years. At the end of that time he returned to Napton, Missouri, 
and resumed work in his blacksmith shop there and started the gristmill. In 
the fall of 1865 the mill property was destroyed by fire, and was not rebuilt, 
Mr. Leininger devoting his attention to his forge. He also engaged in the 
buying and selling- of hogs and mules, in which he was successful. He had 
become the owner of one hundred acres of farm land near Nelson, but about 
the time land values in this vicinity began to raise he sold the land, receiving 
sixty dollars per acre, being the first to realize that price for land in this part 
of the state. At present Mr. Leininger is the owner of one hundred and 
twenty acres of splendid land adjoining Napton and lives on this place. He 
has retired from active work at the forge and also rents his farm land, being 

42 



658 PAST AND PRESENT 

now in a position to enjoy an appreciated rest after his many years of ardu- 
ous toil. He still gives close attention to his interests and is numbered among- 
the enterprising- and intelligent citizens of the community. He takes a lively 
interest in the public affairs of the community and gives his support to every 
movement that promises to benefit his fellow citizens. In politics he gives 
his support to the Democratic party, though he is not a seeker after public 
office. He enjoys a large acquaintance and is liked by all who know him. 



SAMUEL WEBB. 



This biographical memoir has to do with a character of unusual force 
and eminence, for Samuel Webb, whose life chapter has been closed by the 
fate that awaits us all, was for a long lapse of years one of the prominent cit- 
izens of Saline county, having come to this section in pioneer times, and he 
assisted in every way possible in bringing about the transformation of the 
county from the wdld condition found by the first settlers to its latter day 
progress and improvement. While he carried on a sj>ecial line of work in 
such a manner as to gain a comfortable competence for himself and family, 
he also belonged to that class of representative citizens who promote the pub- 
lic welfare while advancing individual success. There were in him sterling 
traits which won the highest esteem of all who knew him. He was born in 
Northumberland county, Virginia, March 9, 181 5, and he was called to his 
reward while living in Saline county, Missouri, on May 20, 1898. His par- 
ents died when he was young and when he was sixteen years of age, in 1831, 
he came to Missouri and worked out by the month for some time. Later he 
bought a stage line, running from Lexington to Boonville, Missouri, and con- 
ducted the same for a time, meeting many interesting characters in those old' 
picturesque stage-coach days, but later he sold out the line and purchased a 
farm near Union church and later bought land in Grand Pass township. Sa- 
line county, which is now known as the Dave Moreland farm. This Mr. 
Webb improved and sold, buying the farm on which his family now lives, 
which consists of three hundred and twenty acres of as good land as the 
county affords, and it has been well tilled and carefully managed all these 
years. It was all w-ild prairie land when Mr. Webb bought it, but he was a 
hard worker and soon placed it under excellent improvements. He was very 
successful as a farmer and stock raiser, provided a substantial and attractive 
home for his family and his place ranked among the best in the county. 



I 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOURI 659 



Politically Mr. \\'ebb was a Democrat, and he was a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, a steward and trustee of the same, and a de- 
vout Christian, as was also his wife. 

On November 14, 1843, Mr. Webb married Elizabeth McReynolds, a 
native of Tennessee and the daughter of Joseph McReynolds, also a Tennes- 
sean, but who came in an early day to Saline county, Missouri, locating in 
Grand Pass township. The wife of Samuel Webb was called to her rest in 
1869, after becoming the mother of eleven children, named as follows: Noah, 
now deceased, was a soldier in the Confederate army; Laura has remained 
single and is living on the old homestead ; Mary is the wife of Frank Feagan, 
living in Warrensburg, Missouri ; xA-mos is a farmer in Grand Pass township, 
this county; Emily is the wife of Joseph Shaull; John married Mary Whit- 
field and is living in Warrensburg, Missouri ; Nancy died in childhood ; Rob- 
ert, who married Maybell Phillips, also lives in Warrensburg ; Allen operates 
the home farm ; Anna, who married Prosmann Reed, is deceased ; Leva, who 
married Frank Long, is deceased ; Nancy, who is the wife of John DelNIoss, 
resides on a farm near Odessa. 



CALVIN PFLEGER. 



One of the men who has stamped the impress (^f his strong indixidualitv 
upon the minds of the people of Grand Pass township. Saline countv, in a 
manner as to render him one of the conspicuous characters of this localitv is 
Calvin Pfleger. Faithfulness to duty and a strict adherence to a fixed pur- 
pose, which always do more to advance a man's interests than wealth or ad- 
vantageous circumstances, have been dominating factors in his life, which 
has been replete with honor and success worthily attained, he being a pioneer 
settler of this township, now living retired. He was born in Lafayette 
county, Missouri, seven miles east of Lexington, January 4, 1834. He is the 
son of David and Mary E. (Slusher) Pfleger, both natives of Virginia, 
where they grew to maturity and married. As early as 1828 they came to 
Missouri, locating in Lafayette county, arriving there on the 28th of Octol)er 
of that year, and they at once entered government land. The mother lived 
to an advanced age, dying in 1899, and Mr. Pfleger died while on a visit to 
his old home in Virginia. They were good Christians and highh- respected, 
and to them eleven children were born, namely: Allen, Elizabeth, Calvin, of 
this review: Susan. Marv Jane, Lvdia, Rebecca, Mahala. Mariah, Mattie and 



66o PAST AND PRESENT 

William. The father of these children was a Democrat, but no politician. 
He and his wife believed in leaving no stone unturned whereby they could do 
any good. 

Calvin Pfleger has spent his entire life in this region, having been reared 
on a farm which be began working when very young, and during the winter 
months he attended the old-fashioned common schools, receiving a limited 
education. He also assisted his father in the sawmill business, which he 
conducted in connection with liis farming, Calvin and his brother Allen hav- 
ing operated the first circular sawmill ever seen in Lafayette county, Missouri, 
it being run by horse power. 

In 1858 Calvin Pfleger came to Saline county and erected a sawmill in 
Grand Pass township in the Missouri river bottoms, and here sawed a great 
deal of lumber for the early settlers during a period of sixteen years. He 
had no capital when he came to Grand Pass township, but understanding the 
sawmill business thoroug'hly and as there was no mill for many miles around, 
the settlers here solicited him to start a mill here and therefore aided him 
financially and every way possible in getting a start. He later changed the 
horse power and installed a steam (Uitfit and did a thriving business, and finally 
became the owner of five hundred acres of land. He later sold out and in- 
vested his surplus money in bank stock and real estate. Being a keen ob- 
server and by nature a good business man, he has succeeded at whatever he 
has turned his attention to, and he is now living in an attractive home in the 
little town of Grand Pass, retired, surrounded by every comfort as a result 
of his former years of activity. 

]\Ir. Pfleger was married in 1858 to Margaret E. Wilds, a native of Ken- 
tucky, the daughter of Joel Wilds, a native of the Blue Grass state but an 
early settler in Lafayette county, Missouri. He was a merchant and hotel 
keeper, also postmaster at different times during his residence in Lafayette 
county. 

Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Pfleger, namely : Wil- 
liam, who lives in Arkansas and is engaged in the lumber business, married 
Elizabeth Coats, who is now deceased, leaving one child : Elizabeth is the 
wife of W'illiam Taylor, living in Elmwood township, and they have four 
children ; Mollie is the wife of Abraham Hart, living in Kansas on a farm, 
and she is the mother of four children ; Anna is the widow of Charles 
Younger, living in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The mother of the above named 
children, who was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, died 
in Fulton, Missouri. Mr. Pfleger's second marriage was with Elizabeth 
Chrisman, a native of Missouri. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 66l 

Mr. Pfleger is a Democrat, but he has never found either time or indina- 
tion to seek pubhc office. He is a director in the bank at Malta Bend, Mis- 
souri, and he was at one time a stockholder of the Saline- Bank at Marshall, 
this county. He is one of the old-time pioneers in the lumber miUing business. 
He remembers when the Indians were here, and it is indeed interesting- and 
instructive to hear him recall reminiscences of them, of the abundance of 
wild g-ame and the pioneer conditions that prevailed here in his boyhood days. 
Personally he is very pleasant, kind, hospitable and a man whom everybody 
likes readily because of his genuine worth, his life of honest endeavor and 
his interest in the general good of his community. 



LOUIS O. NYE. 



One of the most successful farmers and stock raisers of the younger gen- 
eration in Grand Pass township. Saline county, is Louis O. Nye, who was 
born, here, three miles northeast of ]\Ialta Bend, Missouri, December 27, 
1874. He is the scion of an excellent family, well known in this county, his 
parents being William and Margaret ( McKown) Nye. The former was 
born in Ross county, Ohio, and was the son of George Nye, a native of 
Germany, who came to America and located on a farm in Ross county, Ohio, 
until the family emigrated to Saline county, Missouri, in an early day and 
settled on wild land in Grand Pass township and he there led a pioneer life 
until the country was settled up. The father and grandfather of Louis Nye 
remained in Saline county the rest of their lives, William Nye dying in 1904. 
They were Republicans and public-spirited men. honorable in their dealings 
with their neighbors and were highly respected by everyone who knew them. 
They did their full share (^f the Avork in developing this country. The ma- 
ternal grandmother of Louis Nye Avas known in her maidenhood as Lucinda 
Warren and she and her husband, George Nye. became the parents of these 
children : Andrew, ^^'illiam ( father of Louis of this review). Margaret, 
Christena. Rhoda. George. Lucinda ; several other children died in infancy. 
William Nye was fourteen years of age when he came to Saline county. Mis- 
souri, with his father, George Nye. The former devoted his entire life to 
farming, which he made a success. He was a member of the Presbyterian 
church of the old school, as was also his wife. He was a member of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and he was also a soldier in the Union 
army during the Civil war and he was in the state militia. His widow is still 



662 PAST AND PRESENT 

living in Malta ISlmuI, Missouri; she is a woman whom e\"er}-l)o(ly highh- 
respects for her kindness and good deeds, and she is the mother of five chil- 
dren, namely: Carrie, the wife of Charles A. lAmbeck; John lives in Malta 
Bend; Belle died in childho(xl; Louis, of this review; W'illiam died when six 
years old. 

Louis Nve was reared on the home farm, where he worked during the 
summer months and attended the common schools in the wintertime, receiv- 
ing a fairly good education. He remained at home until he reached maturity 
and then married, after which he farmed his father's place for three years 
and got a good start in life. In 1906 he bought his present farm of one 
hundred and twenty acres, lying three miles west of Malta Bend, in one of 
the best farming districts of the county. He has kept this farm in first class 
condition in every respect and. he has a good home and splendid outbuildings. 
He well understands all the phases of diversified farming, and his place yields 
abundant crops of all kinds. 

Mr. Nye was married December 22, 1897, to Pearlie A. Little, who was 
born in Grand Pass township, the daughter of Daniel Little and wife, early 
settlers and a highly respected family here. Two children have been born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Nye, the one living bearing the name of Lois Pearl ; she is now 
attending school; Leroy, a son, died in infancy. 

Politically Mr. Nye has followed in the footsteps of his worthy father 
and votes the Republican ticket, and fraternally he is a member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, at Malta Bend. 



ISRAEL GRANT DYER. 

Among the men who have lived in Grand Pass township. Saline county, 
of recent years none have been more popular or better deserved the universal 
esteem in which they were held than Israel Grant Dyer, for he was a man of 
the highest principles and while laboring for his own advancement and the 
comforts of his family, he never lost sight of his duty to his fellow men. but 
was always doing something for his neighbors out of the altruistic impulses of 
his noble nature. He was bom in Callaway county, Missouri, April 9, 1836, 
and his useful career was, on March 8, 1909, closed by the fate that awaits all 
mankind. He was the son of John and Eveline (Warren) Dyer, the father a 
native of Virginia, v.diere he was born in 1792, and his death occurred Decem- 
ber 24, 1840. John Dyer was the son of Samuel Dyer, who was born in Bris- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 663 

to], Eng-land, October 8. 1756; he came to America in 1770, settled in Virginia 
and bought five hundred acres of land and at the time of his death he owned 
more than two thousand acres, an estate which was known as Plain Dealing. 
He was wealthy and influential in his locality and had serv-ed in the Revolu- 
tionary war as patriot. His father was John Dyer, who spent his life in Eng- 
land. The death of John Dyer, the father of the subject, which occurred in 
1840, was due to cholera. He and his wife were the parents of eight children, 
namely : Sarah, Helen, Miriam, Emily, Ann, Israel, of this review : Celia and 
Samuel. Israel was born on the day that a negro was hanged for killing the 
former's uncle, for whom Israel was named. 

Eveline Warren was born in Kentucky and she came to Callaway county, 
Missouri, in a very early day. She and her husband were members of the 
Presbyterian church and highly respected. 

Israel G. Dyer was reared to manhood in Callaway county, ^Missouri, 
on the home fann, which he worked when he became of proper age, and at- 
tended the common schools during the winter months. In the early fifties he 
made the arduous overland trip to California, experiencing many hardships 
and adventures. He maintained a stage house for a time, and there several 
people were killed. After spending some time in the West, he returned to 
Missouri and married, soon after which he settled on a farm which he pur- 
chased in Grand Pass township, Saline county. At that time his land was all 
wild, but he improved the same, making many important changes. He later 
sold this and bought the farm on which his family now li\-es in Grand Pass 
township ; it consists of one hundred ninety-six acres of excellent land which 
has been well improved and skillfully tilled. At the time of his coming here 
he had but five hundred dollars, and he hauled the lumber with which to build 
a house from Miami, many miles away. He erected a modern eight-roomed 
house and a good barn and made many other extensive changes, developing 
one of the best farms in the township. 

Politically Mr. Dyer was a Democrat and active in party affairs. He was 
a member of the old-school Presbyterian church and was a deacon and a pillar 
in the same, taking a great interest in church work. 

Mr. Dyer was married in 1870 to Belle Palmore Irvine, who was bom in 
Saline county, Missouri, the daughter of James and Mary E. (Clark) Irvine, 
the former a native of Rockingham county, and the latter of Augusta county, 
Virginia, where they grew to maturity and married, coming to Saline county, 
Missouri, in an early day, making the trip partly by boat and partly on horse- 
back and by wagon. They landed in Saline county, Missouri, in 1838. The 
Irvine family were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The father 



664 PAST AND PRESENT 

was a Democrat, a good and successful man, and he and his wife were the 
parents of eleven children, namely: Mar}- E., Joseph McDowell, Charles Al- 
bert, Robert R.. Belle P., widow of Israel G. Dyer, of this review; she and 
Sarah Ellen were twins ; William McKendree, Ellen Louisa, Henry Brown 
and Sarah Ellen; the other two children died in infancy. The father of these 
children died November 20, 1856, and their mother, who was born in 18 18, 
died March 30, 1882. 

Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Israel G. Dyer, namely : War- 
ren Irvine, deceased; Anna B., deceased; Mary Gertrude, wife of Lawrence 
Winslow and the mother of two children, Henry B. and Mildred ; John Hous- 
ton Dver married lona Smitherman ; they live near Fairville and are the \)2.\'- 
ents of two children, Israel G. and Virginia Belle ; Ernest married Bessie 
Blackburn, living in Miami township on a farm, and they are the parents of 
two children, Dorothy and Evelyn Louise; Nellie Myrtle is single and living 
at home ; Roval Homer is single and is a practicing physician in Marshall, 
Missouri ; Emmett P. is a farmer in Miami township ; Frank Leslie lives at 
home and runs the farm of his mother ; Helen P. is also- a member of the home 
circle ; Emily is also at home and is attending school. 

Mrs. Dyer and part of her children live on the home place, surrounded 
by every comfort and enjoying the respect of all who know them. No fam- 
ily in that part of Saline county is more prominent than the Dyers, and the 
memory of the late Israel G. Dyer is revered by all, owing to his industrious 
and honorable life. 



HON. JAMES BASKIN. 

The amount of hard labor required to develop a farm in a new country 
can scarcelv be estimated by the present generation, and all credit should be 
given by the heroes of the period known to historians as the "early days." of 
which worthy number James Baskin, a venerable farmer of Grand Pass town- 
shi]). Saline county, must be reckoned. To establish a home in the primitive 
environment referred to was a task that never ended and all members of the 
family were required to assist early and late and at all seasons of the year. 
But this persistence in all instances brought success and in time the bare acres 
were .spread out before the sun and soon covered with bountiful crops and 
browsing herds. This was the task of Mr. Baskin and his father and grand- 
father, and the task was faithfully performed, as we shall see by a study of his 
life record. He is a native of Highland countv, Ohio, where he was born 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 665 

September 20. 1825. the son of Andrew and Nancy (Fulton) Baskin, the latter 
of Irish descent. Andrew Baskin was bom in Pennsylvania and his wife in 
Butler county, Ohio, the former being the son of Thomas Baskin. a native of 
Ireland and an early settler in Pennsylvania, who later came to Highland 
county, Ohio, where he ended his days on a farm which he successfully estab- 
lished. He was a member of the Presbyterian church. His wife was Miss 
Cunningham, and they reared a large family. It was in Butler county, Ohio, 
that Andrew Baskin and Nancy Fulton married ; they farmed there for many 
years, finally moved to Highland county, that state, where they spent the re- 
mainder of their lives. Andrew Baskin was a Democrat and took an active 
part in politics. He also seiwed in the Ohio Legislature in an early day, and 
he was a soldier for a short time in the war of 181 2. He was a strong and 
influential character and a man of more than ordinan- ability. He and his 
wife were Presbyterians. His death occurred in 1849, his widow surviving 
until about 1889. They were the parents of nine children, namely : John ; 
James, of this review ; Thomas ; Robert is a lawyer and has been a member 
of the supreme court of Utah, where he lives ; Ann, Catherine, Margaret, 
Sarah and Mahala. 

James Baskin was reared on the home farm and educated in the district 
schools, taught in log school houses, equipped with puncheon floors and seats 
and greased paper for window panes. He was always a studious lad and he 
took a course in natural science and chemistr}-, also Latin at a college at Sa- 
lem, Ohio, but he did not graduate therefrom. He taught school for a short 
time Mdien a young man and read Blackstone at home, having decided to de- 
vote his life to the legal profession, and he has also since pursued his studies 
bearing on natural science, geology and kindred subjects, having been a con- 
stant reader all his life and he is therefore an unusually well informed man on 
these and current topics of the day, an interesting and instructive conversation- 
alist. But Mr. Baskin decided that the simple life of the husbandman was the 
most attractive for him and he accordingly bought a farm in Highland county, 
Ohio, which he successfully conducted until 1866, when he came to ^Missouri 
and bought a farm in Grand Pass township. Saline county, where he still lives, 
the place consisting of about four hundred acres of as good land as Saline 
county can boast, which has been greatly improved and skillfully tilled. He 
famis extensivelv and scientifically and has been a successful feeder of cattle 
and liogs, mules and horses and various other kinds of live stock in large num- 
bers. He has an attractive home and surroundings. 

Mr. Baskin was first married in Highland county, Ohio, to Mary 1'ht)mp- 
son, which union resulted in the birth of one child, Edwin, who is a salesman 



666 PAST AND PRESENT 

and lives in Independence. [Missouri. The second marriage of James Baskin 
also took place in Ohio, the date being 1867, to Sarah Lakin. of a well estab- 
lislit'd old family there. Mrs. Baskin was called from earth in 1905, leaving 
two cl'iildren, Clara, the wife of Worthy Bryan, and Elsie, the wife of Floyd 
W'ilson. The mother of these children was a member of the Methodist Epis- 
co|!al church. 

Mr. Baskin is a Democrat and he has been active in the party for some 
time and as a reward for his faithful services and his ability to hold positions 
of public trust, he was twice elected to the Missouri State Legislature, where 
he made his influence felt and won the confidence of his colleagues and the 
commendations of his constituents. He has been a delegate to the congres- 
sional convention. He has for some time made agricultural reports to the 
secretar}' of agriculture at Washington, D. C. for Grand Pass township. He 
is an interesting' man to know, pleasant, hospitable, scholarly, and he is held 
in liigh esteem by all classes in Saline county, which he has long honored with 
his citizenship. 



FRANK J. WRIGHT. 



A prominent and successful ag'riculturist and stockman of Gra'.id Pass 
township and the descendant of one of the excellent old families of Saline 
county is Frank J. Wright, who is carrying- on the various phases of his work 
in a way that stamps him as a modern farmer on his farm three miles south- 
west of Malta Bend. Like many of the enterprising citizens here, he is a na- 
tive of Virginia, having been born in Rockbridge county, July 23, 1848. and 
he is the son of John G. and Hester (Beeton) Wright, the father a native of 
Pennsylvania and the mother of Virginia. The father died in 1865. after a 
life of success and honor, and the mother passed to her rest in Virginia. John 
G. Wright was a carpenter by trade, which he followed more or less all his 
active life. Politically he was a Democrat and his wife was a member of the 
Baptist church. They spent their lives in Virginia and are buried there. They 
were the parents of seven children, nameh' : John William, Jane, Fanny, Frank 
J. and three that died in infancy. 

After the death of John G. Wright, his widow married a Mr. Roberts, 
who died, and then the mother of Frank J. Wright, of this review, came to 
live with him for a time, but later went back to her old Virginia home and 
spent ihe remainder of her life. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 66/ 

Frank J. Wright remained at liome until he was twenty-two years of age, 
receiving a good common school education ; he helped care for his mother, and 
hired out as a farm hand for some time. In 1869 he came to Saline county, 
Missouri, and continued to work out for several years. He saved his money 
and later bought two hundred and twenty acres in the Missouri river bottoms, 
but later sold out and bought one hundred and sixty-two acres where he now 
lives. He has a fine farm, well improved and skillfully managed, so that abun- 
dant harvests are reaped annually, and he has an attractively located and cozy 
home and substantial outbuildings and all kinds of modern agricultural ma- 
chinery. He has a fine orchard, plenty of fruit of various kinds and nice shade 
trees, so that his place is one of the most desirable in the township, for he is a 
man of splendid tastes and takes a great pride in keeping everything about the 
place in first class condition. He handles a good grade of live stock, all that 
the farm will conveniently support. 

]Mr. \\'right was married in 1875 to Laura B. Fulton, daughter of John 
Henry Clay and Abana D. Z. (Silcott) Fulton. The Fulton family are natives 
of Virginia, but they removed to Adams county, Ohio, in an early day and 
farmed there until 1869, when they came to Saline county, Missouri, and 
bought six hundred and forty acres on which Mr. and Mrs. Fulton lived until 
their deaths. They were excellent people, according to those who remember 
them best ; they belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church. John Fulton was 
a verv progressive farmer, a Republican and an active worker in the party. 
His death occurred on December 20, 1885, and his wife survived him until 
November 4. 1896. They were the parents of the following children: Al- 
bert, deceased : Laura, wife of Frank J. Wright, of this review ; Everett. Xora, 
Charles E., Jennie, Ashton and Jessie. The paternal grandfather of these 
children was David Fulton, a native of Virginia. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Wright two interesting children have been born. Harry, 
who married Sarah J. Adams, lives near Malta Bend, this county, is engaged 
as a rural mail carrier, and he and his wife are the parents of one child, bear- 
ing the name of Anna Laura. Hester Wright is still a member of the family 
circle. 

^Mrs. ^^'right is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Malta 
Bend. Politically Mr. \\'right is a Democrat and he is a member of Grand 
Pass Lodge. No. 258. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Malta Bend, in 
which he has passed all the chairs and has been noble grand. Personally ]\Ir. 
Wright is a pleasant man to meet, gentlemanly, honorable and one of the most 
capable farmers in Saline county and he and his family are held in the highest 
respect by their neighbors and acquaintances. 



668 PAST AND PRESENT 

CHARLES F. YANCEY. 

The N'ancey family is one of the best known in Sahne county, the mem- 
ber? of which for many generations having- been prominent here in various 
walks of life and they have, without exception, borne unblemished reputations. 
One of the best known of the present generation is Charles F. Yancey, a pro- 
gressive farmer in Grand Pass township, of which he is a native, having been 
born here on March 19. 1861, the son of Dr. Thomas A. and Mary C. (Snod- 
dy) Yancey. For a complete sketch of the Snoddy family the reader is di- 
rected to the sketch of \\'illiam A. Snoddy on another page of this work. The 
parents of Charles F. Yancey married in Saline county and to them five chil- 
dren were born, namely: Charles F., of this review; Elizabeth G. is deceased; 
Mary A. is the wife of S. W. Barnett ; Thomas C. was born in 1867 and died 
in 1895 in the month of November. He was a prominent physician in Malta 
Bend, Missouri ; Daniel L., the fifth child, is living on the old home farm in 
Grand Pass township. 

Dr. Thomas A. Yancey, father of these children, was born in Rocking- 
ham county, Virginia, November 10, 183 1, and he died on June 11, 1888. He 
was reared in Virginia on a farm and there received his education in the com- 
mon schools. He attended the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, and after his graduation he practiced awhile in Virginia and in 
1859 came to Saline county, Missouri, and here farmed and practiced medi- 
cine until his death. He was a skilled physician and became one of the most 
prominent men of the county, winning a reputation much beyond the borders 
of the same. He was a public spirited man, always advocating any movement 
looking to the general good of Saline county. Although his sympathies were 
with the South during the war, he was not in the service. He was a member 
of the Masonic order, and a member of the Presbyterian church. He was a 
man whom everybody trusted and respected. His wife. Mary C. Snoddy. was 
born August t. 1835, and she died April 17, 1900. She was a woman of beau- 
tiful Christian character and a member of the Presbyterian church. 

Charles F. Yancey, of this review, was reared on the old home farm in 
Grand Pass township, and he received his education in the common schools 
and at Westminster College, in which he made an excellent record. After 
leaving school he engaged in the drug business in Marshall for about eight 
months in about 1881. He then came back to the farm, where he worked 
awhile, later was appointed deputy sheriff of Saline county under Capt. Joe 
Elliott and sensed very ably for a period of four years in that office. In 1893 
he was elected, at a special election, sheriff of Saline county, on the Demo- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 669 

cratic ticket, to finish the unexpired term of S. M. Ayres, who died while in 
office, and so faithfully did he perform the duties of this office that he was re- 
elected to the same in 1894, without opposition in his party. His term of office 
expiring in 1896, he came back to the farm and has since devoted his time ex- 
clusively to agricultural pursuits. In 1899 he bought his present fine farm of 
two hundred and forty acres, lying two miles southeast of Malta Bend. He 
keeps his place well improved and has shown by his able management of the 
same that he is fully abreast of the times in all the diversified phases of agri- 
culture and stock raising, always keeping some excellent grades of live stock 
on his place. He has remodeled his dwelling house, making the old one attrac- 
tive and substantial : he also has an excellent barn and all the substantial out- 
buildings and modern farming implements that his needs require. He handles 
stock of all kinds, but he is especially known as a cattle and hog feeder. 

Mr. Yancey is a member of the Masonic fraternity at Malta Bend, Mis- 
souri, and he belongs to the Knights of Pythias, at Marshall. He and his wife 
are members of the Methodist Episcopal church South, at Malta Bend, and 
liberal supporters of the same. 

Mr. Yancey was married on March 29, 1883, to Ella Rader, who was 
born in Jasper county, Missouri. She is the daughter of Rev. A. M. and Isa- 
bella (McFarland) Rader. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Yancey three interesting children have been 
born, named as follows : Maurice A. married Mary Cecil VanStone, a native 
of Saline county, Missouri; he is engaged in farming; Charles F. Yancey, Jr., 
has remained single and is at home assisting with the work on the fai-m ; Eliza- 
beth, a school girl, and also a member of the home circle. 

Mr. Yancey is a public spirited man, always taking an active interest in 
whatever tends to promote the general good of Saline county. He takes an 
active interest in political affairs and lodge work, and he and his estimable 
wife and their children are held in high regard throughout the county. 



WILLIAM ADDISON SNODDY. 

. In mentioning the pioneers of Grand Pass township. Saline county, who 
have played their full part in the development of the same and have won def- 
inite success because they have worked for it along legitimate lines, the name 
of William Addison Snoddy should receive a position near the top of the list, 
partly because his long and useful life has been spent right here at home and 



670 PAST AND PRESENT 

partly because it has been lionorably lived, proved to be a blessing to scores of 
his fellow citizens and shown himself in every way worthy of the high esteem 
in which he is held by all classes. He was born in Grand Pass township, Sa- 
line county. Missouri, near his present home, on June 11, 1841. He is the 
son of Daniel F. and Elizabeth Jane (Brown) Snoddy, both natives of Buck- 
ingham county. Virginia, the father being the son of Samuel Snoddy, also a 
native of Buckingham county. Virginia, where he lived on a farm until his 
death, this family having been prominent there for several generations. Dan- 
iel F. Snoddy came to Saline county. Missouri, when young and was reared 
on a farm here, coming here in 1832 when the country was undeveloped, and 
he married here the following year and purchased g-oveniment land. He was 
a very successful farmer and at the time of his death he owned about seven 
hundred acres of land. He was a man of influence in his community and bore 
an exemplary education. His death occurred in Marshall, Missouri, in 1849, 
he having been a victim of cholera. He was a member of the Presbyterian 
church and an elder in the same. His widow survived him until 1877. They 
were the parents of four children, namely: John James died in 1876: Polly, 
who married Doctor Yancey, is also deceased; William A., of this review; 
Calvin P. lives near Marshall on a farm. 

William A. Snoddy grew up on his father's fann and was educated in 
the common schools ; he remained at home assisting with the work about the 
place until he reached maturity. He came into possession of one hundred and 
sixty acres of the old homestead on which he still lives and which he has great- 
ly improved and skillfully managed, causing it to yield abundant han^ests and 
support large numbers of an excellent variety of live stock. He has an attrac- 
tively located and pleasant home and good barn, sheds and other buildings. 

Mr. Snoddv was married in 1868 to Teresa Ann Power, who was born 
in Bath county. Kentucky. She is the daughter of Woodson and Adiliza F. 
(Gauldin) Power, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Virginia, 
dying in Kentuckv. The\' were ]:)eople tif excellent worth, successful in their 
vocation. 

Three children have graced the home of Mr. and Mrs. William A. 
Snoddy. named as follows: Mamie is the wife of Alfred Rock, of Marshall, 
]Missouri : Robert D. married Ina Yeager and is the father of four children, 
Virginia. Ann. Marjorie and William A. ; Josephine Snoddy is living at home 
and she is teaching in the Saline countv schools at Malta Bend, having taught 
at various places for some time. One child, the third in order of birth, died 
in infancy. 

Mr. and ^Irs. SnoddA- are members of the Presbvterian church, Mr. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 67 1 

Snocldy being an elder in the local congregation and a liberal supporter of the 
same. Politically he is a Democrat, but he does not find time to mingle much 
with politicians and is no aspirant for official honors. 

Mr. Snoddy proved his patriotism to the South, the country of his ances- 
tors, by serving in a very gallant manner in the Confederate army, as a private 
under Captain Brown, later in Company D, Gordon's regiment, Shelby's bri- 
gade. He enlisted in 1864 and served until the close of the war. His services 
were mostly in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Missouri. He was taken pris- 
oner in Saline county, Missouri, early in the war, but was held only a short 
time. Later in the war he was detached and acted as escort for General Mar- 
maduke. 

The Snoddys are and have been since the early pioneer days generally 
recognized as among the leading citizens of Saline county, public-spirited, in- 
dustrious and scrupulously honest, always ready to assist in furthering any 
worthy cause, and they have done much for the development of the county in 
various ways, such as the building of roads, churches and school houses ; they 
are the type of people that believe in pushing the car of civilization up the 
steeps. 



OREN M. ELLIOTT. 



To win definite success in any field of endeavor indicates the posses- 
sion of praiseworthy attributes and characteristics, withheld from or at least 
undeveloped by the major portion of the human race, and to win the coveted 
goal by handicap, under the most unfavorable environment and in the face 
of the most discouraging barriers along life's pathway that winds for all 
alike through both Arcady and Ajalon, shows indeed sterling qualities. But 
such is the record of Oren M. Elliott, whose life-record is worthy of emu- 
lation by those easily discouraged and who stand hesitating at the parting of 
the ways. He is editor and owner of the Malta Bciid News and one of the 
progressive citizens of Malta Bend, Saline county. He was born June 9, 
1873, "^ar Maitland, Holt county, Missouri, and is the son of Thomas and 
Caroline (Rozelle) Elliott. The father, a man of worth and influence in 
his community, died about 1904, and the mother, a woman of gracious per- 
sonality, is still living. Thomas Elliott was born in Ohio and his wife in 
Ohio. 

Oren M. Elliott is a deaf-mute; but who can say whether this so-called 
affliction has been a hindrance or a blessing? He, at least, has not permitted 



6/2 PAST AND PRESENT 

it to thwart him in his hfe work. At the age of three years he was a victim 
of the dread disease, spinal-meningitis, which destroyed his ear drums, thus 
depriving him of his hearing and destined him to forever be a deaf-mute. 
As soon as he was old enough he w^as placed in the School for the Deaf at 
Fulton, Missouri, a state institution, where he remained until he was grad- 
uated in i<^93. While at school he learned the printer's trade, preferring this 
to any other, and which he has since followed. He made his first start as 
a journalist in 1900 at Maitland, Missouri, where, with an outfit costing only 
thirty-five dollars, he issued a paper in the interest of deaf people, calling it 
The Eye, issued monthly and later twice a month. In the fall of 1901 he 
bought The Graham Post, a paper for hearing people, which he still owns, 
l)ut which he has leased to a deaf friend. The Eye was sold to a citizen of 
Omaha, Nebraska, whither it was moved and where it is still being issued. 
Mr. Elliott then started The Silent Success, another paper in the interest of 
deaf people, but having more than he could attend to properly, he sold it to 
a deaf-mute in St. Louis and it is being issued regularly in that city. Hav- 
ing leased The Graham Fast and learning of an o]3ening at Malta Bend, 
Missouri, Mr. Elliott came here and started the Malta Bend News, which is 
a bright and interesting paper, well edited and attractive from a mechanical 
standpoint and is rapidly gaining prestige and a wade patronage. It is inde- 
pendent in politics, eight pages and issued weekly. 

Mr. Elliott has been honored by his fellow mutes, having been elected 
vice-president of the Missoin"i Alumni Reunion, very faithfully and satisfac- 
torily senang in that capacity from 1904 to 1908. He was elected president 
of the Northwest Missouri Silentium Association for three years, from 1905 
to 1908, and again proved his efficiency in a public position. On August 
27, 1909, he was elected vice-president of the Missouri Association of the 
Deaf, w'here he is doing an excellent work. 

While attending a reunion of the deaf of Nebraska at Omaha in 1901, 
Mr. Elliott met for the first time Mella T. Smith, a lady of culture and re- 
finement and marked intelligence, and the friendship thus formed ripened 
into a mutual attachment that led to their marriage on April 9, 1902. They 
first ]i\ed at Graham, Missouri, where they remained until coming to Malta 
Bend. Mrs. Elliott was born in Butler, Missouri, June 22, 1882. She was 
born deaf, or very nearly so ; however, she can hear some, which enables her 
by watching the working of the lips of those talking to her to understand 
what is said. She talks fairly well, and while her articulation is not perfect 
she feels that she enjoys a great blessing. She has lived at Pipestone and St. 
Paul, Minnesota, and at Sioux Falls and Madison, South Dakota. She at- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 673 

tended the school for the deaf at Faribauh, Minnesota, from 1893 to 1894, 
and at a similar school at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from 1894 to 1897, and 
also at Omaha, Nebraska, from 1897 to 1900. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Elliott three children were born, all of whom could 
hear and talk, and one of whom survives. They are: Thomas \V., a bright 
and interesting lad, born April 9, 1904, is attending the public schools at 
Malta Bend; Miller W., born January 18, 1907, died on August 27th follow- 
ing; Maud O., born August 2, 1908, died July 11, 1909. 

Mr. Elliott is independent in politics, voting for the man whom he deems 
best qualified for the office rather than the party. He is well informed on 
current topics of the day, well educated and a vigorous and independent 
thinker and an entertaining writer. 



I 



WILLIAM LARKIN HANCOCK. 

A progressive and honored citizen of Elmwood township, Saline county, 
is William L. Hancock, a native of Todd county, Kentucky, where he was 
born June 28, 1832, and his long, useful and exemplary life has been spent 
in such a manner as to be of more than passing service to others, for he is 
a nmn who delights in aiding his neighbors while advancing his own inter- 
ests. He is the son of John and Elizabeth (White) Hancock, both natives of 
Virginia, in which state the father died, the mother dying in St. Louis, Mis- 
souri, with cholera when that dread scourge devastated sections of the 
Middle West a half century ago. She was an earnest Christian woman and 
a great church worker. Her husband was a strong Southern sympathizer. 
The subject's mother was born in Hanover county, Virginia. To her and 
John Hancock five children were bom, namely : Thomas W., a minister 
living in Missouri, having preached over this section of the state many years 
and was a power for good; Elizabeth is deceased; John M. died in California 
in 1908; Sarah died in California; William L., of this review, being the 
youngest. The mother of these children was twice married, her second hus- 
band being Robert Greene, by whom she became the mother of two children, 
Robert, who lives in Arizona, and Ella, the wife of John Byrd, living in 
Kansas. 

Losing his father when but a child, William L. Hancock was reared on 
a farm by an uncle until about fifteen years of age. He earned money to 
pay for a limited education in primitive schools during his early youth while 
43 



6/4 PAST AND PRESENT 

working as a farm hand. Later he learned the blacksmith's trade and con- 
ducted a shop in Kentucky. He came to Missouri in 1855, locating in Sweet 
Springs, buying eighty acres of land, which he farmed until after the Civil 
war. In 1866 he came to his present farm of six hundred and forty acres 
in Elmwood township and he has prospered here by reason of his good man- 
agement and close application to his individual affairs. He has greatly im- 
proved all his farm, making it one of the model farms of the township. He 
has a fine old home, large, attractive and comfortable, and commodious and 
substantial barns and other buildings; his place is nearly all under cultiva- 
tion or in pasture, though it was all wild prairie when he bought it. 

y[r. Hancock was married in Logan county, Kentucky, in 1854, to 
Nancy Jane Daniels, a native of that county and the daughter of Andrew 
and Mary (Hines) Daniels, both natives of Virginia, but early settlers of 
Logan county, Kentucky ; they were of English extraction and descendants 
of ancient nobility. Senator Daniels, of Virginia, a national figure in poli- 
tics, is a cousin of Mrs. Hancock. To the subject and wife thirteen children 
were born, of whom nine are living, named as follows : Mary Olive, wife 
of Taylor Entrekin, living in Blackburn, Saline county, and she is the 
mother of five children, Frank, Nannie, who died at the age of twenty-two 
years, Alice, Will and David; David Hancock, a ranchman in Nebraska, mar- 
ried Hettie Scott and they have two children, Nancy and David, Jr. ; Elizabeth 
Hancock is the wife of L. W. Scott, living in Marshall, Missouri; Alice is 
the wife of Robert Pierce and the mother of one child, Olive; Frances is 
the wife of James Sparks, living in Marshall also, and they have one child, 
Leta Elizabeth; Larkin. Leta, William and Archie P. all live at home. 

Mr. Hancock and his sons are known throughout this part of the state 
for the fine horses which they keep, being enthusiastic horse fanciers, and 
they breed some of the test track horses in Missouri, their stock being known 
to horsemen throughout the Middle West; they sell at high figures and are 
in great demand. The sons, Larkin and Archie Hancock, devote their time 
and attention to track horses and racers and road horses, owning some of 
the best horses in the state, among which are "Russell Hardin" and "Profes- 
sor Nelson," "Tommy B.," a colt of "Russell Hardin," the colt holding the 
state record of 2:i2j4- He is now (1909) three years old. "Russell Har- 
din" and his colts took premiums over all competitors at the Missouri State 
Fair held in Sedalia in 1909. "Lady Jane" is a three-year-old and has taken 
some of the best races in the United States, never losing a race and broke 
only twice in the past season. All these animals are greatly admired by all 
who see them and they have brought money and notoriety to their owners. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 6/5 

William L. Hancock was in the Confederate army, having enlisted in 
Colonel Robertson's regiment at Grand Pass, Saline county, Missouri. After 
some service in this state he and his comrades were captured by Jeff Davis, a 
Federal officer, and were taken to St. Louis and imprisoned in McDowell's 
College, which was then used as a prison. He escaped from the prison by 
pretending that he was William S. Hancock, of Greene county, Missouri, 
who was to be taken out for the hospital. He then returned home and took 
no further part in the war. He tells many interesting- stories of those stir- 
ring times — in fact, is a most interesting conversationalist on any theme, 
for he is well read and has been an observing man. He has always. been an 
admirer of good horse flesh as well as an enthusiastic dog fancier. While 
making the long and tedious overland trip from Kentucky to Missouri in 
1855 he lost his favorite and most valuable hound and spent an entire day 
looking for him without result. While reflecting over the time lost and the 
fact that he had no mone}-, a family to support and emigrating to a new and 
unknown country, he made a resolution that he would smother his ambi- 
tions for the ownership of dogs until he had a home for his wife and chil- 
dren. In after years he imported from Kentucky some of the finest hounds 
ever brought to Saline county, and for several years thereafter he indulged 
to his heart's content in chasing the fox, being one of the best known experts 
in this respect in the county. He is a strong Democrat and a great party 
worker, but he has never held any public office. His activity in politics for 
the welfare of his friends is proverbial and there are few in Saline county 
who have wielded a greater influence in the ranks of the Democratic party 
or who have been a more worthy foe of the opposition. He and his family 
are members of the Christian church at Blackburn, western border of Saline 
county. He is a progressive and scientific farmer and stockman and one of 
the most influential men of Saline countv. 



JOHN W. SPENCER. 



One does not have to search far down the list of enterprising citizens of 
Grand Pass township, Saline county, before encountering the name of John 
W. Spencer, who was born in Marion county, Missouri, October 27. 1843, the 
son of Edward G. and Margaret (McElroy) Spencer. The father w^as a na- 
tive of Marion county. Kentucky, born about 1804, the son of Frank Spencer, 
a native of England, who came to America at the dawn of the nineteenth cen- 



6/6 PAST AND PRESENT 

tiiry and settled in Marion county, Kentucky, about 1800. Edward Spencer 
died in 1871. Although a Union man during the Civil war, his sympathies 
were with the South. He was a member of the Christian church. He farmed 
extensively and owned six hundred and forty acres of land in Marion county, 
Missouri, where he settled in 1831, land being wild in that early day and he 
purchased what he wanted from the government. He carried on general 
farming and raised mules in large numbers. He was an influential and highly 
respected man in his community. Margaret McElroy was born in Marion 
county, Kentucky, in 181 1, and she passed to her rest in 1886. She was the 
daughter of James McElroy, a native of Kentucky, where he farmed and 
passed his life. He was a member of the Presbyterian church. 

The parents of John W. Spencer were reared and married in Kentucky, 
and came to Missouri in 183 1, as already intimated. To them twelve children 
were born, namely : Samuel, Joseph, William, Eliza, Isaac, James, all de- 
ceased; John W., of this review; Edward G., George D., Benjamin F., de- 
ceased ; Henry Clay, and Mary. All of these children lived to maturity. 

John W. Spencer was reared on the home farm and educated in the com- 
mon schools, also attended school at Windsor, Canada, West. After his mar- 
riage he farmed one year in Marion county, Missouri. He came to Saline 
county, Missouri, and rented land until 1874, when he purchased his present 
farm of one hundred two and one-half acres in Grand Pass township. It was 
wild prairie land with very little improvement, but being a hard worker and a 
good manager, he has brought his place up to a high state of cultivation and 
improvement, erected a neat, comfortable and attractive eight-roomed dwel- 
ling and a substantial barn, thirty-six by thirty feet. Besides successfully car- 
rying on general farming in all its phases, he raises many mules for the mar- 
ket and feeds large numbers of cattle. He thoroughly understands all the "ins 
and outs" of general agriculture and handling of stock and he has been un- 
usually successful at both. 

Mr. Spencer was married in 1866 to Lydia B. Blanchard, who was born 
in 1848 in Marion county, Missouri, the daughter of Hiram and Amanda Jane 
(Stevens) Blanchard, the latter a native of Virginia. Hiram Blanchard came 
from England when seven years of age and spent the balance of his life in 
America. He reached the remarkable age of ninety-seven years, dying in 1907. 
He spent his active life merchandising and farming. He came to Waverly, 
Lafayette county, Missouri, where his death occurred and where he had lived 
since 1868. Politically he was a Democrat, and he and his wife were members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church South. They were the parents of thirteen 
children, named as follows : Angeline, Hiram, Amanda, Lavenia, Caroline. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 677 

George B., Emily and Lydia, the latter the wife of John W. Spencer, of this 
review, were twins ; John, Martha, Hiram and Mary. 

Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Spencer, namely : George 
William, a cattle salesman at Kansas City, married Minnie Whittleton and 
they are the parents of two children, Harriett and Hester; Henry Clay, a trav- 
eling salesman, lives in Chillicothe, Missouri, married Willie Fulkerson, and 
they have one child, William Carl ; Emma is the wife of R. H. Alexander, liv- 
ing in Oklahoma, and they are the parents of three children, Roberta, Irene 
and John W. ; Lydia B. is the wife of George Terrell, living in Elmwood town- 
ship; John Wilson has remained single, is living at home and is attending 
school ; Orval M., a farmer, living at Mt. Leonard, married Leda Belle Oquest; 
Horace Raymond is single and living at home. 

Mr. Spencer is a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, of which he has been steward and a member of the official board. 
Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He 
is one of the influential, progressive and much respected men of Grand Pass 
township, and he has a very pretty home about three miles north of Mt. 
Leonard. 



CHARLES THIERFELDER. 

Although a "Badger" by birth, Charles Thierfelder has spent the major 
part of his life in Missouri, ranking today among the progressive citizens of 
Saline county, owning a valuable landed estate in Cambridge township. His 
birth occurred in Sac county, Wisconsin, May 15, 1852, and he is the son of 
Frank and Ursula (Burge) Thierfelder, the former a native of the province 
of Saxony, Germany, and the latter born in Switzerland. They grew to ma- 
turitv in their native countries, went to school there in early childhood, and 
before reaching maturity they came to America, she with her parents, who 
came on to Wisconsin and settled in Sac county, Mr. Thierfelder having 
made the long trip to Wisconsin unaccompanied. They met and married 
in that state and soon afterward bought a small farm. In i860 they moved 
to Saline county, Missouri, locating in New Frankfort. When the war be- 
tween the states began, Frank Thierfelder, in 1861, enlisted in the L'nion 
army and served about two years in the cavalry. He was disabled by his 
horse falling on him and received an honorable discharge, after which he 
returned to New Frankfort and resumed farming in Sheridan county. He 
remained there several years and then returned to Cambridge township. Sa- 



6/8 PAST AND PRESENT 

line county, where he bought forty acres of land in section 17, remaining 
there about eight years, when he sold out to his son, Gustavus, and moved 
to Moberly, Missouri. There his death occurred in 1902, at the age of sev- 
enty-six years, his wife having preceded him to the grave in about 1897, dy- 
ing at the age of sixty-two years. They were the parents of seven children, 
four of whom are living at this writing, namely : Gustavus, of Cambridge 
township. Saline county; Charles, of this review; Mrs. Laura Miller, of Mo- 
berly, Missouri, in which city John also resides. 

When about eleven years old Charles Thierfelder began working on 
the farm at about two dollars and fifty cents per month and board. He made 
his home with his parents and worked out as a farm laborer until he was 
twenty-three years of age, when he began life for himself. He and his 
brother bought their father's farm, which they worked on the "shares" for 
one year, when they dissolved partnership and Charles bought sixty acres 
adjoining the home farm in section 17. He sold this place in about 1885 and 
purchased one hundred and twenty acres in section 16, w'here he lives at 
present. He has prospered here and has by purchase added fifty-six acres; 
however, he has sold his son forty acres. He has carried on farming in its 
various phases and devoted much time to cattle feeding. He has a very 
comfortable home and substantial outbuildings. ' 

Mr. Thierfelder was married February 28, 1875, to Lena Kurz, who 
was born in Kreiznach, Prussia, December 17. 1856, the daughter of Jacob 
and Katherine (Kaul) Kurz, natives of Prussia. Mr. Thierfelder came to 
America unaccompanied in 1870, coming direct to New Frankfort, Saline 
county, Missouri. To the subject and wife twelve children have been born, 
two of whom died in infancy; John W., born January 12, 1877, of Cam- 
bridge township; Henry Frank, born September 17, 1878, of the state of 
California; Lydia, wafe of Almon McCall, born September 3, 1880, lives in 
Moberly, Missouri; Emma, who was born September 3, 1880, is the w-ife of 
Aubrey Guerin, of Higbee, Missouri (Lydia and Emma are twins); Kathe- 
rine U., born November 8, 1882, is the wife of Otto Reidenbach. of Cam- 
bridge towmship; Lena, born February 11, 1885; Nora, October i, 1887; 
Charles, born March 19, 1890, died December 25, 1893; Ursula, August 3, 
1892; Gus Leonard, November 11, 1894; Susanna Esther, December 6, 
1899, are all living at home except Lena and Ursula, who are attending col- 
lege. 

Mrs. Thierfelder's father died at the Kurz home in Germany, after 
which event his widow and two sons came to America. Mrs. Kurz died at 
the home of her daughter, Mrs. Thierfelder. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 6/9 

Politically Mr. Thierfelder is a Republican and he is a member of the 
Evangelical church. He is regarded as one of the up-to-date farmers of 
this township and his beautiful home, picturesquely located, is often the vis- 
iting place for numerous friends of the family. He is regarded as an ideal 
neighbor, and all who know him are unstinted in their praise of his many 
sterling equalities, embracing honesty, industry and generosity. 



JOSEPH HAMILL. 



Joseph Hamill was born in Jefferson county, Missouri, in 1862, the son 
of Hugh and Mary (Conners) Hamill, both natives of Ireland, from which 
country they came when young and emigrated to Jefferson county, Missouri, 
where they married and began farming, which Hugh Hamill continued until 
killed by the militia during the Civil war. His widow then moved to Lexing- 
ton, Missouri, where she resided a number of years, when she returned 
to Jefferson county and lived there until her death, in 1889. They were the 
parents of two children, Francis and Joseph, the latter the subject of this 
sketch. The mother married a second time, her last husband being Patrick 
Lyons and three children were born to this union, Bridget, the wife of Doctor 
Early, of St. Louis ; Mary, of Jefferson county. Missouri, and Martin, a law- 
yer in St. Louis, who is now attorney for the Pacific & Iron Mountain Rail- 
road Company. Their entire family are members of the Catholic church, as 
was also Hugh Hamill, who was a Democrat politically. 

Joseph Hamill was reared in Jefferson county, Missouri, on a farm where 
he began working when a mere boy, and he was educated in the common 
schools and he also received a business education. He came to Saline county 
in 1 89 1, and settled on a farm, which he still owns and where he farmed until 
1899, when he moved to Marshall, Missouri, and launched into journalism, 
buying The Citizen, which he conducted until 1906, when he sold out and re- 
turned to his farm, which lies in Elmwood township, two miles northwest of 
Shackelford. This is one of the best farms in Saline county, and consists of 
four hundred acres, well improved and under a high state of cultivation. It 
is known as Pine Grove farm, owing to the beautiful grove of pine trees which 
has occupied a conspicuous place for many years. In 1909 Mr. Hamill erected 
a "commodious, attractive and modern dwelling, which stands amid beautiful 
surroundings. He engages in general farming and raises some good stock 
and is an extensive cattle feeder. Politically he is a Democrat and fraternally 



68o PAST AND PRESENT 

he belongs to the Knights of Columbus and he and his family belong to the 
Catholic church. Mr. Hamill is the only member of his father's family bear- 
ing the name of Hamill. 

In 1898 Mr. Hamill married Nellie Welch, the representative of an old 
and highly respected family of Saline county, Missouri, of which her parents, 
James and Jennie Welch, were early settlers. 

Three children have graced the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hamill 
namely: Mary, Joseph and Virginia. 



WILLIAM G. FOWLER. 



The varied career of William G. Fowler, one of the best known citizens 
of Cambridge township, Saline county, is one fraught with more than ordi- 
nary interest, for he has been a man of action and courage, has faced dangers 
in strange countries in travel and military campaign, and in business affairs 
he has also proven himself to be possessed of those commendable qualities 
that win, and now, as the shadows of the evening of life are lengthening, he 
can look backward over a life well spent and hosts of warm friendships which 
he has formed all along the way. He is a native of historic Boone county, 
Kentucky, where he was born March 2, 1834, and where he received a good 
education in the district schools and the academy at Burlington, Kentucky. 
He is the son of John B. and Mary ( Stillwell ) Fowler, the former a native 
of r>(.)cjne county also, where he was born in 1800; the latter was born in 
Maysville, Kentucky, about 1808 or 1810. They spent their lives on a farm 
in Boone county, where they were known as successful, hard working and 
honest. Mr. Fowler died there in 1855, having been preceded to the grave 
by his wife in 1840. They were the parents of six children, of whom Wil- 
liam G., of this review, was the second in order of birth, and liesides him 
onl}- one other child is living in 1909, Dr. Robert M. Fowler, of Schuyler 
county, Missouri. 

\\ illiam G. Fowler, of this review, made his home with his parents 
until their deaths. After his father died he traveled in Texas and Old 
Mexico, remaining there until t86o, when he came to Saline county, Mis- 
souri, and located here, being quick to see the great future development in 
the l(;calit\-. But when the war between the states began he was ready to 
prove his loyalty to the South, the land he loved and the countr}- of his for- 
bears, and in t86i he enlisted in the Confederate armv under Colonel Green, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 68l 

later under General Marmaduke and finally under General Shelby, and he 
served right gallantly under these peerless leaders until in 1863, his health 
failing, he was compelled to leave the army and was discharged on account 
of disability, and he -soon afterwards returned to Saline county. 

On September 5, 1864, Mr. Fowler married Fannie Thompson, who 
was born in Saline county, Missouri, January 7, 1838, the daughter of Rev. 
Robert Y. and Lucy T. (Nowlin) Thompson, both natives of Kentucky, 
Fayette and Logan counties respectively. The father was born in 1800 and 
he came to Saline county in 18 18, but returned to Kentucky and in 182 1 
came back to Saline county, locating in Cambridge township, where he pros- 
pered and became the owner of a vast tract of land, in all four thousand 
acres. In 1825 he married Lucy T. Nowlin, who was born in 1809 and who 
came to Saline county with her parents in 18 18. To Mr. and Mrs. Thomp- 
son ten children were born, Mrs. Fowler being the sixth in order of birth, 
four of them living at this writing besides Mrs. Fowler; they are Robert 
K., living in Pettis county, Missouri; Sue M. is the wife of Dr. Howard 
Ford, living at Mt. Leonard, Missouri, and Alvin W., who is Hving'in Gil- 
liam, Missouri. 

Mr. Thompson died in 1862, his widow surviving until 1889. They 
were excellent people whom everybody admired and highly respected. Airs. 
Fowler inherited three hundred and forty acres of excellent land in Cam- 
bridge township. At the time- Mr. and Mrs. Fowler married, he built a 
house on the place and otherwise improved it, and they have since made 
their home on this farm, which is one of the model ones of the township and 
has been skillfully managed and is one of the most desirable places in this 
locality in every respect. Mr. Fowler is not only well abreast of the times 
in agricultural affairs, but he is also a good judge of stock and always keeps 
some good grades on the place which he prepares for market. 

Mr. Fowler was appointed director of the Sappington School Fund, as 
successor to Dr. A. M. Davidson, one of the original members of the board. 
Mr. Fowler has very ably and satisfactorily discharged the duties of this 
office since 1868 and he is today the oldest director on the board. Politically 
he is a Democrat, but has never held public office. Fraternally he is a mem- 
ber of the ]\Iasonic order. Mrs. Fowler is a member of the Baptist church 
at Slater. 

Mr. and Mrs. Fowler are the parents of six children, all living, namely : 
Robert ^^^, born September 5, 1865, lives in ^^'ichita Falls, Texas, engaged 
in the real estate business; Susie M., born May 21. 1869, is still a member of 
the home circle; McDonald T., born May 8, 1872, is deputy sheriff at Mar- 



682 PAST AND PRESENT 

shall. ]\[issouri ; Effie L. was born April 8, 1875, is teaching- school and liv- 
ings at home; LaSalle P., born December 23, 1877, is living at Wichita Falls, 
Texas, partner with his brother in the real estate business; ]\Iamie L., born 
December 23. 1879, is living with her parents. 



MELVIN H. HALL. 



The progressive and public spirited citizen of Elmwood township, Saline 
county, whose name introduces this biographical review, is a man of rare 
energy and excellence of character, according to those who know him best, and 
is therefore worthy of a place in the history of his locality along with other 
men of worth. Melvin H. Hall w-as born in Cedar county, Missouri, March 
19, 1857. He is the son of Thomas D. and Mary Jane (Buckley) Hall, na- 
tives of Knox county, Tennessee, where they grew to maturity, were educated 
and married. In an early day they came to southwestern ]\[issouri, settling 
in Cedar county on new and unimproved land, which they cleared, making a 
good home and living on it until the war began, when Mr. Hall cast his for- 
tunes with the Confederacy. However, before the close of the struggle he 
came home and moved to Illinois, locating at Mt. Pulaski, remaining there 
until peace had been restored. Then, after farming one year, he returned to 
Missouri, locating in Johnson county, farmed there one year, then came to 
Saline county, and after two years' residence here he returned to Tennessee 
and there died in 1870. His widow then came back to Saline county, Mis- 
souri, and made her home here with her son, Melvin H., until her death, in 
1890. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Hall seven children were born, named as 
follows: James, Joseph L., Melvin H., Elizabeth Josephine, Zachariah. Thom- 
as ; Ida died in childhood ; Sarah was the youngest child. 

Melvin H. Hall was reared on a farm and remained with his parents until 
he reached maturity. He received his education in the common schools. He 
worked out on the farm for several years and in the fall of 1882 he rented a 
farm in Saline county and a short time afterwards he purchased eighty acres 
of land on wdiich he resided tw^enty-seven years in Elmwood towaiship. The 
place had only a small box-house on it when Mr. Hall bought it, and there 
was no barn or much other improvements of consequence, but being a hard 
worker and a good manager he greatly improved the place, erected a comfort- 
able six-room house, a good barn and fenced his fields, until he had as good a 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 683 

little farm as could be found within the limits of the township. He recently 
sold it and bought fifty acres one mile and a half southwest of Marshall, 
where he resides. 

Mr. Hall was married on February 24, 1895, to Cordelia Crank, daughter 
of Thomas and Mary A. (Bristow) Crank, the former born in Tennessee, the 
son of James and Nancy (George) Crank, natives of Tennessee, who married 
there and came to Adams county, Illinois ; they became the parents of the fol- 
lov.ing children: James, Thomas, William, Nancy, Harriet R., Samuel L., 
James R., Eliza J., George W., John and Hedessa. 

Thomas Crank was reared in Tennessee and Illinois, educated in the com- 
mon schools and grew to manhood amid the wholesome conditions on the farm. 
He came to Sheridan county, Missouri, in 1883, and died in this state in 1898. 
He was a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal clunxh. He 
and Mary A. Bristow were married on June 3, 1853, and six children were 
born to them, namely: Charles William, James A., Amanda Hedessa, Pearl- 
etta Alice, Cordelia Jane, wife of the subject, and Hattie Belle. The mother 
of these children is living with her daughter, Mrs. Melvin H. Hall. She is a 
highly cultured and intelligent woman and remarkably well preserved for one 
of over seventy-six years of age. She is the daughter of John A. and Sarah 
(Wade) Bristow, the father a native of Indiana and the mother of Kentucky, 
and who were early settlers in Morgan county, Illinois. John A. Bristow 
was a prominent minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, an old circuit- 
rider and a personal friend and associate of the noted Peter Cartwright, who 
preached Reverend Bristow's funeral, the latter dying in 1845, his widow sur- 
viving him until 1879. 

Melvin H. Hall and family are members of the Missionary Baptist church 
and Mr, Hall is a Democrat politically and a member of the Modern Wood- 
men of America. He and his wife are pleasant and hospitable people and 
stand high in the social life of Elmwood township. 



JOHN A. WHEELAND. 

From an excellent Ohio family sprang John A. Wheeland, a prominent 
agriculturist and stock raiser of Elmwood township. Saline county, he him- 
self being a native of Ross county, Ohio, where his birth occurred January 
19, 1845. He is the son of Thomas and Nancy (Henry) Wheeland, the for- 
mer a native of the same locality in the Buckeye state and the son of Peter 



684 P-'^ST AND PRESENT 

Wlieeland, of Pennsylvania, but who, early in life, located in Ross county, 
Ohio, and married Katie Esery, a native of that county. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Peter Wheeland ten children were born, named as follows: Abner; Thomas, 
father of John A., whose name introduces this biography; Presley, Landa, 
Jesse, Harvey. Jasper, Betsy Ann, Clara and Kasiah. 

In the early fifties Peter Wheeland came to Sangamon county, Filinois, 
and in 1868 removed to Davis county, Missouri, where he remained until his 
death. He was a soldier in the war of 18 12 and a member of the Baptist 
church. Thomas Wheeland married in Ross county, Ohio, Nancy Henry, 
who was born in Ireland, a daughter of James Henry, also born in Ireland, 
who came to America, settling in Ross county, Ohio, where he farmed until his 
death. Thomas Wheeland came to Sangamon county, Illinois, in the fifties 
and farmed there for six years and in 1875 moved to Saline county. Missouri, 
locating in Elmwood township, where he bought two hundred sixty-five acres 
of good land, which he cleared up and made into a fine farm. At the time he 
settled on the land it was mostly in brush and woods, but by the assistance of 
his sons the place was cleared and put under cultivation. Thomas Wheeland 
was born in 1822 and died in 1898; his wife died in 1906. They were devout 
members of the Baptist church and were workers in the same for many years, 
Mr. Wheeland having been a liberal supporter of the same and he donated the 
erround where the Mt. Zion church now stands on the old home farm in Elm- 
wood township. He was a Democrat, but not much of a politician. He and 
his wife were the parents of eight children, namely: John A., of this review; 
Simon P., Henry, Thomas, James V., Emanuel, Samuel and Adina. These 
children were reared in a wholesome home atmosphere and their daily lives 
reflected the same everywhere they have dispersed, for their parents carried 
their religion into their daily lives in the home. The excellent work the father 
did for the church cannot be overestimated, being indeed far-reaching, and 
his memory will ever be revered by a wide circle of admiring friends and ac- 
quaintances for the noble work which he did in this line. 

John A. Wheeland was reared on his father's farm and received a fairly 
good common school education in the district schools. He remained at home 
until he married in Benton county, Missouri, in the year 1872, choosing as a 
life-companion Eliza DeLay, a native of Illinois and the daughter of Henry 
De Lay, a native of Kentucky, but an early settler in Illinois and Missouri. 
This is an old and highly respected family. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Wheeland five children have been bom, named as fol- 
lows: Samuel A., living at home; Thomas is deceased; William married Emma 
Scott and thev have one child named Elsie and live in Elmwood township; 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 685 

Olive is the wife of Hugh Smith, living in Elmwood township, and they are 
the parents of one child, Irene ; Nancy A. lives at home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wheeland are members of the Baptist church and are in- 
terested in the affairs of the same. Mr. Wheeland is an independent voter 
and a well read man, especially on political and current topics of the day. He 
and his sons own two hundred and seventy-eight acres of some of the best 
land in Salt Pond township, which they settled upon in 1877 and which at that 
time was all in brush and woods ; but they are hard workers and good man- 
agers and their farm is one of the most attractive in this vicinity. 

They have an attractively located and comniodious eight-roomed house 
and a good barn, — in fact, they have made all the improvements themselves. 
This farm lies about six miles northeast of Sweet Springs. A good grade of 
such live stock as hogs, cattle and mules are handled here and a general farm- 
ing business is successfully carried on. Strangers entering the Wheeland 
home are very cordially received and made to feel that they are the guests of 
honest, pleasant and excellent people in every respect. 



JAMES VERNI WHEELAND. 

Of excellent pioneer ancestry comes James Verni Wheeland, a successful 
farmer of Elmwood township, Saline county, who, by close application and per- 
sistence, has come up from none too favorable environment until he is today 
the owner of a valuable landed estate and is one of the substantial citizens of 
the western part of the county. He is a native of northern Missouri, his birth 
occurring on July 30, 1856. -He is the son of Thomas and Nancy (Henry) 
Wheeland, the former a native of Ross county, Ohio, and the latter of Ire- 
land. Owing to the fact that a complete history of the Wheeland and Henry 
families is to be found in the sketch of John A. Wheeland, on another page of 
the Avork, it is not deemed necessary to repeat the subject's ancestry here 
but to refer the reader to the sketch in question. Suffice it to say here that no 
better people could be found than either the Wheelands or the Henrys, since 
their life records will bear the closest investigation by the biographer. 

James V. Wheeland was reared on the home farm in Saline county, 
reared to habits of industry and in time became a practical farmer. He re- 
ceived an excellent common school education in the old-fashioned district 
schools, but he applied himself well and has later added to his primary edu- 
cation by extensive home reading. 



686 PAST AND PRESENT 

In March, 1887, Mr. W'lieeland located on his present farm of eighty 
acres in Ehnwood township. There were very few improvements on the 
place at that time, 1nit b}- hard work and good management he has made a 
model farm of the same, making all the necessary improvements, erecting a 
good six-roomed house, substantial barn and. outbuildings. He engages in 
general farming and keeps some good stock, everything about his place 
showing that a man of energy and good judgment manages it. He also owns 
fifteen acres of the old homestead of his father. 

January 27, 1887, Mr. Wheeland was married to Anna Garrison, a 
native of Pettis county, Missouri, the daughter of John and Mary (Dillon) 
Garrison, both natives of Missouri. John Garrison is a farmer in Elmwood 
township, he and his family being considered among the best people of the 
township. They are members of the Missionan- Baptist church. 

The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wheeland : 
May is living at home ; Edna, also a member of the home circle, is attending 
school; Jesse died when three years of age; the fourth child died in infancy 
unnamed; Ruby is living at home and attending school. 

Mr. Wheeland is a member of the Primitive Baptist church, while Mrs. 
Wheeland holds her membership in the Missionary Baptist church. Mr. 
Wheeland is a Democrat, and fraternally he is a Mason, having affiliated 
with this ancient and honored order twenty-five years ago, and he takes a 
great interest in its affairs. He and his wife are very pleasant people to know, 
making all feel at home when they visit the cosy and neat dwelling and it is 
useless to add that such people are held in high favor by their acquaintances. 



LOUIS COOK. 



Among the thrifty German element in Saline county who have come to 
us from the Fatherland and have benefited alike themselves and the commu- 
nity where they have settled by their wholesome and straightforward lives is 
Louis Cook, a pioneer former of Elmwood township, who was born in the city 
of Wiemar, Saxony, Germany, January 29, 1836, the son of Louis and 
Augusta (Sauerbrie) Cook. The former, a man of unusual force of character 
and ability, was an officer in the standing army of Germany, but being at- 
tracted to the new^ republic of the West by the stories he had heard of the 
great opportunities here, in the winter of 1849 and 1850 he set sail for our 
shores, making the slow voyage across the Atlantic in a sailing vessel, bring- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 68/ 

ing his family and settling with them, first in Erie connty, Xew York, near the 
city of Buffalo. There the father farmed awhile, later removing to Illinois, 
then to Detroit, Michigan, where he died. He was fairly successful at w-hat- 
ever he turned his attention to in this country and was a man whom every- 
body admired. He was twice married; the children born to him by his first 
wife were, Louis, of this review-; Maxwell, Felix, Olga, Rosa and Elizabeth. 
Four children were born of his second marriage, namely ; Lydia, Albert, Mary 
and Anna. The parents of the above named children were members of the 
Lutheran church. 

At the age of eighteen years Louis Cook, the immediate subject of this 
sketch, began working out in New York as a farm hand by the month ; how- 
ever, he found time to gain some education in the common schools. Being a 
lad ambitious to succeed and a hard w^orker, he soon had a start and has grad- 
ually built up valuable property interests. In the latter fifties he came to Saline 
countv, Missouri, and worked near Slater, later moved to Salt Pond town- 
ship, where he farmed, then moved to Sweet Springs, where he lived until the 
breaking out of the war between the states. It w^as in 1876 that he moved to 
his present farm in section 7, Elmw^ood townsliip, consisting of forty acres 
which is a verv attractive little place and yields a very comfortable living. He 
has a cozy home and good outbuildings.. He has. perhaps, put up more fence 
than any other man in Missouri, this line of work being a part of his business; 
he erected thousands of rods of fence and such an expert is he that he always 
has more work than he can do. 

Mr. Cook married Anna Jackman on August 26, i860; she was born in 
Kentuckv in 1840, the daughter of William and Eliza Jane (CofTey) Jackman. 
This family came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1841 and the parents of Mrs. 
Cook spent the remainder of their days here. They were members of the Alis- 
sionary Baptist church and were farmers. Mr. Jackman was a member of the 
state militia at one time. To Mr. and Mrs. William Jackman, twelve children 
were born, namely; Anna, wife of Mr. Cook; JefTerson, Mary Jane, Frank, 
George, Martha, AA'illiam, James, Emma, Margaret and Richard; one died in 
infancy. 

Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Louis Cook, named as 
follows: Richard; Alice is the wife of Charles Mcjilton, wdio lives in Mon- 
tana; Emma is the widow of James Kidd, living in Idaho; Lizzie is the wife 
of David Kitchen, living in Colorado ; William lives in Kansas and is married 
to Nelhe Dotv; Ida is the widow of William Garrison; Max, wdio lives in 
Kansas City, Kansas, married Maggie Coffey ; Rosa is the wife of Henry Gar- 
rison, living in Kansas City, Kansas; Olga died in childhood. The parents 
of these children have twenty-five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. 



688 PAST AND PRESENT 

Mr. and Mrs. Cook will soon ha\e been married fifty }ears and are hoping 
soon to celebrate appropriately their golden wedding anniversary. 

During the Civil war ^Ir. Cook was a strong Union man and enlisted in 
the state militia in 1862, at Georgetown, Pettis county, serving more than 
three years under Capt. Ben. H. Wilson. He served mostly in Missouri and 
Arkansas, in Company F, Seventh Missouri Calvalry, and served until the 
close of the war, serving under Colonel Phillips and Lieutenant-Colonel Crit- 
tenden, serving mostly in this state, assisting in driving General Price from 
the state. Mr. Cook was in the fight at Marshall. He is a member of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, and he and his wife belong to the Missionary 
Baptist church. Mr. Cook is a Republican and a member of the Ancient Or- 
der of United Workmen. 



JOHN B. WEST. 

The prominent farmer and representative citizen whose name introduces 
this review\ and who has gone to join the silent majority, was a native of 
Knox county, Tennessee, and a son of Jesse and Susan West, both parents 
Tennesseeans by birth, but early settlers of Saline county, Missouri, locating 
near Arrow Rock when the country was new and taking an active interest in 
the development of that part of the country. John B. AVest was born No- 
vember 15, 1823, accompanied his parents to their new home in Missouri, and 
on October 19, 1847, contracted a marriage with Sarah Gregory, who w^as 
born November 24, 1826, being the oldest daughter of William and Jane 
(Murrell) Gregory, of the county of Saline. At the time of his marriage, Mr. 
West entered land near Arrow Rock, where he set up his domestic establish- 
ment and lived for several years, but about i860 he disposed of his interests 
there and purchased eighty acres on Fish creek in Clay township, which he 
improved and on which he resided two years when he sold the place and 
farmed as a renter until the close of the Civil war. 

In the year 1865 Mr. West bought two hundred and forty acres in sec- 
tion 5. township 50, Clay township, on which he erected a beautiful and com- 
modious residence, which the family still occupies and which is justly con- 
sidered one of the finest and most attractive rural homes in the county. Later 
he and Mr. Gregory formed a partnership, and together they ow^ned one thou- 
sand and thirty acres, five hundred and fifty in Clay township, the balance in 
the township of Arrow Rock. On this land they did general farming, but 
gave most of their time to the cattle business, which they conducted with grat- 




MRS. T. B. WEST 




TOHX B. WEST. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 689 

ifying success for a period of twenty-five years, the greater part of the farm 
during- that time being devoted to the raising of hay for the purpose of feed- 
ing their large herds. 

Mr. \\'est was a man of practical intelligence and sound judgment, and 
so managed his business interests as to accumulate a handsome property and 
place his family in independent circumstances. He was a pronounced Demo- 
crat in politics and during the Civil war served about one year in the Con- 
federate arm)?^, under Gen. Sterling Price, rendering valuable service to the 
cause which he honestly believed to be right and just. In his religious belief 
he had no use for man-made creeds or statements of doctrines, but, choosing 
the Bible alone for his rule of faith and practice, united with the Christian 
church, of which he continued a consistent and worthy member until called 
from the church militant to the church triumphant. This earnest Christian 
gentleman and representative citizen ever had before him noble purposes and 
high ideals, and his relations with his fellow men were always of the most 
pleasing and courteous character. His honesty was never in dispute, his in- 
tegrity and high sense of honor gained the esteem and confidence of all with 
whom he came in contact and in his death, which occurred on February 19, 
1906, his family lost a loving husband and a tender and considerate father, 
and the county one of its most enterprising and praiseworthy citizens. Mrs. 
West, who is still living, has reached the advanced age of eighty-three years, 
notwithstanding which she enjoys excellent health, has a fine memory and re- 
tains to a marked degree the possession of her faculties both physical and 
mental. Although meeting with not a few of the troubles of this world, she 
is always cheerful and inclined to look upon the bright side, and her many 
friends unite in the wish that her years may yet be mau}^ in which to bless the 
world with her presence and influence. 

The following are the names of the children in the family of John B. and 
Sarah West: William Henry, born September 8, 1848, lives in California. He 
married Kate Sugget, of Howard county, Missouri, who has borne him three 
children. Charles E., also a resident of California, was born August 23, 1850. 
His wife, formerly Kittie Whorley, of Oakland, that state, has presented him 
with three children. Susan Jane, wife of A. S. Brown, of Clay township, Sa- 
line county, was born December 28, 1852. Frances E., who married M. 
F. Allen, of Slater, Missouri, was born November 3, 1855, and is the mother 
of two children. James Archie, born September 4, 1859, has always lived 
with his parents and since his father's death has managed the homestead and 
looked after his mother's interests and comfort. He owns a fine farm of two 
hundred acres in section 28, Arrow Rock township, just south of the family 

44 



690 PAST AND PRESENT 

estate, and is one of the leading ag-riciilturists and stock raisers in his part of 
the county. On August 18. 1897, he was united in marriage with Cora A. 
Morris, wliose birth occurred in Clay township. September 4, 1874. the union 
being blessed with two children. Alary Lucile. l)orn February 21. 1899. and 
Sallie Lorine. who first saw the light of day Alay 25, 1900. ]\Ir. and Airs. 
West are esteemed members of the Methodist Episcopal church South. The 
sixth and youngest member of the West family is Mary Matilda, who was 
born July 5, 1862, in Saline county, and is now the wife of R. M. Brown, a 
farmer of Clay township. 



REV. ERNEST Rl'XGE. 



A faithful and successful \yorker in the yineyard of the Lord and an 
honored citizen of Saline county, Missouri, he \yhose name appears at the 
head of this sketch is eminently descrying of representation in this work. 
Though not old in years, he has already stamped the impress of his individ- 
uality on the community in which he is laboring and his life thus far giyes 
marked promise of greater and more marked usefulness in the years to come. 

Rey. Ernest Runge, who is the present popular pastor of Zion's Luth- 
eran church at Blackburn, is a native son of this commonwealth, having 
been born on a farm near Concordia, Lafayette county, on the 14th day of 
October, 1875. He is a son of John and Matilda (Bruns) Runge, the former 
of whom is a native of Hanover, Germany, and the latter of Lafayette 
county. Missouri. John Runge came to the LJnited States in young manhood, 
1866, and settled first in Illinois. Subserjuently he came to Alissouri and took 
up the vocation of farming in Lafayette county, wdiere he is still living, being 
numbered among the successful agriculturists of that region. He and his 
family are members of the Lutheran church. He and his wife became the par- 
ents of the following children ; Emest, Louis, Edwin. Adolph, Mary and John. 

Ernest Runge was reared on the home farm and received a good educa- 
tion. After attending the Lutheran school in connection with his home church 
he was sent to St. Paul's College at Concordia. He then took a three-years 
course in Concordia College, at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated 
in 1896. after which he pursued the theological course at Concordia Theo- 
logical Seminary at St. Louis. After his graduation and ordination as a min- 
ister of the Gospel, Rev. Runge accepted a call to St. Alatthews church, in 
Lafayette county, this state, where, in addition to his duties as pastor, he had 
charge of the parochial school. He was successful in his work on this charge 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 69I 

and remained there until 1907, when he accepted a call to the pastorate of 
Zion's church at Blackburn, where he has since remained. The first pastor 
of this congregation w'as Rev. ]\Iehl. Rev. F. Rohlfing having gathered the 
tiock and organized the church, which tor a time held its religious meetings 
in the Alethodist Episcopal church, but subsequently, under the pastorate oi 
Rev. Mehl, the present house of worship was erected in 1898. The present 
pastor has taken a strong grip on the work of the pastorate and has demon- 
strated his aljility both as preacher and pastor. Besides his pastoral duties, 
which are numerous, he also conducts a school for the children of the parish, 
the sessions being held in the church, as no school house has been erected. 
However, plans are being matured for the erection of such a building, which 
is much needed. The congregation of Zion's comprises about forty-one fam- 
ilies and the society is a definite and influential factor for good in the com- 
munit}-. Reverend Runge has won the hearts of the members of this church bv 
his faithful and conscientious performance of his duties and the able ser- 
mons wdiich he is delivering to his people from the pulpit. 

In 1900 Rev. Runge was united in the holy bonds of "matrimonv with 
Doris Kammeyer, a native of Lafayette c<uinty, Missouri, and a daughter of 
John and Caroline (Haessemeir) Kammeyer, also natives of this state. To 
the subject and his w'ife have been born the following- children; Amalia, 
Johanna, Carl, Ernest and Theodora. Of prepossessing appearance and of a 
genial, optimistic temperament, Rev. Runge makes a pleasing impression on 
all who meet him and since coming to his present field of labor he has won 
a host of warm friends, wdio are by no means confined to his own religious 
circle, but include all who know him. ^^>ll educated and of marked native 
ability, he has shown splendid qualifications for the sacred ofiice which he 
fills and is numbered among the influential and efiicient ministers of the 
county. 



AUGUST KATLEXDER. 

A man who has won definite success in life liecause he has worked for it 
along legitimate lines rather than been favored by the caprices of fortune and 
assistance of influential friends is August Katlender, a well know^n farmer in 
Elmwood township. Saline county. He was born in St. Louis. Missouri, De- 
cember 3, 1844. the son of Henry and Mary Katlender, both natives of Ger- 
many and who. in early life, came to America, locating in the city of St. 
Louis. They were young in years and consequently energetic and soon had 



602 PAST AND PRESENT 

a foothold in the new country. Henry Katlender began work as a stone- 
mason. His death occurred in 1852 and his wife reached the age of eighty- 
six vears. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and were 
the parents of five children, namely: Catherine, Louisa, August, of this re- 
view ; Henry, who lives in St. Louis ; Lewis is deceased. After the father of 
these children died the mother married again, her last husband being Henry 
Lindhorst, of St. Louis, and to them seven children were born, now all de- 
ceased except Millie, of St. Louis. 

August Katlender was reared in St. Louis and received a limited educa- 
tion in the public schools there. When he became old enough he began 
teaming there, following this until his removal to Lafayette countVx^lissouri, 
in 1 87 1, where he farmed for several years. In 1893 he bought his present 
farm in Elmwood township, Saline county, consisting of one hundred and 
forty acres of good land, all under cultivation but twenty acres which is in 
timber. He has fenced and otherwise greatly improved the place and has a 
comfortable house and other buildings. He is a hard worker and has man- 
aged his affairs in such a manner as to obtain a very comfortable income from 
year to year. 

Mr. Katlender married Dora Borsum in 1880. She is a native of Haur 
over, Germany, and the daughter of Conrad and Sophia Borsum, natives of 
Germany, who came to America in about 1850, first settling in Baltimore. 
Maryland, but in a short time came on to Lafayette county, Missouri, where 
they farmed for a time. Conrad Borsum was a shoemaker by trade ; he and 
his wife were the parents of three children, namely; Henry, became a Union 
soldier, dying while in the service, of smallpox; he was in the Twenty-fourth 
Regiment Illinois Infantry and participated in many important and hotly con- 
tested battles during his service of over three years; Dora is the wife of 
Mr. Katlender, of this review; Frederick lives in Colorado. The Borsum 
family are members of the Lutheran church. Several other children were 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Borsum while living in the old country, but they died 
in unfancy, unnamed. 

Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Katlender, namely : 
William Frederick, who has remained single, is living at home, managing the 
farm for his parents; Mary Louisa is the wife of Joseph Menegali, a farmer 
of Salt Pond township, this county, and they are the parents of one child, Au- 
gust ; Albert Henry is single and is living at home, assisting with the work 
on the farm. Mrs. Katlender was married to Charles Brace, now deceased, 
prior to her marriage with the subject, and five children were born of her first 
marriage, namely: Mary, the wife of James Cole, lives in Danville, Illinois: 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 693 

Mattie is living at home; Lizzie is the wife of John Hink ; Sophia is the wife 
of Van Elsa, Hving in Sah Pond township on a farm; Emma is the wife of 
Joshua Dorsey, hving in North Dakota. 

Mr. Katlender rendered some efficient services to the Union during the 
conflict with the Southern states, having enhsted in the Missouri State Mihtia 
in 1864 and served until the close of the war, his services being mostly guard 
duty. Politically he is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the 
Christian church. This family are highly respected in Elmwood township, 
where they have led plain, industrious lives and attended strictly to their own 
affairs. 



DANIEL M. BOTTS. 



The life record of Daniel M. Botts, of Elmwood township, Saline county, 
is one of varied interest, having been lived in such a manner as to stamp him 
as a man of fidelity to principle, loyalty to the Union and generosity to his 
friends. He is a native of Missouri, having first seen the light of day in Pettis 
county, May ii, 1837, the son of Seth and Elmina (Harper) Botts, both na- 
tives of Tennessee, but who emigrated to Missouri in 1832 and settled in 
Pettis county in 1833 when conditions here were decidedly primitive, entering 
land from the government. The father of Seth was John Botts, a native of 
North Carolina and an early settler in Tennessee, his death occurring in Mis- 
souri. Elmina Harper was born in Tennessee, of an excellent old familv. 
She was a member of the Baptist church. To Mr. and Mrs. Seth Botts eight 
children were born: Louisa, William, John H., Martha A., Daniel M. (sub- 
ject), David M., Nancy and Malinda. 

Daniel M. Botts was reared on the home farm and received a 
C(nnmon school education, alternating schooling with farming, attending 
the pioneer schools, taught in log school houses, with puncheon floors and 
greased paper in lieu of window panes. September 8, 1864, he married Eliz- 
abeth Durrill, a native of Pettis county, Missouri; she died ]May 2. 1887. 
She was the daughter of Milton Durrill. This union resulted in the birth of 
nine children, namely : Etta, wife of George Kindrick, lives in Oklahoma, 
and is the mother of four children. John E. died in Leadville, Colorado, in 
1902; Eva is the wife of B. Renfro, living in Pettis county, Missouri; Nannie 
is the wife of William Harris, living in Texas; Milton S., who married Lula 
Huckelberry, lives in Pettis county and engaged in the mercantile business; 
Millie is the wife of H. H. McMullen, living in the state of Washington; 



6q4 PAST AND PRESENT 

Clara E. lives in Seattle. \\\ishinoton ; George D. also lives in Washington; 
Grover C, who has remained single, is a resident of the state of Washington. 

Daniel M. Botts began life as a farmer in Pettis county, this state, 
where he remained until 1889, then came to Mt. Leonard, Saline county, Mis- 
souri. Early in life he had learned the blacksmith's trade, also the wag(Mi- 
maker's trade and he successfully conducted such a shop at Mt. Leonard until 
1902, when he moved to the little town of Elmwood, in Elm wood township, 
where he now owns a small farm adjoining the town, which is well improved 
with a cozy dwelling and a good barn, and he keeps the premises in tasty 
order. He also maintains and operates a blacksmith shop and wagon shop in 
Elmwood and carries on quite a large business, his reputation as a blacksmith 
and inechanic being second to none in the county. 

Mr. Botts is a member of the Baptist church and politically he is a Demo- 
crat, and held the office of justice of the peace for a period of sixteen years 
while living in Pettis county, Missouri. He is a deacon in the local church 
and takes much interest in church affairs. 

Mr. Botts was a Union soldier during the coniiict between the states, 
enlisting in the Home Guards in 1862 in Pettis county, Missouri, later en- 
listing in the State Militia in 1863 under Colonel Crawford, serving nine 
months. In the same year he enlisted in the Fifth Missouri Regiment (Com- 
panv C) and served until 1865. He entered this company as a private and 
rose to first lieutenant, most of his service being in Missouri. He was in 
the Marshall skirmish, also the one at Sedalia ; at the former he made the first 
charge and carried the flag. Most of his services w'ere in skirmishing and 
keeping down the Confederates in this state. 

In 1890 Mr. Botts was married a second time, his last wnfe being Eliza- 
beth Rebecca Fulkerson, a native of Boone county, Missouri ; she is the daugh- 
ter of Frederick M. and Sarah (Ridgeway) Fulkerson, the former the son 
of James Fulkerson, a native of Lee county. Virginia. The Fulkersons were 
known as blacksmiths and hunters in the early days. James Fulkerson came 
to Missouri in 1817, settling in Cole county, spending the first winter where 
Boonville now stands. All was then wild, and he took up government land 
in that county, farming there until his death, in December, 1847. He was a 
member of the Baptist church. He married Elizabeth McMillen, of Vir- 
ginia, who died in 1832. They were the parents of nine children, namely: 
W^illiam, Abraham, Nancy, Elizabeth, Sarah, James, Jane, Frederick, fathcr 
of Mrs. Botts, and John. 

Frederick Fulkerson was born on December 23. 1808, and died June 
10, 1880. He was married in 1832 and went to farming in Cole county. Mis- 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 695 

souri. His wife. Sarah Ridgeway, was the daug-hter of Elijah Ridgeway, a 
native of Tennessee, and she came with her parents to Howard county. yUs- 
souri, in 1818. Frederick Fulkerson was a menihcr of the Primitive Bap- 
tist church and a RepubHcan. With an old squirrel rifle, he took part in the 
"Mormon war." He was a slave owner and his family consisted of eleven 
children, namely: James, Elijah H., William, Elizabeth (Mrs. Botts), John, 
Nancy, Thomas B.. Jane. Richard, Jesse; the youngest died unnamed. The 
present Mrs. Botts was first married to Ray Fulkerson, a nati\'e of Cooper 
county, Missouri. He was a Presbyterian, and his death occurred in 1859. 
Two children were born of this union. James, a farmer in Salt Pond town- 
ship. Saline county, who married Belle Talbert. and Florence D.. wife of 
Julius Deal, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work. No children have 
been born to Mr. Botts and his second wife. 



HENRY CLAY TERRELL. 

Among the citizens of Elmwood township. Saline county, ^Missouri, who 
have built up a comfortable home and surrounded themselves with large landed 
and personal property, none has attained a higher degree of success than 
Henry Clay Terrell. With few opportunities except what his own efforts were 
capable of mastering and with many discouragements to overcome, he has 
made an exceptional success of life. 

Henry Clay Terrell was born in St. Clair county. Illinois. November 18. 
1844, and is a son of Isaac L. and Nancy J. (Woods) Terrell, the former a 
native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and the latter of St. Clair county, 
Illinois. The paternal grandfather was Jeremiah Terrell, who was born in 
Cumberland county. New Jersey, in 1773. In 1813 he made the long journey 
to Bourbon county. Kentucky, walking the entire distance. He remained there 
until 1829, when he remo\'ed to St. Clair county. Illinois, where he took up 
wild land, which he improved and developed into a good farm. He became 
one of the leading men of his section and maintained his home there until his 
death, which occurred in 1855, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. 
\\'liile in Kentucky he had married Mrs. ]\Iary (Christa) Davis, a widow and 
the mother of three children, James L., William C. and Mary. She had been 
a weaver by vocation, which was also his trade. To Jeremiah and Alary 
( Christa) Terrell were born three children, Edward, Adam and Isaac. Isaac 
came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1883. and lived here until his death, which 



696 PAST AND PRESENT 

occurred November 11, 1900, at the age of eighty years. He married Nancy 
J. ^^'oods in 1843. She was born in 1825 and was a daughter of John Woods, 
who was a native of Pennsylvania and an early settler of St. Clair county, 
Illinois, where they were successful farmers and died. Isaac Terrell was a 
Renublican in politics and a leading man in the community. In 1864 he en- 
listed as a member of the One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment Illinois 
Volunteer Infantry, with which he sei~ved six months, mostly in Tennessee. 
Nancv J. Terrell died in 1889. To her union with Isaac Terrell were born 
nine children, namely: Henry C. the immediate subject of this sketch; 
Edward, of Saline county, Missouri; James M., also of this county; Virginia 
M,. the wife of William J. Miller, of St. Clair county, Illinois ; John is a suc- 
cessful farmer in Virginia; George died in i860; William C, who lives in 
Texas, is successfully engaged in the raising of potatoes; Martha lives in 
Texas ; Isaac lives at Marshall, this county. 

Henry C. Terrell was reared on the paternal farmstead and secured his 
elementary education in the common schools, supplementing this by attend- 
ance at a business college. He was reared to the life of a farmer and fol- 
l(A\e(l this vocation in St. Clair county, Illinois, until 1882, when he came to 
Saline county, Missouri, and purchased seven hundred and twenty acres of 
fine and fertile land, comprising his present farm. Here he has since remained, 
being continuously engaged in the tilling of the soil and the breeding and 
raising of live stock, in both of which lines he has been prospered to a satis- 
factory degree. The Terrell farm is known far and wide and is generally 
recognized as one of the most attractive and best equipped farms in this part 
of ?vIissouri. The progressive methods of Mr. Terrell are in evidence on every 
side. The residence, which he erected, is one of the most attractive and 
modern houses in the county, being large and conveniently arranged. It is 
of two stories and is heated by a furnace and lighted by a complete and up-to- 
date acetylene gas plant, the light being also installed in the barns and other 
farm buildings where it can be used to advantage. A powerful wind mill 
pumps water to a large tank, from which it is conveyed by pipes to every part 
of the residence, as well as to the smoke house, cow barn, horse barn and 
large modern hog house. Thus the place has practically all the conveniences 
to be found in improved city property. In the large orchard are to be found 
every variety of fruit trees that will grow in this section of the countr}-, many 
of them l)eing of the very finest and some of rare varieties. The home is most 
eligibly situated about five miles southeast of Blackburn and is a deligluful 
place to visit, the spirit of hospitality being ever in evidence. 

In the cultivation of the soil, Mr. Terrell is progressive and enterprising 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 697 

and keeps in close touch with the most advanced ideas relating to the science 
of ag-riculture. the result being- that he is enabled annually to realize hand- 
some returns for his labor. He keeps in close touch with every detail of the 
work and the general appearance of the place indicates him to be a man of 
excellent taste and splendid judgment. In addition to the tilling of the soil, 
Mr. Terrell has achieved marked success in the handling of live stock, of 
which large numbers annually pass through his hands. He raises and buys 
large numbers of cattle, hogs and sheep, which he fattens and places on the 
market, and he also' raises many mules and horses. He is a very- busy man, 
his present prosperity being the direct result of his energetic and well planned 
methods. Far and wide he is known as a thoroughly practical farmer and en- 
terprising man of affairs. 

In i86g Henry C. Terrell was united in marriage with Nancy Carr, a 
native of St. Clair county, Illinois, and a daughter of Jacob and Nancy 
(Wilderman) Carr, also natives of St. Clair county, and farming folk. This 
union has been a most happy and congenial one and has been blessed in the 
birth of nine children, namely : Miriam ; Sarah is the wife of J. F. Coulter, of 
Sweet Springs, and they have three children, \yilbin- T., Mary and an infant; 
George, who is a successful farmer in this county, married Lydia Spencer and 
they have one child. Georgia May ; Edith died at the age of four years ; John 
died at the age of four years ; Henry Clay died in infancy ; one that died un- 
named ; Grant, who lives at home, and Mary. In politics Mr. Terrell gives his 
support to the Republican party and takes a commendable interest in local 
public affairs, though not in any sense an aspirant for public office of any 
nature. 



JACKEY SPENCER HITT. 

In the daily laborious struggle for an honorable competence and a solid 
career on the part of a business man there is little to attract the casual reader 
in search of a sensational chapter ; but to a mind thoroughly awake to the real- 
itv and meaning of human existence there are noble and imperishable lessons 
in the career of an individual who, without other means than a clear head, 
strong arm and true heart, directed and controlled by correct principles and 
unerring judgment, Cfinquers all obstacles and finally wins, not only pecuniary 
independence, but. wdiat is far greater and higher, the deserved respect and 
confidence of those with whom his active years have been passed. Such a 
man is the honored subject of this sketch, who. after many years of active 



698 PAST AND PRESENT 

and successful labor, is now livino- retired in llit attractive town of Black- 
burn, Saline county. Missouri. 

Air. Mitt was born in Scott county, Illinois, on June 13. 184J, and is a 
son of Benjamin F. and Elvira (Riggs) ITitt, tbe former of who was a native 
of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and the latter of Illinois. The subject's pa- 
ternal grandparents were Jackey and Theresa Hitt. natives of Virginia, who 
emigrated t(~) Kentucky. They were the parents of four children. Elisha B., 
Jesse L.. Nancy and Benjamin F. Jackey Hitt was married a second time 
to Matilda Avres, and they became the parents of five children, Amanda. 
Rachael A., Margaret J.. Henry B. and John. Jackey Hitt was a farmer by 
vocation, which he followed all his active years. He was in politics a strong 
Jackson Democrat and in religion he was an equally strong Methodist. He 
died in Kentucky. Benjamin F. Hitt, the subject's father, was reared on 
the paternal farmstead in Kentuck}' and received his education in the common 
schools of his home neighborhood. He was also a Democrat in politics and 
a Methodist in religious belief. In 1835 he emigrated to Illinois, settling on 
uncleared land in Scott county, and there he cleared and developed the 
land into a splendid farm. In 1865 he and his family came to Alissouri, set- 
tling near Dover, in Lafayette county, where he successfully operated a farm 
until his death. He married Elvira Riggs, who was a daughter of Scott and 
Hannah Riggs, natives of South Carolina, but early settlers of Tennessee. 
Later they came to Illinois, being among the pioneer settlers of Scott county, 
where they settled on wild land, which they proceeded to clear and develop 
into a good farm. Mr. Riggs was also a blacksmith and operated a forge 
on his farm, his services in this capacity being much in demand among the 
early settlers of that section of the country. Scott Riggs was a man of fine 
character and stood high in the community. He was an old-line Whig in 
political belief and he and his wife were earnest members of the Disciples 
church. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, namely: Berry, 
who died in Oregon; Zeddie, who started for Oregon in 1850 but died on 
the Avay ; John, who died in early life; Milton was a stock farmer on the 
old homestead, where his death occurred ; Cynthia ; Harriet ; Sarah ; Elvira, 
mother of the .subject, and Louisa. The marriage of Benjamin and Elvira 
Hitt occurred in 1841 and they became the parents of the following children-. 
Jackey S., the immediate subject of this review- ; Amanda, Johanna, Hannah 
B., Elisha, Jesse, Benjamin F., Samuel and Robert Lee, all of whom are 
living but Samuel, who died in infancy. 

Jackey S. Hitt was reared on the home farm, in the labors of which 
he took a part as soon as old enough. He secured his elementary education in 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 699 

the common schools, supplementing this by a two-years course in the Mil- 
lersburg- College, in Kentucky. In 1863 he started overland to California, 
taking- along one hundred and sixty mules. He made the trip in safety and 
made the remarkable record of losing onh' one of the mules. He was 
gone about a year and a half, spending the greater part of the time in pros- 
pecting and looking over the country, which presented to him many features 
of interest. On his twenty-first birthday he bathed his face in the (ireat 
Salt lake. On his return to Illinois he remained with his family until their 
removal to Missouri in 1865. In the winter of that year he was married and 
in the spring of the following }-ear he engaged in farming in Elmwood town- 
ship. Saline county, and in this line of work he has prospered from the Ijegin- 
ning. He bought land and, as he was able from time to time, he added to 
his original possession until at one time he owned three hundred and twenty 
acres of iine land, a part of this being now known as the Frank Mitchell 
farm. Mr. Hitt was practical and energetic in his operations and realized a 
handsome profit from his operations, so that in 1901 he was able to sell his 
propertv and retire to the beautiful home which he had acquired in Black- 
burn, where he is now spending his days in the enjoyment of that rest which 
he has so richly earned. His home is a modern and conveniently arranged 
residence, and is fitted up with all the conveniences which go to make life 
pleasant. The house is brilliantly illuminated with an acetylene gas plant, 
heated with a furnace and ecjuipped with a water plant which provides water 
in every part of the house where required. In every respect Mr. Hitt is most 
comfortably situated and his home is considered one of the most pleasant 
and attractive in the community. 

In 1865 Mr. Hitt was united in marriage to Phoebe Moore, who was 
born in Brown county, Illinois, the daughter of Jacob and Cynthia A. 
(Garish) Moore, natives of New Hampshire, and earty settlers in Illinois, 
\vhere. in Brown county, they became highly respected farming folk. They 
were members of the Congregational church and in politics Mr. Moore was a 
Republican. They were the parents of five children, namely: Joseph G.. who 
died in 1905; Frances, Phoebe, George H. and Albert H. To the subject and 
his wife were born five children, namely: Jessie, who died in 1886; Frank, of 
Idaho, who married Minnie Gibson ; Russell married Susan Clark and also 
■lives in Idaho; Cynthia is the wudow of Joseph Nelson and resides at Seattle, 
Washington ; Elvira died in )^oung womanhood. 

Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Hitt are members of the ^Methodist Episcopal 
and Presbyterian churches respectively, and Mr. Hitt is a member of the 
oflicial board of his church, serving in the capacities of steward and trustee. 



700 PAST AND PRESENT 

Politically, he gives his support to the Democratic party, while fraternally he 
is a member of the time-honored order of Freemasons. He is a man of a 
high order of mentality, being animated in all his actions by the highest 
principles, and in this county, where he has passed the best years of his life, 
he has aided materially in the development of the county and given his in- 
fluence in support of all measures for the general good. 

Several of the ancestors of Mrs. Hitt served in the war of the Revolu- 
tion, among them being commissioned officers attaining the rank of cap- 
tain and colonel. Mrs. Hitt is a member of the Daughters of the Revolution. 
She is a lady of refinement, having been educated at the Jacksonville (Illi- 
nois) Female Academy and was graduated therefrom in 1864 with honors 
of her class. She is a member of the alumnus and for many years has been 
a life member of the American Bible Societv. 



GEORGE BALTHASAR SETBERT. 

The agricultural interests of Saline county are well represented by George 
B. Seibert, who is one of the practical and enterprising farmers of Elmwood 
township. Like many other successful, self-made men of this locality, he is 
an American b}^ adoption only, being a native of Germany, from whence come 
so manv of the bone and sinew of this great western republic. Wherever 
known the German type is noted for thrift and enterprise, the gentleman 
whose life record is briefly outlined in the following paragraphs being no 
exception to this rule. His birth occurred in the grand duchy of Hessen- 
Darmstadt, October 14, 1841. the son of Balthasar and Catherine (Yost) 
Seibert, both natives of Germany and the representatives of an excellent and 
influential line of ancestry. Balthasar Seibert was the son of John Seiberi, 
who was a farmer, spending his entire life in the Fatherland. All were 
members of the Lutheran church and loyal supporters of the same. Balthasar 
Seibert was born December i, 1807, and his wife, Catherine Yost, was born 
September 23, 1813; they grew to maturity in their native land, were edu- 
cated there and married upon reaching maturity. Believing that the new 
republic of the West held greater opportunities for them than their own 
country offered, they crossed the great Atlantic in 1852 in an old-fashioned 
sailing vessel, the "Yankee Plate," the voyage requiring thirty-eight days. 
They landed in Xew York Citv and went immediately to St. Clair county, 
Illinois, where they purchased a farm and spent the remainder of their lives, 
prospering there by reason of llieir induslr}- and honorable dealings with 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 7OI 

their neighbors. The father died February 19, 1889, having been preceded 
to the unseen world by his faithful life companion on March 16, 1883. They 
were people of strict integrity, members of the Lutheran church, and to them 
eight children were born, named as follows : Anna Catherine, born October 
3, 1835, and died in childhood, May 22, 1836; Margaret was born Au- 
gust I, 1837, and died June 24, 1905; she was the wife of John Hagist ; 
Adam, who was born August 22, 1839, died December 10, 190-I-; he was a 
farmer in St. Clair county, Illinois; George B., of this review; Peter, born 
April 24, 1844, is a farmer in St. Clair county, Illinois, where he is prom- 
inent in politics, having served one term as state senator; Anna Catherine, 
born January 18, 1847. is the wife of Lewis Klingel. living in Illinois; Lizzie, 
born February 4, 1885, lives in Illinois, the wife of Henry Stein; Henry was 
born November 5, 1858, and died April 23, 1862. 

George B. Seibert was eleven years of age when the family came to 
America. He distinctly remembers the ocean voyage and much of the revo- 
lution in Germany in 1848. He was reared to habits of industry on his 
father's farm in Illinois, where he began working vvhen merely a boy. How- 
ever, he alternated fanning with schooling in the parochial schools in Germany 
and six months in the public schools in this country. He remained at home 
until he married and then he began farming on the old homestead, later 
buying the interests of the other children in the same. In 1890 he sold the 
place for one hundred dollars per acre, his father having paid only twenty 
dollars per acre for it when the family came there from Germany. He then 
moved to Saline county. Missouri, and bought the old Judge Sparks farni 
of three hundred and sixty acres for forty-five dollars per acre He has 
drained the same and remodeled the dwelling and built additional barns and 
made many other substantial improvements, until he now has one of the finest 
old farm homes in the county, the house being on the antique colonial style, 
in the midst of attractive surroundings. Mr. Seibert is an up-to-date farmer 
and everything about his place shows good management. He handles quite a 
good deal of stock of various kinds, no small amount of his income being 
derived from this source. 

Mr. Seibert has been twice married, first in 1868 to Elizabeth Mueller, 
a native of St. Clair county, Illinois, the daughter of Jacob Mueller ; she was 
called to her rest on May 22, 1884. The following children were born to this 
union : Gustave, a farmer in Illinois, married Carrie Trautmann and is the 
father of four children, Oscar deceased, Leona, Cleda and Leonard; Clara is 
the wife of Charles A. Senges, lives on a farm in Elmwood township, and 
nthey are the parents of one child, Albert George ; Lewis married Rosa Weber 



y02 PAST AND PRESENT 

and they are the parents of three children, Georgia E., deceased, George K. 
and Frances Leia ; Ahna is the wife of Jacob Weber, a farmer, and they have 
two chil(h-en. Lewis and ])()r()thy E. 

• George B. Seibert's second wife was Margaret Katharine Sohn. whom 
he married on October 29, 1885; she was born in France, October 20, 1863, 
and is the daughter of Frederick and Alargaret (Michaeh) Sohn, l)oth na- 
tives of France, the former having followed the avocation of stone-mason : 
thev came to Amei-ica in 1866 and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, where he 
worked at his trade until his death, in November, 1906. He served ten years 
in the Foreign Legion of France in northern Africa. His wife died March 
10, 1903. They were members of the Evangelical Protestant church and Mr. 
Sohn was a Republican. They were the parents of three children : Margaret 
K.. wife of Mr. Seibert, of this review; Emma H. F., the wife of William 
Ralhert. lives in St. Louis: Lla D. is the wife of Henry Frank, living in St. 
Louis. The mother of these children was born October 23, 1838. 

Mr. Seibert is the father of five children by his second wife, namely : 
Robert Henry George, born November 25, 1886, lives at home and is now 
attending \A'ashington L^niversity, St. Louis; Emma, born July 20. 1888; 
Frederick, born September 5, 1889; Georgia Margaret, born March 31, 1901, 
and Eugene Connell, April 20, 1906. are all members of the home* circle. 

Mr. Seibert proved his loyalty to his adopted country by enlisting in 
the L'nion army during the war between the states, becoming a member of 
Companv D, One Hundred and Forty-ninth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry, in 1865, and he was discharged from the service at Dalton, Georgia, 
Januarv 11, 1866. His service consisted i)rincipally in assisting to keep the 
railroads open for supplies. 

Politically. Mr. Seibert is a Republican, but he is now voting independ- 
ently, preferring to cast his ballot for the man rather than the party. He 
is interested in whatexer tends to promote the common g(^od locall)- and in 
general and all worthy measures find in him liberal support. 



FREEL SANDERS EDWARDS. 

Back to stanch old Welsh stock does Mr. Edwards trace his lineage, and 
that in his character abide those sterling qualities which have ever marked the 
true type of the Welsh people is manifest when we come to consider the more 
salient points in his life history, which has ever been marked by consecutive 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 703 

industry and invincible spirit, eventuating most naturally in securing- him a 
high position in the respect and confidence of his fellow men. 

Freel S. Edwards is a native son of the Old Dominion state, having first 
seen the light of day in Carroll county, Virginia, on February 22. 1845, ^^'^^^ 
is a son of Isaac and Alary (Beamer) Edwards, who also were natives of 
that state. The subject's paternal grandfather, also named Isaac, was a native 
of rock-ribbed A\'ales, who' came in young manhood to the United States and 
settled in Virginia, where he followed the pursuit of farming until his death. 
The subject's parents were married in Virginia and they too followed agricul- 
tural pursuits during all their active years. Both died and are buried near 
where they lived. The subject's mother was a faithful member of the "Hard- 
shell" Baptist church. They were the parents of eleven children, namely; 
Eliza, deceased; Philip E., deceased; Joshua A., who still resides in Virginia; 
Rosa, Charity, Absalom \\\. Jonathan, Mahala ; Creed, who was a soldier 
during the Civil war and lost his life while in battle ; Richard Alanoah. and 
Freel S.. the immediate subject of this sketch. 

Freel S. remained under the parental roof until he was eighteen years of 
age and received a fair education in the schools of the neighborhood. At the 
age of eighteen years he enlisted as a member of Company D, Twenty-ninth 
Regiment Virginia Confederate Infantry, joining the command at Petersburg, 
that state, and sen-ing until the end of the war. ]\Iuch of his ser\ice was 
in and around Richmond and he also did considerable sen-ice as a member of 
the ambulance corps. He escaped being wounded and at the end of his period 
of seiwice he took up the pursuit of farming, which he followed in Carroll 
countv, Virginia, about seven years, and later in other locations in that state. 
In 1883 Mr. Edwards came to Lafayette county, Missouri, and was there 
engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1902, when he came to his present loca- 
tion in Elmwood township. Saline county, and bought the eighty-acre farm 
which he now occupies and which he is successfully cultivating. The farm, 
which is close by the attractive little town of Elmwood, is highly improved 
and under the persistent and systematic efforts of the subject it has been made 
to return a handsome income. The splendid residence, commodious and well 
arranged bam, spacious outbuildings, well kept fences, up-to-date machinery 
and other accessories of a modern farm give evidence of the progressive and 
practical methods that are followed in its operation. 

On November 8, 1866. Mr. Edwards was united in marriage with Phoebe 
Higgins. a native of Virginia and a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Edwards) 
Higgins. who were natives of Grayson county. Virginia, where they spent 
their lives on a farm, and died. To the subject and his wife have been born 



704 PAST AND PRESENT 

nine children, who are briefly mentioned as follows : Jennie is the wife of 
Alfred Peacock, a successful farmer in Lafayette county, Missouri ; Flora is 
the wife of W'yatt Lewis, of Lafayette county, and they are the parents of four 
children, \\'ilma, W'orthington, Anna Ruth and Lester; Thomas L died at the 
age of twenty-eight years ; Charles H., who is engaged in fanning in Clay 
county, Missouri, married Sarah Elmaker and they have three children. Chap- 
pell, Christopher and Freel; Mary is the wife of William E. Vanarsdall, a 
farmer in Elmwood township, this county, and they have one child, Alfred; 
Joseph, who is a foreman in the Missouri Pacific railroad shops at Sedalia, 
Missouri, married Lizzie Lemons, and they have two children, Nannie Marie 
and Phoebe Elizabeth ; Mattie is the wife of Buford Wood, a farmer in Elm- 
wood township, this county, and they have one child, Cecil; Rufus B., who is 
unmarried, remains at home and is operating the farm for his father ; Delpha 
is the wife of John Forbes and they have two children, Earl and Russell. 

Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are members of the Disciples church, 
holding their membership with the society at New Home chapel, to which they 
give an earnest and liberal support. Fraternally Mr. Edwards is a member of 
the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HENLEY. 

The true western spirit of progress and enterprise is strikingly exempli- 
fied in the lives of such men as the subject of this sketch, men whose energetic 
nature and laudable ambition have enabled them to conquer many adverse cir- 
cumstances and advance steadily in business life. The subject is a worthy rep- 
resentative of this class and is now a prominent figure in the business circles of 
Saline county, being successfully engaged in several different capacities in the 
town of Blackburn, Elmwood township. 

Benjamin F. Henley is a native of the county in which he now lives, his 
natal day having been the 24th day of June, 1869, and he is a son of Matthew 
and Elizabeth (Coffey) Henley. The subject's father was a native of North 
Carolina, while his mother was born in Kentucky. Matthew Henley was 
reared on a farm in his native state and received his education in the common 
schools. In young manhood he came to Missouri and for a while was engaged 
in teaching school, in which vocation he was fairly successful. He was wisely 
economical and in due time was enabled to buy a farm, in the operation of 
which he was thereafter engaged until to an old age. He died in 1887, at the 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 705 

age of seventy-four years. In politics he was a Republican and his religious 
belief was that of the Disciples church, of which body he w^as a faithful mem- 
ber. Matthew Henley was three times married. To his first union there were 
born four children ; Augusta, of Baker City, Oregon ; Jeffrey, who died in 
1886; Margaret E., the widow of C. C. Wingfield, and Rebecca, who died in 
1902. His second marriage bore no fruit. To his union with Elizabeth Coffey 
were born three children, namely: Benjamin F., the immediate subject of this 
sketch ; Guernsey, deceased, and Andrew M. The mother of these children is 
still living and is making her home in Blackburn. 

Benjamin F. Henley first saw the light of day on a farm near Salt 
Springs, Saline county, Missouri, and on that farm he was reared and taught 
his first lessons of industry. He is indebted to the common schools of the 
locality for his mental training and he remained under the parental roof until 
he was sixteen years old. when he started out in life on his own account, work- 
ing on farms by the month. At the time of his marriage he had saved enough 
money to enable him to buy a farm, and he was engaged in farming until 
1899, when he sold out and engaged in carpentering and building, which trade 
he had learned while engaged on the farm. He was so occupied until 1901, 
when he became proprietor of a general store at Herndon, Missouri, which he 
operated until 1907, when he sold that at cost and five per cent, premium and 
came to Blackburn and established a poultry and produce business, in which he 
is now engaged. Starting on a small scale, Mr. Henley so conducted his busi-. 
ness that it thrived and increased in volume almost constantly, until now it is 
one of the principal houses of this character in this part of the country. Three 
hands are constantly employed and large numbers of fowls and great quanti- 
ties of butter, eggs and other farm produce are shipped to the city markets. 
Honest dealing has been the watchword which has guided him in all his busi- 
ness dealings and this fact has become impressed on all who have dealt with 
him, the result being that he is in command of practically the entire business in 
his line here. Mr. Henley is also engaged in the real estate business, being the 
agent for some of the best land in Missouri. Texas, Colorado and Kansas. As 
an insurance agent, he represents the well known Hartford, Home and 
Phoenix companies, whose reputations for solidity and promptness have 
never been questioned. Mr. Henley is also a notary public and in 1908 he was 
elected a justice of the peace and is now discharging the duties of that office. 

In politics Mr. Henley is a Republican and takes a strong stand for his 
party, believing that the principles as enunciated in the platform of that party 
to be the best for the x\merican people. Fraternally he is a member of the 
Modern Woodmen of America, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern 

45 



700 PAST AND PRESENT 

Brotherhood of America, in all of \vhich fraternities he takes a deep and ap- 
preciative interest. 

In 1892 Mr. Henley was united in marriage with Mary V. Halsey, who 
was born in Saline county, Missouri, the daughter of William K. and Sarah 
(Huffman) Halsey. To this union have been born six children, namely: 
Joseph W.. \\'illie (who died at the age of five years), James, Ewart F., 
Gladys M. and Ruth V. In every relation of life Mr. Henley has evidenced 
the fact that he can be relied upon, one of the most valuable traits of char- 
acter which a man can cultivate, and he has been true to every trust placed 
in him. A man of genial disposition, he is easily approached and because of 
the excellent qualities of character which he possesses he has long enjoyed the 
respect and confidence of all who have had dealings with him. 



LOUIS HERING, Jr. 



Louis Hering, who is engaged in the lumber business in Blackburn, Saline 
county, Missouri, ranks among the most enterprising and progressive busi- 
ness men of that section of the county. The prosperity of any community, 
town or city depends upon its commercial activity, its industrial interests and 
its trade relations, and therefore the real upbuilders of a tow-n are those wdio 
stand at the head of the leading enterprises. Mr. Hering has had to do at 
various times w'ith a number of enterprises which have directly contributed to 
the prosperity of the community and therefore is deserving of specific mention 
in a work of this nature. 

Louis Hering, Jr., was born in St. Clair county, Illinois, March 7, 1853, 
and is a son of Louis and Rosa (Haase) Hering, both of whom were natives 
of Germany. They came to the United States in 1848 and settled in Belleville, 
Illinois, where the father was engaged at his trade, that of cabinetmaker. He 
was an expert workman and w^as also employed frequently in the making of 
coffins and other articles. He died in 1893, having survived many years his 
wife, who died when the subject of this sketch was quite young. They were 
the parents of four children, namely : Louisa, who is the wife of Henry Fred- 
rick, of Marion county, Illinois; Fredrica, the wife of George Bender, of Belle- 
ville, Illinois ; Bertha, the wife of George Edwards ; and Louis, the subject of 
this sketch. Louis Hering, Sr., was married the second time, his choice being 
Margaret Rodgers, a native of Ireland. 

The subject of this sketch w^as reared in his native county and received a 
good education in the common schools, supplementing this by two years' at- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI JOJ 

tendance at the State University at Champaign, Illinois. Under his father's 
directions he learned the cabinetmaker's trade, at which he was employed 
about five years at Belleville. He was also engaged about a year in teaching 
school. Subsequently he went to St. Louis and was employed as g'eneral 
office man for a coal firm, and was eventually given oversight of the finn's 
business in Illinois, which position he retained six or seven years. In 1882 
Mr. Hering came to Blackburn, Saline county, and started in the hardware 
and lumber business. He was successful and conducted the twO' lines for some 
time, eventually selling the lumber business to the LaCross Lumber Company. 
With F. \'V. Mollenbrock, John Donaldson, Logan Chappell, Fred Rubelman, 
W. A. Botha and others, he took a prominent part in the organization of the 
Blackburn Mercantile Company, one oi the most important enterprises in 
the town. Sometime later he disposed of his interests in this company and 
bought the LaCross Lumber Company, the business of which he has since 
been engaged in conducting-. The lumber yard is a large one and in it is to be 
found a complete line of lumber of all the kinds and dimensions usually to be 
found in a well stocked yard. In addition, Mr. Hering also handles a number 
of side lines, allied with the lumber business, including all kinds of building 
material, paints, oils, etc. In all his operations he has been prospered and is 
numbered among the best business men of this section of the county. At one 
time Mr. Hering was a stockholder in the Bank of Blackburn, and from April 
I, 1900, to 1905 he served as cashier of the bank, but he has disposed of his 
banking interests and is devoting his attention to his lumber interests. 

In politics Mr. Hering is a Democrat and has taken much interest in 
local public affairs, having served as town clerk and chairman of the town 
board, in both of which positions he rendered satisfactory service to his fellow 
townsman. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, in which he has passed through all the chairs in the subordinate lodge 
and is now a member of the grand lodge, serving also at the present time as 
treasurer of the local lodge. 

In 1878 Mr. Hering married Emma Flair, who is a native of Nebraska 
and a daughter of Barnard Flair. This union has been blessed by the advent 
of four children, namely: Louis B., who is engaged in the grocery business in 
Oklahoma, married May Bothe ; Harry, who is engaged in the lumber business 
in Oklahoma, married Anna Rollins and they are the parents of two children. 
Harold A. and Anna Louise; Frances Gertrude is the wife of F. C. Neal, a 
successful farmer, and they have one child, Gaines Hering; Carl, who is still a 
member of the home circle, is a student in Washington University, at St. 
Louis, Missouri. 



708 PAST AND PRESENT 

Mr. Hering's success has been attained by worthy and legitimate means 
and through his own efforts, so that to him has always been accorded the 
fullest measure of popular confidence and esteem, the citizens of the community 
being appreciatiN-e of the value of his influence and co-operation in connection 
with any project or undertaking conserving the general welfare. Of genial 
disposition and courteous manners, he has won a host of warm personal 
friends. 



LEWIS A. DIERKER. 



No citizen of Salt Pond township, Saline county, was better known or 
more highly regarded by his fellow citizens than the late Lewis A. Dierker, 
whose death occurred September 20, 1886. Persistent industry, a high pur- 
pose and unimpeachable integrity — these were the dominant traits of his char- 
acter, and, because of his success in life and his splendid personal qualities, he 
was numbered among the leading citizens of his community and is eminently 
entitled to representation in a work of this nature. 

Lewis A. Dierker was born in Hanover, Germany, on September 2, 1842, 
and was a son of Frederick and Anna Dierker, both also natives of the Father- 
land. The family came to the United States in 1848, settling first in St. Clair 
county, Missouri, where they were engaged in farming until 1875, when they 
came to Saline county. Here they bought a farm, on which they made their 
home until their deaths. They were faithful members of the Lutheran church 
and were consistent Christian people. They were the parents of the following 
children: Fredrick, Lewis A., Christina, Eliza, Henry, Ernest, Sophia. John, 
Louisa and William. 

Lewis A. Dierker received his education in the schools connected with the 
Lutheran church, of which he was a lifelong member. He was reared to the life 
of a farmer and he followed that vocation continuously during his active years. 
He remained in the parental home until his marriage, at which time he began 
farming in Franklin county, this state. Subsequently he moved to Lafayette 
county, where he remained until 1875, when he came to Saline county and 
bought the farm on which the family now resides, and where his death oc- 
curred. The place comprises one hundred and fifty-five acres and is most 
eligibly situated. The place is well improved, being adorned by a neat and 
attractive residence, good barn and other necessary outbuildings, while the 
well kept fences and highly cultivated fields indicate it to be one of the up- 
to-date farms of the township. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 709 

In politics ]\'Ir. Dierker was a stanch Republican and gave to that party 
his consistent support at the polls, though he never sought office for himself. 
His religious membership was, as has been stated, in the Lutheran church, 
to which he gave a generous support. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Dierker was united in marriage to Dora A'lindrup. who was 
born in St. Charles county, Missouri, the daughter of George H. and Catharine 
(Francis) Mindrup. These parents were both natives of Germany and came 
in an early day to Missouri, settling in St. Charles county. There the father 
followed farming principally. He is now dead, but his wife is still living in 
that county. They were the parents of twelve children, namely : Dora, 
Theresa, Theodore, Lizzie, Rudolph, Amanda. Eliza, Huldah, Rosa. Oscar, 
Hul:)ert and Frances. To Mr. and Mrs. Dierker were born seven children 
namely: Hubert, deceased; Julius, who lives at Lidependence, Missouri, mar- 
ried Bertha Haesemeier and they have two children, Eleanora and Sadie. 
Adolph. who is a successful farmer in Salt Pond township, married Amelia 
Henning and they have two children. Harry and Rosa; Anna and Oscar are 
both single and remain at home, assisting in the operation of the farm ; Huldah 
is the wife of Gus Hollrah, a farmer of Salt Pond township, and they have two 
children. Alice and Ollie: Lewis died in infancv. 

Mrs. Dierker and her two children. Anna and Oscar, reside on the home- 
stead farm, which is located four miles north of Sweet Springs, and they are 
meeting with pronounced success in its operation, being numbered among the 
successful farmers of Salt Pond township. Li addition to the cultivation of 
the soil, they also give some attention to the raising of live stock, in w^hich also 
they have met with very gratifying success. Their attractive home is a 
favorite meeting place of their many friends who delight in the spirit of hos- 
pitality always there in evidence. Mrs. Dierker is a lady of manv fine qualities 
of character and is well liked bv all who know her. 



JAMES J. AHTCHELL. 



One of Marshall's popular business men and city councilman is James J. 
Mitchell, a native of Saline county, having been born here on June 30, 1859, 
reared to farming and stock raising pursuits and received a good common 
school education in his native community. He is the son of Patrick and Mary 
(Malony) Mitchell, both natives of Erin's green isle, but they came to Saline 
county when young and married here. Patrick Mitchell was the son of James 



710 PAST AND PRESENT 

Mitchell, a native of Ireland, who, with his family, emigrated to America in 
1845 ^"<^^ about 1847 settled near where the town of Shackelford was since 
located, and the family secured a good farm where James Mitchell spent the 
rest of his life, dying in 1852. This was one of the first of the Irish families to 
locate here and establish the colony which has grown to large proportions and 
taken a conspicuous part in the development of the agricultural and other 
resources of the county, making this second to no other county in the state of 
Missouri, and wherever the sons of this little colony have dispersed they 
have been a power for a high standard of citizenship and good government. 
In 1847, '^vhen not more than half a dozen families had located here, the mis- 
sionaiT priests from St. Louis and St. Charles and other then distant points be- 
gan calling on the families and held services at the private houses of the set- 
tlers and from this small beginning both the priests and the families put their 
"shoulders to the wheel" and their efforts have been crowned with success 
and a large and happy community of about one hundred families in the vicinity 
of Shackelford worship at the altars of their forebears. James Mitchell was an 
old man when he came here, and he depended upon his sons, and Patrick, be- 
ing the oldest, naturally took the lead ; not long afterwards both parents died. 
To them the following children were born : Patrick, Owen, James R., Joseph, 
Mary, now Mrs. Woodbick; Elizabeth married a Mr. Miller. Patrick and 
Owen both died in Saline county, then the four remaining children went to 
California where they died, leaving families. 

Patrick Mitchell grew to maturity in Ireland and when the family came 
to America he took charge of all the affairs and when they located in this 
county he entered land and began farming, soon having the family veiw com- 
fortably settled. In 185 1 he was lured to California on account of the gold 
being mined there, and he continued successfully at mining for one year. Re- 
ceiving a letter informing him of the failing health of his father, he started 
home by way of the Isthmus of Panama, a long and tedious journey, arriving 
home early in 1853 to find that his father had died in 1852. The son resumed 
farming and in 1858 married; he prospered and invested his savings in more 
land and was a successful farmer, becoming one of the prominent men of the 
county and was highly respected. He was a strong Democrat, but avoided 
public notoriety. He was devoted to the mother church, in which he reared 
his family. He died on the homestead in February, 1903, his good wife fol- 
lowing him to the silent land in October of that year. She was a daughter of 
John Malony, who lived in Ireland when a young man, but finally came to 
Saline county where he settled on a farm south of Shackelford, where he lived 
comfortably until his death in 1881. His wife died in Ireland before he came 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI . 7 II 

to America. He was an honest, retiring- man and a member of the CathoHc 
church. He and his wife were the parents of these children : Mary, mother 
of James J. Mitchell, of this review ; Michael D. is living on the old home 
farm ; John died young, as did the other children who were unnamed. The 
following- children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Mitchell : James J., 
of this review; John H., deputy marshal, of Marshall, Missouri; ]\Iary A., 
now Mrs. Boyd; Elizabeth has given her life to the church, becoming a nun 
and she goes where she is most needed, being now located at Montgomery, 
Alabama ; Frank E. is living on the old home farm. 

James J. Mitchell was reared near Shackelford and assisted on the home 
farm, remaining there until he married, when he began farming and stock 
raising, continuing very successfully until 1900, when, in order to get the bene- 
fit of better schools for his children, he sold out and moved to Marshall where 
he still resides. Being naturally inclined to operate machinery when on the 
farm, he engaged in threshing, which he yet continues, having operated a 
threshing machine in this county for twenty years and becoming widely known 
in this line of endeavor. He has a traction engine, also a wheat threshing 
machine and a corn sheller, all modern machinery, he being an expert in operat- 
ing all kinds of machinery and keeping it in repair. In order that he may be 
kept busy the year round he has added a feed market and a wood yard in 
Marshall, all of which receives his attention and yields him a comfortable in- 
come. He has a very attractive and commodious residence on Miami street. 

Mr. Mitchell has always been devoted to the Democratic party and he as- 
sists in placing his friends in office, but he does not aspire to public positions 
himself. However, because of his fitness and his public spirit, the citizens of 
the first ward in 1907 elected him for their covmcilman, and he made such 
a creditable record that they elected him a second time and he has filled the 
place with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of all concerned. He has 
been on some important committees, being at this writing chairman of the 
committee on water and light. He is active in all the business relating to the 
welfare and general good of Marshall, the council being unanimous in build- 
ing up and beautifying the city. 

Mr. Mitchell was married in 1884 to Emily E. Chamberlin, a native of 
Saline county, the daughter of Peter A. and Mary A. (Langan) Chamberlin, 
the former a native of Canada and of French descent. His wife was a daughter 
of Michael Langan, a native of Ireland who came to America, locating near 
Shackelford, Saline county, Missouri, in 1844, among the early settlers, and 
engaged in farming and assisted in the early work of Establishing the Catholic 
church in this county, which has borne much good fruit. He was a successful 



y\2 . PAST AND PRESENT 

farmer and lie and his wife both died at the old homestead. They were the 
parents of ten children: Emily E., wife of James J. Mitchell, of this review, 
being- the oldest child. 

To Mr. and Mrs. J^nies J. Mitchell six children have been born, five of 
whom are living at this writing, namely: Eugene P., born in 1885, is a 
traveling- salesman: James J., Jr.. born in 1887, died in 1902; Frank E., born 
in 1890, graduated from the Marshall high school and is also a traveling- sales- 
man : ]\iary Elizabeth, born in 1892. is attending- school: Alberta E.. born in 
1894. is also in school; John Bryan, born in 1896, is also a student. All these 
children are members of the Catholic church at Marshall and they are receiving 
everv adA-antag-e possible to make them useful citizens. 

Fraternally Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America, also the Knights of Columbus and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. 



WILLIAM C. GODMAN. 



W. C. Godman, a veteran of the Civil war and for a number of years 
actively identified with the agricultural interests of Saline county, was born in 
Bourbon county, Kentucky, June 27, 1845, being a son of Melvin and Mary 
R. Godman, both natives of the Blue Grass country, where the subject first saw 
the light of day. William Godman, father of Melvin, was born in jMaryland, 
but went to Kentucky in an early day and about the year 1830 migrated to 
Missouri, locating near Palmyra, where, at the sale of lands forfeited bv the 
original owners for non-pavment of the government price, he purchased sev- 
eral large tracts of those lands, on one of which he settled and in due time 
became one of the most successful farmers in his part of the country. He 
owned quite a number of slaves and rose to a position of prominence and in- 
fluence in the community and died a number of years ago on the original home- 
stead which he redeemed from the wilderness. His family consisted of two 
sons and three daughters, one of whom. Melvin, father of the subject, returned 
to Kentucky, where he married Marv R. IMarsh and engaged in farming, in 
connection with which he also dealt quite extensively in live stock and slaves 
and became one of the successful men of Bourbon county. 

At the breaking out of the late Civil war. Melvin Godman entered the 
Confederate army and spent considerrible time in Richmond. A^irginia. where 
he. by reason of his knowledge of conditions through the South, proved of 
great value to the authorities. At the close of the war he returned to Kentucky 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 713 

where he continued farming until 1868, when he disposed of his interests there 
and moved to SaHne county, Missouri, where he purchased the O'Banning 
farm, of four hundred and thirty acres, on which he Hved and prospered until 
called to his final reward in July, 1894. He was a man of excellent social 
standing and great moral worth, a devout member of the Christian church and 
a prominent worker in the Masonic brotherhood, in which he rose to high rank 
and held various positions of honor and trust. Mrs. Godman departed this 
life in 1888. She was a daughter of Abraham C. Marsh, a prominent planter 
of Kentucky and an ardent Union man during the Civil war. He accumulated 
a handsome fortune and died in January, 1876, leaving one child, the mother 
of the subject. 

Melvin and Mary R. Godman were the parents of the following children : 
William C, of this review; Thomas M., who died while in prison at Camp 
Douglas during the war; Burton L., a lawyer of Marshall, who died in 1876; 
Josephine, wife of J. B. Way, of Kansas City; Mary, deceased, who married 
H. E. Emerson ; Mattie, whose husband, W. Naylor, is a retired farmer re- 
siding near Marshall, and Beal, who died some years ago. 

William C. Godman was born June ly , 1845, and spent his childhood 
and youth on tlie home farm and at the proper age he entered the public 
schools, in which he obtained a fair knowledge of the usual course of study. 
He was reared to agricultural pursuits and assisted his father until 1861. when 
he espoused the cause of the Confederacy and served under General Buckner 
until the fall of Fort Donelson, when his command joined Gen. John Morgan's 
cavaliy and took part in the several campaigns and numerous fights under 
that intrepid leader in Tennessee, Kentucky and other states, including the 
raid through scuithern Indiana and Ohi(\ which ended in the defeat and cap- 
ture of the General and the majority of his men. ]\Ir. Godman, with about 
three hundred of his comrades, fell into the hands of the Federals at Chesshire, 
Ohio, and from thence was taken to Columbus, where Morgan and four of his 
leaders were incarcerated in the penitentiary for safe keeping. \Wthin a short 
time, however, the daring commander succeeded in effecting his escape and, 
returning to Kentucky, it was not long until he was again at the head of a 
well organized force in the field where he rendered gallant service until shot 
by the enemv at Greenville. Tennessee, a few months after rejoining his com- 
mand. 

Mr. Godman was first sent to Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, and 
from there was removed a little later to Camp Douglas, Chicago, where he 
remained for a period of eighteen months. At the expiration of that time he 
was sent to Richmond. Virginia, and exchanged, following which he returned 



714 PAST AND PRESENT 

to the tield ami joining" ^Morgan's secund force. He proceeded to Greensboro, 
North Carolina, where he was detailed to act as one of the body guard of 
Jefferson Davis, in which capacity he continued until a short time before the 
Confederate President fell into the hands of his enemies. Fearing- capture, 
Mr. Davis divided all the money in his possession amon^g his faithful followers, 
each man receiving- twenty-six dollars. In the share falling- to Mr. Godman 
was a five-dollar sovereign, which he still keeps as a relic and which is all he 
has to show in the way of remuneration for his long- and arduous period of 
military service. 

At the close of the war Mr. Godman returned to Bourbon county and 
resu.med the peaceful pursuits of civil life on the home place, where he assisted 
his father in reconstructing- the farm and getting affairs in orderuntil 1868. 
wdien they closed out their interests in Kentucky and removed with all of the 
family to Saline county. Missouri, where with the exception of two years the 
subject has since resided. In 1872 he took a wife and helpmeet in the person 
of Mary Law-ler and. returning to Kentucky, again addressed himself to the 
tilling of the soil on a rented farm, but at the expiration of tw'o years he came 
back to Missouri and purchased a farm of his own on which he has since lived 
and prospered. 

Mr. Godman owns two hundred acres of valuable and highly improved 
land which is considered one of the best farms and attracti\-e rural homes in 
his part of the county. In connection with agriculture, he has devoted con- 
siderable attention to the raising of live stock, and by strict attention to his 
interests and excellent management he is now^ in .independent circumstances, 
with an ample amount of material wealth in his possession to insure his future 
against want or care. Mr. Godman has been married three times, his first 
wife, whose name is mentioned in a preceding paragraph, having been a native 
of Saline county and a teacher by profession. Her father. E. G. Lawler. 
moved to Missouri from Tennessee in an early day and took a lively interest 
in the improvement of the locality in wdiich he settled. He is still living, at 
the ripe old age of eighty years, and is remarkably well preserved. 

Mrs. Godman died in 1888. after bearing her husband nine children, 
namely: William H., wdio farms the home place; Thomas M., of California; 
Charles, who is now^ in Dakota for the purpose of regaining his health ; Lester, 
a bookkeeper for a wholesale house in Kansas City; Jesse B., who is in the 
railway service; Beal M.. formerlv with the National Bank of Commerce of 
Kansas City, but now connected with a wholesale firm, and three daughters 
who died in infancy. In 1893 Mr. Godman contracted a matrimonial alliance 
with Georgia Laythani, of Bourbon countv, Kentucky, and a daughter of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 715 

James Laytham, who moved to Missouri in 1881 and became one of the large 
"farmers and successful stock men of Saline county. Claude, the only child of 
the second marriage, was born in 1894 and five days after his birth the wife 
and mother was summoned to her eternal rest. Like the first Mrs. Godman, 
she was a lady of excellent character and beautiful life and a worthy member 
of the Baptist church. 

Mr. Godman married, in 1897, Mrs. Willie Hatfield, widow of the late 
James Hatfield, by whom she had three children, her union with the subject 
being without issue. After thirteen months of mutually happy and contented 
wedded experience Mr. Godman was again left a widower, since which time 
he has lived with his children who vie with each other in looking after his in- 
terests and ministering to his comfort. In all that constitutes high moral 
worth, upright manhood and intelligent citizenship, Mr. Godman affords a 
conspicuous example. Enterprising and public spirited, he does all withni his 
power to encourage progress and improvement and his private life and charac- 
ter are as an open volume in which is inscribed a clean and beautiful record. 



THOMAS ADAMS. 



Thomas Adams, retired business man and representative citizen of Mar- 
shall, is a native of Mercer coimty, Kentucky, and the oldest of a family of six 
children whose parents, John W'. and Jane Adams, were also born and 
reared in that state. David Adams, the subject's grandfather, was a native 
of Virginia, and of Scotch-Irish lineage. He went to Kentucky in an early 
day, entered several large tracts of land in ^Mercer county and became a 
prominent farmer and influential citizen. His wife, whose maiden name 
was Woods, a daughter a wealthy planter and distiller, bore him six chil- 
dren, namely: Archie, Mary, Elizabeth, John W., William and James, all of 
whom settled on land which their father purchased from the government and 
spent their lives in their native commonwealth. 

John W. Adams grew to maturity at the place of his birth and in young 
manhood married Jane Adams, who, although of the same family name as his 
own, was in no wise related by ties of kinship. In due time he became an 
enterprising farmer and well known citizen, took an active part in promoting 
the advancement of his community and stood high in the esteem of a large 
circle of neighbors and friends. A Whig in politics and always interested in 
public matters; he held no elective office nor did he ever aspire to leadership. 



y\C) PAST AND PRESENT 

liaving been content in lending his inlluence to his parly and seeing that good 
men were nominated for jmhHc positions. He was opposed to secession. Init 
being too old tor military service he took no part in the Cix'il war fnrther than 
to use his best efforts to maintain peace and quietude in the community where 
he lived. Mrs. Adams was a daughter of Joseph Adams, a native of Mary- 
land and an early settler of Kentucky, where as a farmer and manufacturer 
of flour and lumber he became quite prosperous and influential, b'or many 
years he was a leading citizen of the community in which he lived, a zealous 
Whig and a prominent member of the Scotch Seceder church. He has long 
been sleeping the sleep that knows no waking, Imt the high standard of honor 
and integrity which he ever maintained is still remembered in the neighbor- 
hood where the greater part of his life was spent. John W. Adams died in 
1865 and his wife two years prior to that date. Their children in order 
of birth were as follows : Thomas, of this review ; Ebenezer, John, Caleb, 
Joshua and William, all of whom remained in Kentucky except John, who for 
some years has been ;i resident of Indianapolis, Indiana. Bv a previous mar- 
riage with Elizabeth Sharp, Mr. Adams was the father of four children, viz : 
Adam, David, Precilla and Elizabeth, all of whom spent their lives in Ken- 
tucky, and were greatly esteemed in their respective places of abode. 

Thomas Adams, the subject of this sketch, was born on December 14, 
1835, spent his early life on the home farm in Mercer count}', received his 
preliminary education in such schools as the community afforded and later 
attended Center College at Danville, Kentuck}-. Owing to an injury caused 
by a horse falling upon him, he was disabled in young manhood and to some 
extent rendered a cripple for life. Unable to do manual work, he bent all of 
his energies in the direction of obtaining an education and in due time was 
sufficiently advanced to teach. However, not finding the profession con- 
genial, he abandoned it after an experience of a few months. Later he clerked 
for seme time in a drug store, but owing to the unsettled condition of the 
country during the Civil war he resigned the position and went to Ohio, 
where he spent several months with an uncle. Returning to his native 
state, he accepted a clerkshij) with a large drug firm in Lexing'ton. where he 
continued for a period of twelve years, at the expiration of which period he 
purchased an establishment of his own. with A\hich he was identified for some 
time. Mr. .Adams remained in that business until his father's death, when 
he dis])osed of his interests and returned home for the jjurpose of settling up 
the estate. This done, he went back to Lexington and entered the employ of 
a drug house, where he continued until March. 1867, when he was married 
in that city to Sadie Adams, and immediatelv thereafter came to Saline 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 71/ 

county, Missouri, and engaged in agricultural pursuits. After renting land 
for two years, he purchased a farm, which he conducted for a period of six 
years, when he sold out and bought a smaller place near Marshall, where he 
made his home for one year. 

Disposing of his real estate at the expiration of that lime he became 
a partner of H. G. Allen in the grocery business at Marshall, the firm thus 
constituted lasting six years and building up a large and lucrative patronage. 
Selling his interest in the establishment at the expiration of the period indi- 
cated, Mr. Adams made a prospecting tour through Kansas. Arkansas, 
Florida and several other states, after which he returned to Marshall and 
became a member of the well known and popular jewelry firm of Walker, 
Mauch & Adams, which was organized in 1885, and soon became the leading 
establishment of the kind in Saline county. In 1892 Mr. Walker sold out his 
interest to Mauch and Adams, who continued as partners until the health of 
the latter became so impaired as to render further indoor labor injurious. Ac- 
cordingly, in 1907 he sold out to his associate and retired from business pur- 
suits. 

On moving to Marshall Mr. Adams purchased a valuable residence prop- 
erty, which he subsequently enlarged and remodeled into a fine modern dwell- 
ing, which he still occupies. By skillful management and wdse economy he 
succeeded admirably in his business and is now one of the financially solid 
men of his city as well as one of its most influential and highly respected 
citizens. A firm and unyielding supporter of the Democratic party and ready 
at all times to labor and make sacrifices for its interests and success, he has 
never asked public recognition at the hands of his fellow men, the ofiice of 
alderman being the only elective position he has ever held. Wdiile a member 
of the council he was untiring in his efl:'orts in behalf of the water works and 
other public enterprises and to him as much perhaps as to any other man is 
due the series of improvements wdiich has made Marshall one of the finest 
and most progressive cities of its size in the state. Religiously Mr. Adams 
adheres to the Presbyterian faith, in which he was reared and to which he 
has ever been loyal, being at this time one of the leading members of the 
church in Marshall and a liberal contributor to its support. 

Airs. Adams is a lady of intelligence and in every respect well fitted to 
be the wife and helpmeet of the enterprising gentleman with whom her in- 
terests and fortunes are intertwined. She was born in Kentucky, being 
the daughter of Mrs. Evaline (Hearn) Adams, but has no knowledge of the 
history of her father, who passed out of her life when she was quite young. 
Her mother subseciuently married James Allen, a blacksmith of Kentucky. 



7l8 PAST AND PRESENT 

later of Saline cuunly, ^lissouri, where the two spent the remainder of their 
days. By her first marriage she had four daughters : Sadie, wife of the sub- 
ject; Jennie, who married Hugh Allen; Mrs. Nannie Woodson, and Willie, 
who died unmarried. The marriage wdth Mr. Allen resulted in the birth of 
two offspring, James, who died in young manhood, and Eva D., now Mrs. 
Page. Mrs. Allen departed this life in the year 1899. To Thomas and 
Sadie Adams one child only has been born, a son, John W., who lives in 
Marshal! and is one of the citv's w^ell known and hiefhlv esteemed residents. 



JAMES M. HUFF. 



This old and prominent business man is a native of Augusta county, 
Virginia, where his birth occurred on the 21st of June, 1829. His father, 
Vincent Huff, also a Virginian, was a son of John Huff, w-ho belonged to 
one of the old and highly esteemed families of that state and traced his 
lineage through a long line of sturdy Scotch-German ancestry. By occupa- 
tion John Huff was a planter. He served with distinction in the war of 1812 
became a successful tiller of the soil and died near the place of his birth many 
years ago. lamented by all who knew him. 

Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. John Huff, Vincent, the sub- 
ject's father, was the oldest. He was reared on the home farm in Augusta 
county, and on reaching the years of maturity turned his attention to agri- 
culture, in connection with which he also built and operated a flouring mill and 
cording machine which were well patronized and proved the source of a 
liberal income. By his marriage to Sarah Childres he had four sons and one 
daughter, viz : John, who moved to North Carolina, and later to Saline 
county, Missouri, where his deaath subsequently occurred: Anna, who died in 
childhood; James M., of this review; William, who moved to Missouri in 
i860 and still resides in this state, and Vincent, a banker, and prominent busi- 
ness man of W yethville, Virginia. The mother of these children, a daughter 
of James Childres, a well-to-do farmer and worthy citizen of the Old 
Dominion state, departed this life about the year 1840. Later Mr. Huff 
married a Miss Smith, by whom he had several children, all but two born 
after the subject left home to seek his fortune in the West. 

James M. Huff spent his childhood and youth on the family homestead 
and remained under the parental roof until eighteen years of age, wdien he 
severed home ties to make his own way in the world. Thinking the West 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 719 

afforded better advantages for a young man than his native state, he started 
in the spring of 1852 for Missotu'i, and in March of that year arrived in 
Sahne county, where he first found employment in a mill at Jonesboro. He 
also teamed some for the proprietor, delivering the products of the mill, and 
some time after the death of his employer he purchased a fami in Cooper 
county, where he lived and prospered until the breaking out of the w^ar be- 
tween the North and South. His sympathies were with the Confederacy, 
although he took no part in the struggle, notwithstanding which he was made 
prisoner several times by the Federals and suffered considerable loss on ac- 
count of his horses and other live stock being taken by the lawless bands 
which roamed the country, bent on all kinds of thieven- and other kinds of 
mischief. 

In 1 88 1 he sold his farm and moved to Marshall, where he engaged in 
the transfer business, later turning his attention to w^ood and coal, which he 
still handles on quite an extensive scale, being the largest and most successful 
dealer in those lines in the city. He has also been identified with other enter- 
prises, including the City Ice Plant, which he helped organize and of which 
he has been president since it began operations, besides being one of the 
heaviest stockholders in the concern. By reason of the steady growth of his 
business interests as well as of his advancing age, he recently admitted his 
son to a partnership, since which time the firm has been known as Huff & 
Son. a name standing for honorable methods and straightforward dealing, 
as its continuous success abundantly demonstrates. 

Mr. Huff" has been active in promoting the welfare of his adopted city 
ever since becoming a resident of the same and during the past thirteen 
years has been a member of the city council from his ward, the people re- 
fusing to accept his resignation notwithstanding his earnest desire to be freed 
from the burdens of official life. Since his election to that body he has 
brought about considerable important municipal legislation and spared no 
reasonable efforts to advertise Marshall abroad and give publicity to its ad- 
vantages as a favorable business center and a safe place for the investment 
of capital. 

Mr. Huff was married in 1859 to Matilda McMahan. who was born in 
Cooper county. Missouri, in 1831. the daughter of John W. and Elvira (Tur- 
lev) McMahan. natives of that county and representatives of old and well 
known families that came to Missouri in pioneer times and took active parts 
in the development of their respective places of settlement. They reared a 
familv of five children, whose names are as follows: Nicholas. John, Mrs. Sally 
Hill, Mrs. Marv Clingenfield and Mrs. Matilda Huff. To Mr. and Mrs. Huff 



720 PAST AND PRESENT 

were born two offspring, the older of whom, a son by the name of Vincent, 
is a farmer of Sahne county; the younger being a daughter, Mary C, now 
the wife of A. Webb. Mrs. Huff dying in the month of May, 1866, Mr. 
Huff subsequently contracted a marriage with Edmona M. Tyler, who was 
born in Cooper count}- in 1827. Her parents w'ere Jesse B. and Julia 
(Riddle) Tyler, ^vell known and highly respected citizens of the above 
county in an early day ; the father afterwards engaged in freighting on the 
old Santa Fe trail, where he met his death at the hands of Mexican bandits 
manv \'ears ago. The second marriage of the subject was blessed with two 
children, Theodore T., his father's business partner, and Helen B., who looks 
after the home, the mother having been called to her final reward on March 
9, 1908. 

Mr. Huff is a Democrat in politics and a faitliful and devoted member 
of the Christian church, to which his wife also belonged. He has not only 
led an active and eminently useful life, but has always kept himself free from 
debasing habits and contaminating influences, never having used tobacco in 
any form nor taken a glass of any kind of intoxicating liquor. He holds a 
large place in the business circles of Marshall and is highly esteemed by all 
with whom he mineles. 



WILLIAM H. C. McMAHAN. 

Among the men of sterling qualities of character who have for many 
years occupied a conspicuous place in the esteem of the entire community, the 
subject of this sketch is deserving of mention. Though now in the golden 
sunset of life's journey and past the best years of his activity, he is still in full 
possession of his faculties and is as alert mentally as in the days of his prime, 
being still able to maintain a general oversight of his large landed estate in 
Arrow' Rock township. 

William H. C. McMahan was born in Lamine township, Cooper county, 
Missouri, on May 10, 1825, and is a son of Thomas and Margaret (Jones) 
McMahan. Thomas McMahan was born near Winchester, Virginia, between 
1785 and 1790. When a young boy the family removed to Kentucky, and in 
Lexington, that state, he learned the trade of a hatter. He was of Scotch 
descent and possessed all the sterling qualities of that sturdy race. In 18 10 
he came to Cooper county, Missouri, with his father, who w^as also named 
Thomas, and two brothers, one older and one younger than himself. The 
older brother. Samuel, was killed near Boonville bv Indians in 1812. as he 




WILLIAM H. C. McMAHAN. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 72I 

was driving- cattle to Colesport. Thomas McMahan entered considerable land 
in Cooper county when they located there, his father- not entering anv because 
of his advanced age. Soon after coming liere, Thomas McMahan married 
Margaret Jones. She was one of eleven children who. with their jiarents, 
came to this section from Madison county. Kentucky. a1)out the same time 
the AIcMahans came. They lived in Lamine township until the Indian up- 
rising, when they went to Cooper's Fort for safety, remaining there about 
two years. Soon after returning to the farm the elder Thomas McMahan died 
and was buried on the farm. To Thomas and Margaret McMahan were born 
eleven children, of which luiml^er William H. C. was the fifth in order of 
birth. Thomas McMahan was a man of intelligence and acumen and was an 
appreciative member of the Masonic order. At one time he owned over one 
thousand acres of land in Lawrence township, but sold some of it. owning at 
the time of his death about six hundred and fifty acres. He died in 1855. His 
widow then made her home with her son. the subject of this sketch, until her 
death, which occurred in 1875. at the age of eighty-four years. Of their 
ele\'en children, but two are now living, the subject and Mrs. Margaret T- 
Phillips, of Canon City, Colorado, who was born in 1841 and was the voung- 
est child. 

William H. C. McMahan remained with his parents on the home farm 
until 1852, when, in company with his brother, James, he went to California. 
An older brother, Samuel G., was a member of the first emigrant train which 
crossed the plains to Sacramento, California. He and his cousin, Nelson Mc- 
Mahan. and also a man by the name of Child, from Jackson countv. this state, 
were members of the train which started on the long trip in 1841. Samuel 
G. McMahan got into an encounter with a grizzly bear and \\as pretty badly in- 
jured, and it was several months before he was able to continue on to Sacra- 
mento. He secured a farm near there, but some time later went to Oregon, 
where he remained two years. He returned later to California and married. 

The subject and his brother remained in California until 1856, when 
\Villiam returned home. James remained and eventually went to Montana, 
where he died of fever in 1861. The subject returned by way of the Isthmus 
of Panama, and while enroute he contracted a fever from the effects of which 
he was under a doctor's care for a year. Before going to California he had 
bought two hundred acres of land in section 27, township 50, Arrow Rock 
township, and in 1857 he built a house on this land, and in October of the fol- 
lowing- year he was married, and started housekeeping here. At the time of 
the Civil war he owned nine or ten slaves, some of which his father had owned 
and some of which his wife had inherited as her share of her father's estate. 

46 



722 PAST AND PRESENT 

The subject was in sympathy with the Southern cause, but because of the frail 
condition of his health he was unfit for military service. During- the war he 
lost practically everything he had except his house and the land. A\'hat the 
federal troops did not take, the state militia did, so that by the time hostilities 
were over he found himself in bad shape. He was not made of the kind of 
stufl: that is easily discouraged, however, and he went to work with energy 
to recoup himself. He was rewarded with abundant success and as he was 
prospered he added to his original purchase until he owned nine hundred and 
ninetv-eight acres of land. At the present time he owns nine hundred and 
fiftv-eight acres, all in one body and splendidly improved. During ante-war 
times his principal crop was hemp, but since that time he has given his atten- 
tion to general farming, in which he has been fairly successful. He is prac- 
tical and progressive in his methods and, though he does not now do any ac- 
tive work, he maintains a close touch with the general operation of the farm, 
In October, 1858, Mr. McMahan married Martha E. Haw^pe, who was 
born near Arrow Rock, this county, August 11, 1835, the daughter of Ru- 
dolph and Ellen Hawpe, both natives of Virginia. To this union were born 
nine children, two of whom died while young. Those living are Mrs. Adelia 
Lawless, of Arrow Rock township, born in August, 1859; Harvey G., of near 
Napton. born in 1864; Edward, of Marshall, this county, born in 1867; 
George Hawpe, born in 1872, remains at home; Margaret L., born in 1874, 
is at home; Mattie K., born in 1877, at home; Mrs. Mary L., the wife of Dr. 
C. L. Lawless, of Arrow Rock township, born in 1880. The mother of these 
children died March 26, 1900. She was a woman of many kindly qualities 
and was well liked and highly esteemed throughout the community where she 
had spent so many years of her life. The subject enjoys a large circle of wann 
friends who esteem him for his sterling personal worth. 



JEFFRIES P. CORDER. 

The subject of this sketch is descended from staunch old Virginia Revo- 
lutionary ancestry and is w-orthy of specific notice among the representative 
men of the county honored by his citizenship. A native of Rappahannock 
county, Virginia, he was born April t. 1843, and received his education in 
an old log school house near his home, but devoted the greater part of his 
early life to labor on the family homestead. His father, Elias Corder, was 
a son of lohn Corder, a native of the Old Dominion state and a soldier of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 723 

the war of the Revolution. John Corder was of Scotch descent and belonged 
to an old and prominent Virginia family wdiich figured conspicuously in the 
early history of Rappahannock and other counties, the ancestors of the Amer- 
ican branch coming to this country at a remote pericxl in the time of the 
colonies. The following are the names of the children of John Corder : Vin- 
cent, John, Nathan, Martin, Elias, Alexandria, Betty, Hannah and Polly, all 
of whom married, reared families and became settled in life. 

Elias Corder was born in reared in Virginia and in due time became 
a prominent farmer and slaveholder and was widely and favorably known 
as a public spirited citizen. In his early life he was a Whig, and although a 
Union man at the breaking out of the Civil war, all of his interests being in 
the South his sympathies naturally turned in that direction, but he was too 
old at the time for military service. Owing to the freeing of his slaves he 
sufl:'ered heavy pecuniarv loss, but as he had always been kind to his slaves 
the majoritv remained with him and assisted in recuperating his fortunes 
after the war closed. He married, when a young man, Sarah Jeffries, a 
member of one of the first families of Virginia, who bore him children as 
follows ; Aldridge, a soldier of the Civil war, who is still living ; Fanny died 
single at the age of forty-five years ; Judson, who fought with the South 
during the late war, and is still living in his native state; Mrs. Ann Cropp ; 
John, who entered the Southern ami}' in a Missouri regiment and served 
until the close of the Civil war; Henry Clay, a farmer of Lafayette county; 
Mrs. Sarah M. Bagley, of Virginia; William (deceased); Jeffries P., of 
this review, and Lelia, who died in early life. Elias Corder was born in 
1806 and died in 1877. His wife, whose birth also occurred in 1806, lived 
to be eighty years old, both having been highly esteemed members of the 
Primitive Baptist church and greatly respected by the people among whom 
their lives were spent. Meredith Jeffries, a brother of Mrs. Corder, served 
in the war of 18 12 and took part in the campaign in which the city of Wash- 
ington was captured and destroyed by the British, besides participating in a 
number of other battles and earning an honorable record as a soldier. 

Jeffries P. Corder was reared on the paternal homestead in Rappahan- 
nock county, Virginia, and after receiving an elementary education in the 
country school was preparing for more advanced scholastic training when the 
Civil war interfered with his plans. Imbued with an ardent patriotism and 
devotion to his state, he volunteered at the beginning of the struggle in the 
h'orty-ninth Regiment Virginia Infantry, Compan}^ G, the reg'iment recruited 
by ex-Governor Smith, who became its gallant leader in some of the most 
noted campaigns and bloody battles which made the early sixties historic. 



724 



PAST AND PRESENT 



(ioiiii^- into cam]) at Bull Run after the first l)attle of that name had been 
fought, the regiment was subsequently transferred to Vorktown, where it 
was first under fire in a figlit with [""ederal gunboats and. joining General 
"Stonewall" Jackson's division later, it ])articipate(l in a numl>er of the blood- 
iest engagements of the Virginia campaigns. Mr. Corder was wounded 
and taken prisoner at Fair Oaks and for i\\<; months was confined at Fort 
Delaw are. w hen an exchange w-as effected. Rejoining his command at Rich- 
mond, he was soon afterwards in the terrific battle of Fredericksburg, after 
which the regiment was variously engaged under Lee's invasion of Pennsyl- 
vania, when he took i)art in the great and decisive battle of CJettysburg, 
where over half of his company was lost and where he was again wounded, 
though not sufficiently serious to cause him to leave the ranks. Later he 
participated in the battles of the Wilderness. Spottsylvania Court House and 
Cold Harbor, where he received a gunshot wound in the right thigh and left 
arm, which necessitated three months' treatment in a hospital at Richmond 
ere he was sufficiently recovered to rejoin his company. During the latter 
part of his service he took part in the battles of Peter.sburg and Farm tlill. 
thence retreated to Appomattox Court House, where in due time (ieneral 
Lee surrendered his army, which i)ut an end to the war. 

Mr. Corder experienced all the hardships and dangers of warfare but 
never faltered in his duty to what he considered a noble cause. After the 
surrender he received a parole which he yet treasures as a relic and. returning 
home, remained in \^irginia until 1868. wlien he went to Lafayette county. 
Missouri, where he li\ed with a brother on a farm until marrying and en- 
gaged in agriculture pursuits for himself in the year of 1870. Mr. Corder 
chose for his first wife Mrs. Fannie Ramey. widow of Thomas Ramey. whose 
death some time previously was caused by an accident, her first marriage 
being without issue. Mrs. Corder was the daughter of John Corder. a native 
of Virginia, and an earl\" settler and ])rominent farmer of Lafayette county. 
Missouri, she being one of his six children, whose names are as follows: Mrs. 
Lucy (ioodwin. Mrs. Letitia Elzy, Mrs. Fannie Corder, Mrs. Eliza Jackson, 
Mrs. Martha Hayes and Jacksoline, who married Cla\- Corder, brother of 
the subject. 

The marriage of Jeffries P. and bannie Corder resulted in the birth of 
three daughters, namely : Willie, who lives w^ith her father, looks after the 
home and ministers to his comfort; Lucv. wife of Charles Piper, and Blanche, 
who died unmarried at the age of twenty-four years. After his marriage Mr. 
Corder engaged in fanning and stock raising, which he continued with 
marked success for a number of years, accumulating in the meantime a suf- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 725 

ficiency of this world's goods to make him independent and to enable him to 
move to Marshall, where he resided for some time for the purpose of edu- 
cating- his children. Later he purchased a farm in Saline county on which he 
lived until 1902, when he again transferred his residence to Marshall, al- 
though continuing his agricultural interests until June, 1908, when, on ac- 
count of the death of his wife, he sold his place and retired fn^n active life. 
Politically Mr. COrder is an uncompromising Democrat, though not an otifice 
seeker, and fraternally belongs to the Masonic order. In matters religious, 
he holds to the creed of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, with which 
body his wife was also identified, his daughter Willie being an earnest and 
devoted member of the Baptist church. 



GEORGE T. HAHN. 



George J. Hahn. son of Hammond P. and Sarah ( Saudey ) Hahn. was 
born in Rockingham county. Virginia. h>bruar\- 10. 1(847. ^^^^^ belongs to a 
sturdy family of German descent which for many years figured prominently 
in the history of that part of the Old Dominion state. Hammond P. Hahn 
was a farmer and slaveholder, a gentleman of strictest integritA- whose honor 
was never impugned and whose word wherever known had all the sanctity 
of a written obligation. A leader in the Lutheran church and prominent in 
every good work, he lived a life of great usefulness and his death, which oc- 
curred in Rockingham county on May i. 1868. was considered a personal 
loss by all who knew him. Mrs. Hahn. who was born No\ember 16. 18 18. 
survived him until the year 1872, having borne him the following children : 
Mrs. Mary A. Whitmore. Eliza Sherman. Mrs. Sarah F. Hawkins. George 
J. (subject of this sketch). James H., Mrs. Martha J. Schaeffer. Mrs. Lucy 
W'isner. Luther and Emma, all but the two younger living to maturity. 

George J. Hahn remained at home assisting in the cultivation of the 
farm until 1864. when, feeling that duty called him to the defense of his 
beloved state, he entered Davis's battalion of Maryland troops and went 
forth to do battle for the Confederate cause. For some months his service 
consisted mainly in scouting and skirmishing down the Shenandoah valley, 
but later he took part in the battles of Newmarket and Piedmont, receiving 
in the latter a gunshot wound in the right shoulder which for one month laid 
him off duty. The battalion entered the engagement at Piedmont ninety 
strong, but came out with only fifty survivors, which facts attest the de- 



726 PAST AND PRESENT 

structive nature of the tight and the part the Maryland troops took in re- 
pelling the attack of the enemy. Sometime after this the remnant of the com- 
pany was divided and Mr. Hahn was assigned to Barton's division, whose 
principal duty was the guarding of Libby and Castle Thunder prisons in Rich- 
mond. Mr. Hahn's last active service in Virginia was with Rosser's brigade 
in the Shenandoah, where it went to check Sheridan's second raid, but being 
too weak to engage the enemy under that intrepid leader, the force scattered 
and each man finally made his way home as best he could, Mr. Hahn 
arriving at the family homestead, where after resting for a while he made 
preparations to join Johnston's command in the Carolinas. He had already 
started, but hearing of the surrender of that general's forces returned home 
and later entered an academy, which he attended until obliged to take charge 
of the farm. His father dying in 1868, Mr. Hahn the following year came 
to Missouri and located at Miami, where he was employed for eleven years as 
clerk in a general store. At the expiration of that period, in partnership with 
a friend, he purchased his employer's stock and embarked upon what proved 
to be a brief but prosperous business career of twelve months' duration. 
Selling out to his associate at the end of the time indicated, Mr. Hahn took 
another partner and opened a jewelry store in Marshall, purchasing stock 
to the amount of eleven thousand dollars, on which they paid five thou- 
sand dollars in cash, going in debt for the balance. After a few months he 
bought his partner's interest and three years later all of his indebtedness was 
wiped out. He had the largest and by. far the most successful business of 
the kind in Marshall and one of the leading jewelry establishments in .the 
central part of the;^state. In 1883 he trade,^! the stp,re,,for ,a farm, which he 
subsequently disposed of at a liberal profit, and about the same time helped 
close out a large stock of dry goods wdiich also redounded greatly to his 
financial advantage. Later he invested considerably in farm land and for 
some time was interested with a partner in the grocery business, which proved 
a successful venture. 

Without describing in detail the various interests with which Mr. Hahn 
has been afterwards identified, suffice it to state that he became quite an ex- 
tensive dealer in country and city property. He still retains an interest in 
two business establishments in the city besides owning two good farms in 
Sahne county and land in Old Mexico. 

Mr. Hahn is a Democrat in politics and for a number of years repre- 
sented his ward in the city council where he labored diligently to promote 
the various public improvements which have made Marshall so beautiful and 
attractive and given it such wide publicity among the progressive cities of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI ^2^ 

the state. Religiously he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
South, but does not confine his good work to any one church or organization, 
being interested in all charitable enterprises of whatever name or order and 
donating freely to all worthy means for the good of his fellow men. Mr. 
Hahn was married in 1879 to Eva Saufley, of Saline county, daughter of 
Jonas and Martha J. (Brown ) Saufley, natives of Virginia and representa- 
tives of old and well known families of that state. William Brown. Mrs. 
Hahn's grandfather, came to Missouri a number of years ago and was one 
of the well known pioneers of his day. He entered several extensive tracts 
of land, became a prominent farmer and was long a leader in the neighbor- 
hood where he settled. Jonas Saufley came to Missouri on horseback when a 
young man and for some time was an overseer on a large tract of land, later 
purchasing land of his own and becoming a successful farmer and public 
spirited man of affairs. He went to St. Louis at the beginning of the Civil 
war to avoid the troubles to which he knew the central part of the state 
would be subject, notwithstanding which precaution his place was frequently 
raided and overnm by the militia and much damage done. Returning home 
at the close of the war, he devoted himself to his various business interests 
until advancing age obliged him to discontinue, active pursuits, when he re- 
tired and spent the remainder of his life in the quiet and content of his home, 
dying- in October of the year 1892. His widow, who is still living , on the 
old homestead, has reached an old age, and retains to a marked degree the 
possession of her faculties, physical and mental. The children born to Air. 
and Mrs. Saufley were seven in number, their names being as follows : Anna, 
wife of Dr. A. R. Edmonds ; Eva. who married the subject of this sketch : 
Charles W. ; Mattie, now Mrs. N. Myers; Darwin H., deceased; Mrs. Letitia 
Hooper, and Edna, who married D. N. Burrus. Mr. and Mrs. Hahn have 
one child, a daughter, who answers to the name of Iva D., an intehigent young 
lady who is still with her parents. 



ORMOND HUPP. 



Abraham and Elizabeth Hupp were Virginians and they had seven chil- 
dren, the third of whom was Abraham Hupp, who was born in Shenandoah 
county, Virginia, in 1805. In early manhood he migrated to Indiana and set- 
tled in La Porte county, whence he went to Missouri, in 1867, and became a 
resident of Saline county. He became owner of a large farm near Slater and 



728 PAST AND PRESENT 

for two score vears was an honored and widely known citizen, as well as a 
l)rosperoiis agriculturist. He was ninety years old when he died and few^ men 
make hetter use (^t s(^ long' a life. He was a Whig- and Republican in politics 
and while a resident of LaPorte in 1845-6 was elected doorkeeper of the In- 
diana Legislature. He was made a Mason in 1839. was always an enthusiastic 
member of the order, and held religious convictions in accord with the teach- 
ings of the Baptist church, of w^hich h*e was long a member. June 9, 1837. he 
married Louisa Gardner, who was born in Cincinnati. Ohio, in 1814. and died 
in 1904 at Marshall. Missouri. They had ten children; Mrs. A. E. Replogle. 
of LaPorte. Indiana; Ormond ; George deceased; Mrs. Emily Austin, de- 
ceased; Mrs. Julia Crane, deceased; Arthur, of Marshall, Missouri; Orlando, 
of Idaho; Mrs. Hattie McAmis, of Marshall; Theodore T., who resides near 
Slater; and Wesley, deceased. 

Ormond Hupp, second of the family, was born at LaPorte, Indiana, Sep- 
tember 10, 1840. He received a common school education and spent one year 
at Notre Dame, the famous Catholic college of that section of Indiana, but had 
fiardi)- reached his maturity when the terrible tocsin of the Civil war dispelled 
all peaceful thoughts from the minds of millions while making an urgent and 
irresistible call to arms. Septeml^er i, 1861, Mr. Hupp became a soldier of 
the Union by enlisting in the Fifth Indiana Battery, under Captain Simonson, 
of Columbia. He saw much hard service with this command, being in the bat- 
tles of Stone River, Perryville, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga and many 
minor engagements. He was with General Sherman until the Jonesboro fight, 
and during the campaign was under fire three months on the skirmish line. 
October 6, 1862. he was seriously wounded in the shoulder by a fragment of a 
shell in addition to being severely burned about the body from powder at the 
battle of Perryville and was sent to the hospital at New Albany, Indiana. On 
recovering from his injuries a year later, he rejoined his regiment and com- 
pleted his term of enlistment. He was finally discharged from the service in 
the winter of 1864. He returned to Indiana and farmed one year and came to 
Saline county in 1867. Securing a farm, he entered actively into the business 
of cultivating Missouri soil and met with the success that usually accompanies 
industry and good management. In 1899 he removed to Slater in order to 
take life more easily after his strenuous labors and he is spending his time most 
pleasantly in a home whose comforts. con\-eniences and luxuries are surpassed 
by none in this region. Mr. Hujjp has always been a hard-working, frugal 
man. L'ntil his removal to Missouri he gave his father all his earnings, and 
e\en while in the army sent him ten dollars a month. The competency he en- 
joys is due entirely to the thrift and industry he has shown in the last forty 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 729 

years and no citizen of Saline countv better deserves a rest as well as peace and 
happiness than Ormond Hupp. His farm, ten miles north of Slater, is hig-hly 
improved and shows in its every feature the touch of a master hand. Idie tract 
now C(^ntains se\-en hundred acres, but at one time was a thousand acres in ex- 
tent. Besides his home farm, Air. Hupp owns a one-sixth interest in three 
thousand acres of valual)le Canadian land, g-ood farming- lands in southern 
Texas and considerable property in Slater. .\11 this is the accumulation of 
little over half an ordinar}- lifetime, and may be said to have been created out 
of nothing-, as Mr. Hupp did not have a dollar when he first faced the world 
and its responsibilities. Furthermore, the successful record of Mr. Hupp has 
been attained in the face of circumstances which at times were so discouraging- 
that the majority of people would have given up in despair. During- his in- 
fancv and youth he was the victim of a series of misfortunes and accidents 
which seemed to pursue him relentlessly, although his later years have been 
rewarded with an excellent constitution, although crippled, and the enjoyment 
of most excellent health. When only three years of age he suffered a serious 
attack of fever, culminating in a paralytic stroke which affected the entire left 
side of his body and while he practically recovered from the paralysis in a com- 
paratively short time, the growth of his left foot was stunted to such an extent 
that he is still a cripple from its effects. At the age of five years while placing 
some wood in the fireplace, his apron caught fire and he was so severely burned 
about the body that he hovered between life and death for a period of six 
months, his sufferings being c^f the most extreme nature. While a boy follow- 
ing behind his father and picking up the burdock his father was cutting with a 
cradle scythe, a misstroke of the blade was imbedded in his shoulder to the 
bone. He narrowly escaped with his life from this accident. In addition to 
the above, he underwent a serious operation for the benefit of his crippled foot, 
later nearly lost his life in a serious runaway and finally off'ered his services 
and life if need be in the defense of his country, from which he finally 
emerged after much suff'ering from wounds to take u]) the battle of life and 
acquire a home. 

In 1873 Mr. Hupp married Laura Margaret Campbell, a native of 
Tennessee, who came to Livingston county, Missouri, as a refugee. To them 
have been born twelve children, of whom ten are living: Mary, deceased: 
lessie K., wife of Llovd Kemper, who lives north of Slater, and they have one 
child: Luella, wife of Otto Ruppert, who resides near Slater and has two chil- 
dren : Gertrude, wife of Elliot Brown, who has three children: Charles 
Chancev, who resides at Old Monroe, Missouri, and has three children: Mon- 
tana, wife of Harry Harper, has three children, and is a resident of Van Al- 



730 PAST AND PRESENT 

styne. Texas; Elbert A., of I'ayette, Missouri: Oakland, Willie, Ormmid Roy 
and Vernon, at home. The twelfth child died in infancy and the mother de- 
parted this life on April i. 1907. She was a true, loving wife, a woman of 
great industry and strength of character and invaluable as an aid and en- 
courager of her husband during his many trials. She w^as of a decidedly re- 
ligious turn of mind and for years a consistent member of the Baptist church. 
Mr. Hupp is a Republican and has served as alderman of Slater, but the great 
bulk of his time as well as his affections has been devoted to agriculture and 
stock raising, to which he owed his success and his present enviable position 
in the world. 



CHARLES WRIGHT CALD\\^ELL. M. D. 

Although yet young in years. Dr. C. W\ Caldwell, a well known medical 
practitioner of Slater, Missouri, has achieved signal success in his chosen pro- 
fession and demonstrated what talent, hard work and probity of character can 
accomplish in the face of obstacles and amid environinents none too favorable. 
He is a worthy scion of a fine old Kentucky family, he himself having been 
born at Carhsle, that state, in 1873, the son of W'illiam C. Caldw^ell, a native 
of the same locality, Nicholas county. He was reared and edycated there and 
devoted his life to farming. He came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1886 
and settled south of Slater, w^here he lived, making a success of his farming 
operations, until his death in 1901. He was a member of the Presbyterian 
church and a man in wdiom the utmost confidence was reposed by his neigh- 
bors. He married Amanda Allen, also a native of Carlisle, Kentucky ; she, 
too. was the representative of an excellent old family; her death occurred in 
1905 : she was a member of the Presbyterian church. To ]\Ir. and Mrs. Wil- 
liam C. Caldwell five children were born, namely : Dr. Charles W., Mrs. J. B. 
Sterrett; E. •G.^i.of.Higginsville, Missouri, w^here he is engaged in the practice 
of law: Mrs. C. L. Parkhurst, of Hustonia, Pettis county, Missouri; J. C, 
of Slater, now a medical student in Kansas City. This family all received 
good educations and their daily lives would indicate that they were reared in a 
wholesome home environment. 

Doctor Caldwell remained in his native town of Carlisle, Kentuck}-, until 
he was twelve years of age, wdien his parents brought him to Missouri. He 
received his primary education in Slater, Saline county, graduating from the 
high school here in 1892. Having decided to enter the medical profession, he 
sought to further his literary education by spending one year at the State 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 73 1 

University at Columbia. He then went to Nashville, Tennessee, where he 
entered the medical department of the Vanderbilt University, spending two 
years there. 1dien he took the course at the Beaumont Hospital and Medical 
College, St. Louis, graduating therefrom in 1900, having made an excellent 
record in all these institutions. Soon after leaving college the Doctor began 
practicing his i^rofession in Slater and has remained here ever since, having 
been successful from the first and he now enjo}-s a very liberal patronage 
throughout this part of the county, having established a reputation second to 
none as a general practitioner, and the future to such an earnest, capable and 
relialile man as he cannot augur anything but great success and honor. 

Doctor Caldwell has never assumed the responsibilities of the married 
state. Religiously he holds to the creed of the Presbvterian church. 



JUDGE JOHN A. RICH. 



The family of this name is of English descent and Vermont origin. The 
first emigrant came over long before the Revolution and joined the colony at 
Cape Cod when population was sparse on the coast. Rev. George Whelock 
Rich, a lineal descendant of the emigrant ancestor, was born in Vermont dur- 
ing the first quarter of the nineteenth centui-y and came to Missouri in 1840. 
He was married to Susan Ann Roberts, who was born in Garrard county. Ken- 
tucky, in 1828, and died in May, 1899. Her father was James Roberts, of 
Scotch-Irish ancestry and a member of a family which became wideh" dis- 
tributed, as well as influential in the various walks of life.. Three of the chil- 
dren resulting from this union died in infancy, the survivors being Mrs. Lulu 
\\'arren and James B. Rich, of Fayette, Missouri, and the jurist of whom this 
sketch is written. 

John A. Rich was born at Liberty, Clay county, Missouri, July 12, 1855, 
and attended the public schools of Howard and Boone counties, besides the 
high school at Sturgeon and Central College. His first venture was in the 
capacity of an instructor, teaching a two-years term at Bloomington in Macon 
county, followed by two years at Monticello Seminary, in Lewis county. From 
the last named institution he came to Slater, April i, 1879, when the town was 
hardly a year old. The exchequer of the young lawyer was at rather a low 
ebb when he reached the place that was destined to prove the theater of his 
life's activities. Not deterred by poverty, however, but rather stirred on by it, 
he engaged in the practice of law with a brave heart and a wit made nimble by 



•J}^! PAST AND PRESENT 

necessity. He was successful from llie start, increasint^- his clientele steadily 
from \ear to vear. addino- new business as he disposed of the old and meantime 
f>ro\vin,o" in fame and jjopularity. He exhibited marked ability as a lawyer, 
evidently having- a natural taste for the profession, and he was soon pointed out 
as one of the rising- young men of the bar. Judge Rich has accpiired a hand- 
some competence, but his chief pleasure is derived from a higher incentixe. the 
reflection that he has earned the good will of his fellow citizens and established 
a reputation as a man of integrity. His first office was city attorney of Slater, 
and in this ]>lace he exhibited rare judgment as well as the close attention to 
business that is a marked factor in ever}' man's success. He was. however, 
destined to much higher honors and at the November election in 1898 was 
chosen judge of the criminal court of the fifteenth judicial court, composed 
of the counties of Saline and Lafayette. He was re-elected in 1904. the 
terms on the criminal bench being for six years, and he is now serving his 
second term. He has established that most prized of all reputations, the char- 
acter of a just and able judg-e. these qualities being universally conceded to 
him. His skill and fairness in handling criminal cases, his habit of tempering 
justice with mercy, his entire independence and self-restraint, have gained for 
him the universal respect of the members of the bar who practice before him. 
as well as litigants and their friends. In fact, he enjoys a state-wide imputa- 
tion . being often called to sit as special judge at Kansas City. St. Joseph and 
other cities in cases of changes of venue. 

August Z},. 1882, Judge Rich married Jennie L., daughter of Marvin and 
Salina Reynolds, who were New Yorkers, though she herself was born at Rut- 
land, Vermont. Of the six children born to this union, Evalena and Avonelle 
died in infancy. Homer Eugene, who was graduated with the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts, later took a special course in pedagogy at the State Univer- 
sity at Columbia, with a view to filling a position as teacher in the Slater high 
school, to which he had been elected. Mary, the eldest daughter, took a de- 
gree in Howard Payne College at Fayette. Lena is a sophomore at the same 
institution and Lula remains at home. 

Judge Rich and wife, as well as all the family, have been members since 
childhood of the Southern Alethodist church. The Judge has been cpiite con- 
spicuous in church circles and highly honored in connection therewith. He 
holds the office of steward, has missed but tw^o annual conferences in twenty- 
fi\-e A'ears. and has l)een a member of three general conferences, which meet 
every four years. Judge Rich was a member of the Vanderbilt commission, 
a])pointed in [906 by the general conference to settle controversies concerning- 
relations of the V^anderbilt L'niversitv and the Southern Methodist church. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 733 

Other distinguished members of the commission were Judge Edward O'Rear, 
of Kentucky, chairman; Judge Joseph A. McCullough, of South Carohna : 
Hon. Creed F. Bates, of Tennessee, and Judge Edgar D. Newman, of Vir- 
ginia. Judge Rich is cliairman of the board of curators of Central College 
of Fayette, having been chosen in June. 1906, to succeed Bishop Eugene R. 
Hendricks, of Kansas City, who had served as chairman of thirty years. In 
his capacity as chairman of the board of curators. Judge Rich delivered a 
notable address at the annual conference at Hannibal, Missouri, x\ugust 27, 
1908. The title of his address was "Central College and Missouri Method- 
ism," its theme being an appeal for Christian education and Central College. 
The ability and i)0]iularity of this eloquent outgiving caused it to be so much 
sought after that it was printed in pamphlet form and widely distributed. 
Fraternally Judge Rich is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and politically a 
Democrat, though restraints of his judicial office have prevented more than 
a moderate participation in politics. 



JOHN PRESTON BROWN. 

The people of this name in Saline county came from an old Virginia 
familv long established in the counties of Orange and Albemarle. For many 
generations back they were farmers in the Old Dominion and the representa- 
tives were men of note and influence in their communities. John W. Brown, 
who was lx)rn in Orange county during the last quarter of the eighteenth 
centurv. served as a soldier throughout the war of 18 12 and died in 1887, 
at the age of ninety-four years. He left a son named George E. W. Brown, 
who was b<3rn near Fredricksburg, Orange county, Virginia, in 1818, but was 
reared in Albemarle county, to which county his father had removed. He was 
a prosperous farmer and spent his entire life in his native state. At the be- 
ginning of the Civil war he enlisted in the Forty-sixth Regiment, Virginia 
Volunteer Infantry, but later was transferred to Carrington's Battery, with 
which he participated in many important engagements. He died in 1866 on 
his farm north of Charlottesville, from the effects of a wound received in one 
of the battles. He married Lucintha Ann Petitt, who was born in Albemarle 
countv in 1822. the daughter of Fountain W. Petitt, a farmer of that section. 
She was a woman of strong character and lovable traits, a longtime member 
of the Baptist church, and died in 1893, at the age of seventy-one years. Her 
seven children, all of whom are living, are thus recorded in the family register : 



734 PAST AND PRESENT 

John 1\ : Mrs. E. W. Wood, who resides in Pettis county, near Sedalia ; Wil- 
liam G., a farmer in Albemarle county; Mrs. Sallie S. Wood, of Topeka, Kan- 
sas ; James P., a farmer of Albemarle county ; Woods Garth, of Los Angeles, 
California; and Mrs. Lelia Vernois, who resides on a fruit farm near Topeka, 
Kansas. 

John P. Brown, the eldest of these seven children, was born near Char- 
lottesville. Albemarle county, Virginia, February i6, 1846. May 9, 1861, 
when only fifteen years old, he left school and, without his parents' knowl- 
edge, started off to the war with five companions, about his own age and older. 
These youthful warriors were accepted as recruits in the Forty-sixth Regi- 
ment Virginia Volunteer Infantiy, and gave a good account of themselves 
during the subsequent bloody struggle. Mr. Brown, despite his youth, was 
ambitious and soon gained promotion from the ranks and during- the last two 
and a half years of the war he was orderly sergeant of his company. He par- 
ticipated in nearly all of the battles of the Peninsular campaign and took part 
in the ever-memorable engagements at Manassas, Chancellorsville and Gettys- 
burg. During the seven days' fight around Richmond he was wounded in the 
leg and on April 6, 1865, he was captured at Sailor's Creek and taken to Point 
Lookout, where he was held prisoner until June 25th, of the same year. In 
February, 1869, Mr. Brown came to Saline county and located at Arrow 
Rock, A\ here he took up general contracting- and building, residing there until 
1872, when he began farming in Miami township. He followed agricultural 
pursuits until 1883, when he removed to Slater and again engaged in con- 
tracting, being the constructor of the most substantial buildings in the town. 
He is now retired from active business, though he still owns a well improved 
farm in Miami township 

September 5, 1872, Mr. Brown married Mary E., daughter of Howard 
Cameron, deceased. He was a native of Knoxville, Tennessee, but emigrated 
to Missouri in its early history and became a prosperous farmer of Miami 
township. Saline county. He died some twelve years ago, but his w'ife still re- 
sides at Slater. Mrs. Brown was born on the family homestead June 5, 1858. 
Mr. and Mrs. Brown have seven children; Mary, wife of John Nickel, resides 
at Slater; Ola, who married James Austin Jaycox, and Grover C, who mar- 
ried Nina, daughter of Dr. F. A. How-ard, are also residents of Slater. The 
other children are Harry ^^^, Lucile, Virginia and John, all living with their 
parents. Mr. Brown served as alderman of Slater for twenty-two years, dur- 
ing which time he w-as active in promoting all improvements and every move- 
ment in the interest of the city. He is an extra enthusiastic Democrat, member 
of the Masonic order, and. with his wife, he is a member of the Baptist church. 




ISAAC W. AVITT. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 7343- 

ISAAC W. AVITT. 

No man is better known in Saline county than the president of the Farm- 
ers' and Merchants' Bank of Slater. He is one of those strong- men of brains 
and substance, whose business sagacity, thrift and public spirit contribute to 
the material growth and development of a community. Essentially a business 
man, trained in that fine old school wdiere the highest integrity, imi)lacable 
justice and rugged honesty are the prerequisites of success, he is also a help- 
ful and enterprising- citizen, a loyal and generous friend, and a model in all 
the relations of life. The Avitts were a fine old Southern family, long: dom- 
iciled in the historic state of Kentucky. There Andrew Avitt, a type of the 
Southern gentleman of the old school, spent his entire life as a farmer and mil- 
ler, in both of which lines he carried on an extensive business until his death, 
in 1846. He married Jane Helm, also a native of Kentucky, and one of the 
children by this union was John R. Avitt. He was born in Breckinridge 
county, Kentucky, May 10, 1826, and was reared on his father's large farm. 
His finishing- education was received at Mt. Movina College, and in 1853 he 
came to Missouri, locating in Lafayette county, near the town of Corder, where 
he entered one hundred sixty acres of land. For many years thereafter he 
continued to buy, improve and sell lands, owning at one time over four hun- 
dred fifty acres. In 1890 he retired from active business and has since made 
his home in Higginsville, where he had one of the finest residences in Lafa}-- 
ette county. He married Frances N. Van Metre, a member of a celebrated 
Kentucky family, who died at Higginsville about 1904, after becoming the 
mother of eleven children. Only three of these are now living — George H., 
of Slater: M. B., of Higginsville, and Isaac ^^^. the well known banker and 
business man. 

Isaac W. Avitt was born in Breckinridge county, Kentucky, in 1853, but 
was brought to Missouri in the same year by his parents. His early educa- 
tion was obtained in Lafayette county. He went from his books to the farm, 
and made a full hand in all kinds of ag-ricultural work until the completion of 
his twenty-fourth year. His experience was invaluable to him, as it taught 
him practical agriculture, made him acquainted with the needs of farmers and 
laid his foundation for the broad information and liberal views that afterward 
distinguished him as a business man. After leaving the farm in 1875 ^^^ 
traded for a while in real estate and then located at Aullville, in Lafavette 
county, for the purpose of carrying on a mercantile venture. He was success- 
ful and after conducting this business for four years, he removed to Higgins- 



PAST AND PRESENT 



734b 

ville and again embarked in real estate transactions, consisting chiefly of hand- 
lino- farm lands. Continuing in this line for two years, he removed to Odessa, 
established the Farmers' Bank and became its president for four years De- 
sirino- a larger field, Mr. Avitt went to Kansas City, Missouri, where he be- 
caiJa charter member and one of the first board of directors of the Interstate 
National Bank. During the three years spent in this busy Western center, he 
•dso owned a bank in Kansas City, Kansas, and besides did some dealing in 
reni estate In 1895 he came to Slater and established the present harmers 
-uKl Merchants' Bank, of which he has been president since its organization 
He Ins laroe holdings in farm lands, and is one of the most successtul and 
prosperous of Saline county's many progressive men. His judgment and fore- 
sight command respect among his associates and he is consulted by many be- 
fore entering into deals of importance. In October, 1909, Mr. Avitt took a 
leadino- part^ in the organization of the Drovers' National Bank, of Kansas 
City Ilissouri, and is president of the institution. The bank had a capital 
stock of two hundred thousand dollars, which has recently been increased to 
three hundred thousand, with a surplus of thirty thousand dollars. It is one 
of the solid and influential financial mstitutious of the state, much ot its suc- 
cess beino- due to the business ability and sound judgment of its president. 

In TsSs Mr Avitt married Georgia Hill, of Odessa, Lafayette county, 
,vho died in 1887. leaving one child, a boy, who died the same year._ He 
siTids as high socially as he does m the business world, having long enjoyecl 
an entre into the best'society of the cities in which he has lived. As a type ot 
the best business man untainted by what is called the "commercialism of this 
ao-e, Mr. Avitt yields to none in the confines of the county. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 735 

JOHN T. RECTOR. 

The Rectors were an old Virginia family long settled in the region east 
of the lower Blue Ridge. Alfred Rector founded the village of Rectortown 
in Fauquier county which still bears his name. He was a farmer and stock 
raiser and eventually became a man of wealth. His son, William Baylis Rec- 
tor, rose to prominence as a lawyer in Campbell county, having obtained his 
education at the University of Virginia. He enlisted in the Confederate 
army in one of the regiments assigned to "Stonew^all" Jackson, and was 
killed at the battle of Winchester in 1863. He married Susan D. Frost, a 
native of Meriden. Sullivan county. New Hampshire, who came to Virginia 
when eighteen years old to teach school, and there met her future husband. 
She died in Concord, Virginia, in 1907, after becoming the mother of eight 
children, of whom those living are Mrs. Sallie D. Cardw-ell, of Concord, Vir- 
ginia; A. F. Rector, of Marshall; John T., of Slater, and Mrs. Susie B. 
Carson, the latter living- at Concord. 

John T. Rector, third in age of the living children, w^as born at Con- 
cord, Campbell county. \^irginia. January 16. 1858. He received a common 
school education and he clerked seven years in a drv g'oods store, beginning 
when eleven years old. After an intermission of two vears, tO' attend school, 
he returned to clerking and devoted four more years to that occupation. In 
July, 1 88 1, he came to Slater and was engaged for two years as agent for 
the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company. Then, as senior member of the 
firm of Rector & Gaines, he was engaged for a year in the mercantile busi- 
ness, at the end of which time he purchased his partner's interest and later 
sold it to W. H. Scanland, in connection with whom he conducted the store 
three years. Again he bought his partner's interest, ran the business for 
three years, then sold out and spent two years on a farm. Returning to Slater, 
he engaged in the real estate and insurance business with John A. Rich, this 
partnership lasting for thirteen years and not being dissolved until the election 
of Mr. Rich as criminal judge. Since then Mr. Rector has continued busi- 
ness at the old stand on his own account. In 1906 Mr. Rector was elected 
mayor of Slater and re-elected in 1908. Prior to the conferring of this 
honor he had served two years as alderman. He also served as president of 
"the school board for six years. December 3, 1885. he married S. Minnie 
Eubank, daughter of James Eubank, a native of Miami, Saline county. They 
have nine children: William E., his father's associate in business; Susie B.. 
Biidie L., Mary F., Gertrude D., Sarah Elizabeth. John T.. Jr.. Robert and 
Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Rector as well as the older children are members of 



736 PAST AND PRESENT 

tlie Methodist cliurcli, of which the former has l)een a steward for twenty 
years. He belonsfs to the Masons and has held all the chairs in Odd Fellow- 
shiji. 

An especial tribute is due to the mother of Mr. Rector. Like millions 
of others in the South, she suffered severely from the Civil war, but her 
own lot seemed particularly hard. Her husband was sacrificed on the altar 
of sectional strife, leaving her with -eight children to provide for. Though 
she sold the farm and all the implements and other articles that could be 
spared, she lost all l^ecause f)f the fact that the Confederate money paid her 
was rendered entirely worthless by the defeat of the Confederacy. She rose 
superior even to this trying situation and managed by hard work and much 
self-sacrifice to keep the w^olf from the door. Remembering her old calling, 
she again took up teaching and with the proceeds reared all of her children 
to be useful men and women. 



REV. JAMES EDWARD SHARP. 

One of the most eminent and best rememl>ered advocates of the doctrine 
of the Nazarene in this section of Missouri was the late Rev. James E. Sharp, 
than whom a more whole-souled, gentle, \et forceful and magnanimous char- 
acter it would have been hard to have found, for he spent his life in the service 
of others, often disregarding his own pleasures and desires if thereby he might 
be of assistance to those needing spiritual or material guidance or assistance 
in any way, and thus thousands have been benefited by knowing' him and thus 
a vast host of acquaintances, friends and relatives revere his memor}^ and 
treasure his good words and deeds. 

Rev. James E. Sharp descended from an excellent line of Southern an- 
cestors, In's grand])arents having been natives of Virginia. His parents, 
George Washingt(ni and Julia ( Glass) Sharp, were born, reared and mar- 
ried in Scott county, Kentucky, in which vicinity the subject also was lx)rn, 
the date of his birth being January 13, 1833. His parents moved to Clay 
county, Missouri, in 1837, afterw^ards locating in Shelby county, where they 
resided several years, thence moved to Bloomington, then the county seat of 
Macon county, and in the last two named counties the Reverend Sharp was 
princi])ally reared. He obtained his education in the common schools and the 
high school, later attending McGec College. He received a good education, 
and his conversion occurred in Bloomington, whei"e he united with the Cum- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 737 

berland Presbyterian church in the fall of 1849. He became a candidate for 
the ministry under the care of Ewing- presbytery at Shiloh campground, 
Macon county, in the fall of 1850. In the spring of 185 1 he placed himself 
under the care of the adjoining presbytery of McGee, by which he was 
licensed to preach at Eldad church, Randolph county, in the fall of 1853 and 
ordained in Huntsville in the spring of 1856. 

Reverend Sharp was united in marriage with Louisa Jane Hannah, a 
native of Randolph county, September 15, 1853. The union was most for- 
tunate and happy, Mrs. Sharp having ever been a helpmeet indeed, and by 
her noble and self-sacrificing life she has well earned the high esteem in 
which she is held by all who have known her. She is still living, in 1909, a 
blessing to her family and neighbors. Nine children were born to Reverend 
and Mrs. Sharp, three of whom survived their father, namely : William 
Fleming, George Edward Caldwell, and Rosa Lee, wife of Dr. James L. 
Russell, all residing in Marshall, Missouri. The sons and sons-in-law are 
dentists by profession and are in successful practice. 

While a probationer for the ministry and for several years afterwards 
the Reverend Sharp traveled a g"reat deal, preaching- in churches, dwellings, 
court houses, school houses, at camp meetings, etc. He was pastor of Kirks- 
ville congregation from the fall of 1856 to the spring of 1861, except about 
eight months in 1859, when he preached for the Chillicothe mission. L'nder 
his management Cumberland Academy was erected at Kirksville, and had 
been in successful operation about a year before the Civil war began and its 
growth was interrupted. It was the first school of the grade of an academy 
or college planted in Kirksville. From that town he went to Bloomington 
and while pastor there conducted a great revival in 1863, which greatly 
strengthened the church and resulted in numerous conversions, doing a great 
work as he had done at Kirksville. In connection with his continuous min- 
istry at Bloomington, he resided a short time in the neighboring town of 
Callao, where his ministry was again blessed to many persons. During a 
portion of the Civil war period he edited and published a bright and inter- 
esting weekly paper called The Macon Legion, having acquired some knowl- 
edge of the printing business in his youth in the office of The Macon Demo- 
crat. In the fall of 1864 he took charge of the work at Kinmundy, Illinois, 
where he labored for four years. Returning to Missouri, his next pastorate 
was at Moberly, and after an interval he was pastor there a second time, 
having accepted the work at the Kansas City mission in the meantime, clos- 
ing his work in the mission in the fall of 1874 and continued to reside in 
Kansas City, assisting in pastorate work until the spring of 1875, when he 

47 



73^ PAST AND PRESENT 

became pastor of the congregation at Warrensburg, Missouri, where he re- 
sided six years. In the spring' of 1881 he returned to Moberly and remained 
there three years. He organized the church and broke the first ground to 
build the first Cumberland Presbyterian church in that city. He moved from 
there to Marshall, where he was pastor for a period of seven years. Besides 
doing a great work in the church, as he had done other places, he was very 
largely instrumental in establishing the college at Marshall under the auspices 
of this denomination, and he later did a great deal toward its prosperity 
and success. This is known as the Missouri Valley College. His next work 
was as synodical niissionar}- for the church in Missouri, and he did a great 
ser\-ice in this work. l)ut when the synod abandoned the work he conducted 
revival meetings until he was seized with disease which finally ushered him 
into the unseen world. .Ml through his long sufferings he never complained, 
bearing it heroicalh', having passed peacefully and triumphantlv over the 
river on August 8, 1895. 

Through the efiforts of Andrew Olson, a life-size portrait of Reverend 
Sharp was presented by the citizens of Marshall to the Missouri Valley Col- 
lege as a token of their appreciation of his labors in securing the location of 
this institution at Marshall. He is remembered as a man of great social 
qualities, possessed a broad and profound intelligence and he was a speaker 
of much ability. His life was a pure one and no breath of suspicion ever 
touched his good name. He was, indeed, a grand and useful character and 
a man whose place in northern Missouri can never be filled. 



JEROME B. PRIOR. 



The family of this name in Saline county is Irish on both sides of the 
house. William Prior came to America from the Emerald Isle when a young 
man and first settled in New York, where he lived for several years. Being 
a shoemaker, his trade made him something of a "tourist," and we find him 
temporarily a citizen of various places, including Charlestown, South Caro- 
lina, Mobile, Alabama, and then returning to the South Carolina capital for a 
brief sojourn. Finally he landed at St. Louis, where he embarked on an up-riv- 
er Missouri boat which was soon after stranded. He returned to St. Louis and 
fitted up a team and went across country to Saline county, where he arrived 
in the spring of 1845. He located on a farm four and a half miles from Mar- 
shall, which he cultivated industriously until his death, which occurred in 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 739 

1895, after he had reached the remarkable age of ninety-eight years. While 
in New York city, he married Ellen Johnston, who was born in Ireland in 1811 
and died in 1884, after becoming the mother of seven children; Lewis N., 
deceased; Emily J., deceased wife of Daniel Black; W. E., who lives in 
Marshall; Thomas B., a resident of the county near Shackelford; Ellen E., 
deceased wife of F. E. Rigney; James B., deceased, and Jerome B. 

Jerome B. Prior, youngest of the family, was born on his father's farm 
west of Marshall, October 2, 1856, and now owns the old homestead which 
was the scene of his childhood. He remained under the parental roof until 
the fall of 1889, when he removed to Shackelford and engaged in the mer- 
cantile business, remaining there for ten years and doing some fine trading 
on the side. In October, 1899. he disposed of his store and removed to Mar- 
shall to engage in the real estate and insurance business, followed by three 
years as a g'rocer. Finally retiring from all mercantile pursuits, he has de- 
voted recent years to his farming interests and other investments. Mr. Prior 
is serving his second term in the city council as a representative of the first 
ward, having been elected in April, 1906, and re-elected two years later. 

October 12, 1898, Mr. Prior married Agnes C. O'Laughlin, daughter of 
a notable character who was well known along the Mississippi in the olden 
da}'s. Michael O'Laughlin was bom in Ireland, but sought the shores of 
America at an early period in the nineteenth century. He was a passenger 
on the first steamer that came up the Mississippi river, and conducted the first 
store in St. Louis, a grocery located at Main and Spruce streets. He was 
engaged in business for forty years at the metropolis of Missouri and ranked 
as one of the city's early settlers. He married Johanna King, a native of 
Saline county and a daug'hter of Thomas and Catherine King', who came 
here in the spring of 1850 and settled on a farm near Shackelford. Mrs. 
Prior was born at St. Louis, February i, 1876, and was educated at Loretta 
Academy, from which institution she was graduated in June, 1893. Her 
birth occurred in what is now said to be the oldest house in St. Louis, the 
same building in which her father carried on business for so many years. Mr. 
and Mrs. Prior have three children: Helen, born September 21, 1899. on 
William Prior's farm two miles west of Marshall; Jerome H., born in Mar- 
shall August 6, 1901, and William K., born December 3, 1905. Mr. and 
Mrs. Prior are members of St. Peter's church and the latter belongs to the 
United Daughters of the Confederacy. Mr. Prior is a member of the Mac- 
cabees and Knights of Columbus, and is a Democrat in politics. His father 
was one of the organizers of the old Catholic church, near the west Marshall 
township line and took much interest in its affairs during his lifetime. He 



740 PAST AND PRESENT 

was among the first to cast his lot with Saline county, and when he came 
here wild game was still abundant. Many of the older residents will readily 
recall this sturdy pioneer, as he traveled over the country on his favorite 
pony, making a picture of "ye olden times" of Missouri. The various genera- 
tions of Priors have done their full share in developing and building up Sa- 
line county, with which they have been identified almost from its organiza- 
tion. They have achieved well desei*ved success in the different pursuits to 
which tliev have lent their energies. 



GEORGE EDWARD CALDWELL SHARP. D. D. S. 

One of the most progressive and highly esteemed citizens of Marshall, 
Missouri, and a man in whom the utmost confidence is reposed by his large 
clientele, is Dr. George E. C. Sharp, who is a descendant of ancestors of 
such sterling worth that he should take a just pride in this fact. He has 
been an active citizen of the town for the past quarter of a century, during 
which time he has seen the great development of the same from a mere 
hamlet on the prairie to a busy and opulent city, taking no small part in the 
progress of the place in which he has had a healthy pride from the first — in 
fact, he has been identified with every interest to promote the moral and 
intellectual growth of the community. 

Doctor Sharp was born at Kirksville, Missouri, March 3, 1857, one of 
nine children born to Rev. James E. Sharp and wife, the maiden name of 
the latter being Louisa Jane Hannah. A complete memorial sketch of the 
father is to be found on another page of this work ; suffice it to say here that 
he was one of the best known and most prominent men of this part of the 
state for many years. Of the nine children, only three sui*vive, all living in 
Marshall; they are: William F. ; Rosa Lee, wife of Dr. James L. Russell, a 
sketch of whom appears in this volume; and the subject of this sketch. 

Doctor Sharp received his primary education in the public schools of 
Kansas City, later attending the Warrensburg State Normal, receiving an 
excellent text-book training. While yet a boy he decided to take up den- 
tistry for a life work and accordingly began the study of this profession in 
1879, under the preceptorship of Dr. A. O. Griggs, of Warrensburg, Mis- 
souri, under whom he made rapid headway, and in a short time opened an 
office in Higginsville, Missouri, in 1879, where he remained for seven 
months. In January, 1880, he moved to Moberly, Missouri, and was sue- 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOURI 74I 

cessfully engag-ed in the practice there for a period of four years. On May 
18, 1884. he came to Marshall, Saline county, and has been in continuous 
practice here ever since, having enjoyed a liberal patronage from the first 
and winning a place in the front rank of dentists in a community noted for 
the high order of its medical and surgical talent. He took a post-graduate 
course at the Haskell Post-Graduate School at Chicago in 1897. During 
the twenty-five years of his practice here he has made hosts of friends among 
his loyal patrons and all others, in fact, who have become known to him. 

Doctor Sharp's domestic life began in October, 1879, when he formed a 
matrimonial alliance with Ella Viola Davis, daughter of James M. Davis, 
an old resident of Saline county, where this family has long been prominent 
in local affairs. Mrs. Sharp was living near Blackburn, Elmwood township, 
when she was married. She received a good common school education and 
has proved to be a fit life companion for the Doctor. Three children have 
graced this union, namely: Beulah, wife of Dr. H. C. Powers, of Joplin, 
Missouri; Dr. E. E. Sharp, a graduate of the dental department of Wash- 
ington University, of St. Louis, and who is associated with his father in this 
profession, having been thus associated for the past four years, the firm 
being known as Sharp & Son ; Maymie Lou is living at home. These chil- 
dren received evei"y advantage in reference to education, and they clearly 
reflect in their daily lives the culture and careful training they have received. 

Dr. George E. C. Sharp has been very successful in a business way, and 
besides a modern and well equipped office and a beautiful home, he has 
other interests of no small importance, being vice-president and director of 
the Bank of Saline; also director and vice-president of the Marshall Ice 
Company. He has taken considerable interest in local affairs, as already 
intimated, and he has been a member of the board of education for the past 
fourteen years. ha\ing been president of the same for four years. He is 
a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He was ordained deacon 
many years ag'O' and is now a ruling elder in the church. He takes a great 
deal of pride in the work of the church and Sunday school, having- been 
superintendent of the Sunday school in the local congregation for the past 
thirteen years. Mrs. Sharp is also a member of this church. Fraternally 
the Doctor belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having passed 
through all the chairs in the local lodge; he also belongs to the Knights of 
the Alaccabees and the Woodmen of the World. He was on the local board 
of aldennen for one term, but he has never been active in politics. He is a 
Democrat. He has always been interested in whatever tended to the advance- 
ment of Marshall and he is particularly interested in educational work, and 



742 PAST AND PRESENT 

his efforts to promote the welfare of the local schools while president of the 
school board is especially commendable. He is a man of pleasing address, 
always obliging, kind and courteous. 



GUTHRIE EUGENE SCRUTCHFIELD, M. D. 

The family of this name in Saline county is of Kentucky origin. Wil- 
liam Scrutchfield, who was bom in the historic county of Boone during the 
latter part of the eighteenth century, emigrated to Missouri when it was 
still a sparsely settled territory. As early as 1810 he located in Macon 
county and was one of the very first settlers of that region. He entered land 
and engaged in farming, which was his occupation until his death, some ten 
or twelve years ago. He married Barbara Burton, native of Virginia, who 
was brought by her parents to Randolph county, Missouri, in her childhood. 
They reared a large family, one of whom was David F. Scrutchfield, who 
became a farmer and trader in horses and cattle. He married Cclina B. 
Jones, a native of Illinois, by whom he had two children, Mrs. F. M. Wood- 
ford, of Atchison, Kansas, and the popular young doctor who is the subject 
of this sketch. 

G. E. Scrutchfield, the elder of his father's two children, was born in 
Macon county, Missouri, November 4, 1870. He grew up on the farm, but 
meantime obtained a good education in the high school at Macon, supple- 
mented by attendance for a term at the Missouri State University at Co- 
lumbia, from which he was graduated in 1892. Shortly after he entered 
the Missouri Medical College, now Washington University, at St. Louis, and 
obtained his degree from this institution in the class of 1894. He spent 
eighteen months in St. Louis as associate superintendent of the City Hos- 
pital and received two special certificates from the city of St. Louis for 
special work done there during the smallpox epidemic of 1895. After this 
valuable experience Doctor Scrutchfield opened an ofiice at Macon, where he 
spent eight years in active practice. Realizing the value of post-graduate 
work, he spent a winter at the New York Polyclinic School of Medicine and 
then returned to Missouri to take up his life work. Locating in Marshall in 
1904, he has practiced continuously ever since and grown rapidly in public 
estimation. Besides the general work of regular physicians, Doctor Scrutch- 
field specializes on eye, ear, nose and throat diseases. 

In 1906 the Democratic party nominated the Doctor for coroner and, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 743 

being duly elected, he served two years most satisfactorily. Re-elected in 
1908, he is now in the first year of the four-year terni required by a new 
law. He also served two terms as coroner in Macon county, Missouri, and 
so was no stranger to the duties of the office. 

May 7, 1898, Doctor Scrutchfield married Effie L., daughter of the 
late George A. Coulter, of Macon county. The only child of this union is 
Helen Marie, born August 31, 1900. Doctor Scrutchfield is a member of 
the Saline County Medical Society, of the Elks, Modern Woodmen and 
Knights of ]\Iaccabees. He and his wife belong to the Cumberland Presby- 
terian church at Marshall, of. which the Doctor is an elder and prominent 
member. 



ROBERT T. HAM. 



Tennessee contributed a fine pioneer population to Missouri and her 
emigrants were conspicuous in many ways during the formative period of 
the state. Most of the incomers, however, were farmers, as that w^as prac- 
tically the only industry in those days. The ancestor of the Hams having- 
been killed in Tennessee, his wife turned pioneer and sought a home in the 
new state bordering the Mississippi, which at that time was very attractive 
to all adventurous spirits. This brave woman brought her children along 
and by wise management succeeded in rearing them to useful lives. Her 
son, Adam Ham, settled on a farm northeast of Slater, which he had entered 
from the government. He farmed successfully until his death, in 1872, at 
the age of sixty-two years. He married Mary Ann AMiitson. a native of 
Saline county, w^ho died in 1865, at about forty-two years of age. Of their 
nine children, seven are living. Mathias, who lives in northwestern ^lis- 
souri ; Jesse and Adam, who are farmers near Slater: Lucy A., wife of A. 
J. Gwinn. who resides in Oklahoma : ]\Irs. Bettie Pemberton. of Kansas 
City, and Mrs. Susan Agee. of Slater. Those deceased are Mrs. Mattie Don- 
ahue, who died in i8g8, at the age of forty-four years, and Mollie, died in 
1 87 1, at the age of nineteen years. 

Robert T. Ham, the other living- son, was bom two miles northeast of 
Slater, Saline count5^ Missouri, January 31, 1859. He grew up on the paren- 
tal farm and made it his home until his removal to Slater in 1905, for the 
purpose of securing better educational facilities for his children. He began 
working on the farm when ten years old, as soon as he could reach the plow 
handles, and from that time on made a full hand whenever labor was re- 



744 PAST AND PRESENT 

quired for any purpose on the place. Even since coming to Slater he has 
by no means surrendered the reins, but still gives personal attention and 
general supei-vision to his farm. It is a valuable and productive tract of land 
and has been kept in a highly improved condition, as Mr. Ham is a natural 
born farmer, with wide practical knowledge of every feature of the busi- 
ness. He is in the prime of life and a fine sample of physical manhood, being 
six feet tall, large and well built. His home in West Slater is a beautiful 
structure with all the modern conveniences and a typical residence for a pros- 
perous Missouri farmer. Aside from his life work he occasionally branches 
out in other lines and has shown himself to be a good politician. His popu- 
laritv and vote-getting (jualities attracted the attention of his fellow Demo- 
crats and in 1900 they insisted on his making the race for sheriff of Saline 
countv. He was elected, sen^ed in a very satisfactoiy manner and was re- 
elected in the fall of 1902 without trouble. He is a member of the Modern 
A\'oodmen and for years has affiliated with the Christian church. 

October 26, 1886, Mr. Ham married Lillie E., daughter of J, M. Jack- 
son, a farmer and resident of Saline county. Mrs. Ham is a native of 
Howard county, Missouri, a member of the Baptist church and has borne 
her husband four children : Robert, Jr., Jesse D., Lillian and Daisy. The 
family are well known all over the county and enjoy general esteem. In 
the case of Mr. Ham, a life of industry has been rewarded with success and 
he is reaping the fruits of the hard labor of his early manhood. The com- 
pensation is a line property, a delightful, commodious and happy home, with 
troops of friends to share with him the good thing's he has earned. 



ROBERT M. REYNOLDS. 

In the above-named gentleman we have a sample of the self-made, re- 
liant, enterprising men who have made the West. Industrious in habits, 
attentive to duties and doing well whatever they are given to do are always 
characteristics of those who succeed in life and by their success benefit their 
respective communities. Mr. Reynolds is a lawyer by profession and in 
the line of his calling has clone valuable public work. As a practitioner he is 
careful with his cases, watchful of his clients' rights, conscientious in his 
dealings with courts and juries and altogether a fine example of the "civic 
conscience" working on an individual for the general welfare. Robert M. 
Reynolds was born in Arrow Rock township, Saline county, Missouri, Jan- 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 745 

uary 17, 1863. His father, Peter T. Reynolds, was born in Saline county 
in 1830, and after reaching manhood became a farmer, but later engaged in 
merchandising at Arrow Rock and Slater. He died in the last mentioned 
town about the year 1899. The family is of Virginia origin. Cornelius 
Re\Tiolds, grandfather of Robert M., came from the Old Dominion to ^lis- 
souri when the state was still quite young, settled on a farm in Arrow Rock 
township and spent the rest of his days as a cultivator of the soil. He was 
a pioneer in that part of Saline county which was but sparsely settled when 
he moved in. His son, Peter T., married Martha Gilmer, who was born in 
Saline county in 1840, being a descendant of one of the oldest settlers. She 
died about 1901. Her father, John Gilmer, was a pioneer of the county and 
among the first of those who found out the value and productiveness of the 
rich soil of this section. Peter T. and Alartha Reynolds had seven children, 
of whom those living are thus recorded in the family Bible : John, a resi- 
dent of Slater; Robert AL. the immediate subject of this sketch; ]\Irs. ^Nlollie 
^lahard, of Marshall ; Peter, a resident of Kansas City ; Alexander, also 
of Kansas City ; and Mrs. Esma Grube, of Chicago. Robert M. Reynolds 
was reared in the town of Arrow Rock, Saline county, Missouri, and re- 
ceived a common school education, which was added to by a short period at 
Central College, at Fayette, Missouri. After completing his education he 
taught school in Arrow Rock, to which place his father had removed in 
1873, ^^^'^ '^"ose to the rank of principal by reason of his satisfactory work. 
He continued in the profession of pedagogics for four years, meantime de- 
voting his leisure to the study of law. In 1888 he was admitted to the 
bar bv Judge Field and entered at once into the active practice of his pro- 
fession. Locating first at Arrow Rock, he afterward removed to Slater, 
where he practiced for one year. In 1890 he was appointed public adminis- 
trator, which necessitated his removal to Marshall, and his subsequent elec- 
tion to the office made his sen-ice in its entirety cover a period of five years. 
The duties of public administrator were well and conscientiously adminis- 
tered by Mr. Reynolds and the people favored him with further honors. In 
1894 he was elected prosecuting attorney and resigned as administrator to 
accept. He was re-elected in 1896 and altogether held the office for two 
terms of two years each. His work as prosecutor was highly satisfactory 
and gave him that general acquaintance over the county which proved val- 
uable after he resumed the general practice and he has since had all the 
business he can legilimatelv attend to. He has been engaged in many im- 
portant cases, both civil and criminal. He appeared as one of counsel for 
the Cumberland Presbyterians in its litigation with the Presbyterian church 



740 PAST AND PRESENT 

in the famous \\'arrensburg' test case, which was decided by the supreme 
court in favor of the Cumberlands. 

In 1885 Mr. Reynolds married Sarah L., daughter of Wilham and 
Elizabeth Eddins, well known people of Howard county. William Thorn- 
ton Reynolds is the only child of this union. The parents are members of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church at Marshall and Mr. Reynolds is af- 
filiated with the Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen and the Maccabees. 
His politics are Democratic and he is one of the workers and cainpaigners 
for his party when political battles are to be foug^ht. 



STEPHEN CRAIG. 



1'he record of Mr. Craig is that of a man who by his own unaided efforts 
has worked his way from a modest beg^inning to a position of comparative 
prominence in the community. His life has been one of unceasing industry 
and perseverance and the systematic and honorable methods which he has 
followed have won him the unbounded confidence of his fellow citizens of 
Saline county. 

Mr. Craig' was born near Toronto, Canada, June 8, 1853, and is a son of 
Hugh and Jeanette G. (Spears) Robson Craig. The father was born in 
Canada. February 10, 1825, and the mother in Scotland, August 14, 182 1. 
Mrs. Craig's parents brought their family to Canada in 1834. Hugh Craig 
was 1:)orn and reared on a farm and on attaining mature years he engaged 
in the mercantile business, but at the end of seven years he ceased that and 
engaged in farming- and at the same time operated a sawmill. In 1866 he 
moved to Cooper county, Missouri, living at Boonville one year, and during 
the greater part of the period of his residence in Cooper county Mr. Craig 
was engaged in the operation of a sawmill. In 1872 Mr. Craig moved to 
Saline county, the family coming here the following year. During the first 
two years of his residence here Mr. Craig operated a saw mill and at the 
same time he cultivated leased land. In 1875 he purchased about a section 
of bottom land located between Arrow Rock and Saline City, but he con- 
tinued to operate the saw mill until about t88t. having leased the plant, but 
in the year mentioned the subject of this sketch and his brother Patrick- 
bought the mill. Mr. Craig established his home on the bottom land and 
there continued to reside until his death. At the present time there is only 
about a half of the land he owned remaining, the balance having been 
washed awav bv the treacherous Missouri river. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 747 

In politics Hugh Craig was a Democrat, though he never manifested 
any special interest in politics aside from the casting of his ballot. His fra- 
ternal relations were with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Religious- 
ly he was identified with the Presbyterian church while living in Canada, 
but after their removal to Missouri he and his wife joined the Disciples 
church, with which they continued to be identified until their deaths. Mrs. 
Craig died on May 27, 1881, and was survived several years by her husband, 
who died in 1886. Both had been married prior to their own union, and by 
her first marriage Mrs. Craig had become the mother of three children, who 
remained in Canada. Mr. Craig had one son by his first marriage, Hugh. Jr., 
\\ho is now a successful farmer in Arrow Rock township, Saline county, 
Missouri, owning also a farm in Texas. To the union of Hugh and Jeanette 
Craig were born three children, namely: Patrick S., who lived in Saline 
county, died at the age of forty-four years, leaving a widows who is now^ 
^Irs. Hari-y Hudson, and four daughters; Stephen is the immediate subject 
of this sketch; William S. never married and died in 1883. at the age of 
twenty-seven years. 

Stephen Craig continued to make his home with his parents until the 
time of his marriage and during his boyhood days he secured his education 
in the schools of the neighborhood. He was a valued assistant to his father 
in the work of the farm and also as sawyer in the mill. After his marriage, 
which occurred in 1879, he continued to work as sawyer for his father until 
1 88 1, when he and his brother Patrick bought the mill and two hundred 
and fort3'-three acres of bottom land. At the time of purchase there was a 
residence on this land, but they proceeded to build another, and thereafter 
they continued to conduct the mill and farm together. At their father's 
death, they bought the paternal estate of tw^o hundred and ninety-five acres, 
and continued to operate the same in partnership until 1892, when they dis- 
solved the partnership and divided the property. In the division the subject 
retained the saw mill as a part of his share and he continued successfully to 
conduct the mill until 1903, when the rivers overflowed and covered the mill 
with sand. The mill still remains imbedded in this sand, no attempt having 
been made to uncover it. At the present time Mr. Craig owns about one 
hundred and seventy acres of what was his father's bottom land and two 
hundred and forty acres of high land located in sections 23 and 24. He has 
been unfortunate in losing land by the encroachments of the Missouri river, 
having in this w^ay lost the greater part of one hundred and sixty acres of 
bottom land in Cooper county and over one hundred and twenty acres in 
Saline county. In addition to his real estate holdings in Missouri, Mr. Craig 



74<^ PAST AND PRESENT 

also owns a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, located in Wichita and 
W'ilbarg- counties, Texas. He is a splendid business man and has been en- 
terj^rising and progressive in the operation of his land. He is very energetic 
and keeps in close touch with every detail of his farm work, the result being 
that each year he is enabled to realize a handsome profit in his operations. 

]\Ir. Craig has twice been married, the first time on September 24, 1879, 
when he was united to Mary Catherine Stafford, wlio was a native of Craw- 
ford county, Missouri, born February 10, 1857, the daughter of Jesse Staf- 
iovd. To this union were born eleven children, of whom five are living, 
namely: J. Otis, of Texas: Flora Pearl, the wife of William Hubbard, of 
Arrow Rock, Missouri: Florence Ruby. Lavena Kate and Annie Black- 
well, who are at home. Mrs. Mary Craig died on June 11, 1896 and on 
June 8. 1897, 'My. Craig married Cora L. Wiley, who was born in 1878 in 
Saline county, the daughter of A\'illiam and Ida ( Velten ) Wiley. To this 
union have been born six children, one of whom died in infancy, those living- 
being Clifton C. Etta L. Cora C. Benjamin Stephen and Dorothy. 

Politically Mr. Craig- has always exercised his right of franchise in sup- 
port of the Democratic party and he has taken a commendable interest in 
local public atTfairs, though at no time has he been an aspirant for the honors 
or emoluments of public office. Mr. Craig" and the members of his family 
are faithful members of the Disciples church and give to that society an 
earnest and generous support, being' active in advancing the interests of the 
society. In avenues of activity in which he has engaged. Mr. Craig has per- 
formed his full part and has at all times enjoyed the unbounded confidence 
and esteem of the entire community, who appreciate his sterling qualities of 
manhood. 

William R. Hubbard, son-in-law of the subject of this sketch, was born in 
Montgomery county, Missouri, in July. 1872, and in his youth was brought 
to Saline countv. He received his education in the schools of Arrow Rock 
township and in a private school at Arrow Rock, conducted by Mrs. Anna 
McMahan. His parents were William R. and Arretta (Grooms) Hubbard, 
both of whom were natives of Montgomery county, Missouri. Mr. Hub- 
bard died about 1874, leaving two children, the subject and his sister, who 
is now the wife of Roy Piper, of Clay township. Saline county. Her hus- 
band having died when her children were babies, Mrs. Hubbard moved to 
Arrow Rock township. Saline county, and purchased a farm, where she 
made her home several years and then moved to Arrow Rock, where she 
lived until her death, which occurred in 1906. at the age of seventy-five 
vears. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 749 

The son, William R. Hubbard, was reared to the life of a farmer and 
continued to be so engaged until 1893, when he entered the drug store of 
T. B. Morris at Arrow Rock, with the idea of learning the business. About 
three years later he bought a half interest in the business and in 1906 he be- 
came the sole proprietor of the store, which he has since successfully conducted. 
Some time ago he bought out a competing drug store and is thus now the 
only druggist at Arrow Rock. He carries a large and well selected stock 
of all the drugs and auxiliary lines usually to be found in an up-to-date drug 
store and is in command of a large and constantly increasing patronage. 

On April 26, 1905, Mr. Hubbard married Flora Pearl Craig, the 
daughter of Stephen and Mai-y C. (Stafford) Craig, of Arrow Rock town- 
ship, this county. Fraternally Mr. Hubbard is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, being a 
member of the lodges at Arrow Rock. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard 
are members of the Disciples church, in the work of which they take an 
active part. They are highly esteemed in the community because of their 
excellent qualities of character and their genial dispositions. 



JAMES L. ROBERTS. 



A very interesting couple to meet is Mr. and Mrs. James L. Roberts, 
who reside in a modern home at No. 419 East Summit street in the city of 
Marshall. Though they have reached and even passed the psalmist's limit 
of "three score years and ten," they still enjoy life, are full of vigor and 
possess many entertaining reminiscences of the past. Mr. Roberts is a na- 
tive of Johnson county, Missouri, where he resided until 1879, when he re- 
moved to Aullville, in Lafayette county, and in 1890 came from there to 
Marshall, the main object being to enjoy better facilities for the education of 
his children. He has been a buyer and dealer in cattle and hogs all his 
life and is still, at the age of seventy-three, in active business. He is the 
son of John Roberts, a Kentucky farmer, and the remote ancestry of the 
family were Welsh. May 27, 1869, Mr. Roberts married Mar}^ E. Marshall, 
a native of Lafayette county, Missouri, and a descendant of the celebrated 
Virginia chief justice. She is an enthusiastic member of the United Daugh- 
ters of the Confederacy and has many stirring tales to tell of her Civil war 
experiences. During the heat of that terrific struggle she and her mother 
came near being banished from the state for succoring sick and wounded 



750 PAST AND PRESENT 

Confederate soldiers. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are members of the Cumber- 
land Presbyterian church and the former is an unusually temperate man, 
having- a record of never smoking, chewing or drinking. His speech, too, is 
temperate, as he never swore an oath in his life, following the scriptural in- 
jimction to let his answer be "yea or nay." This honored couple became the 
parents of two children, James L. and John M., the latter being formerly 
principal of the Marshall high school, but at present secretary and joint 
owner of the Central Scientific Supply Company of Chicago. 

James L. Roberts, the younger of these brothers, was born in Johnson 
county, Missouri, August 8, 1876. His primary education was received in 
the schools of Lafayette county, but at the age of fourteen years he came to 
Marshall with his parents and entered the academic department of Mis- 
souri Valley College and pursued his studies in that department for three 
vears. The next four years were devoted to the college course proper and he 
was graduated in the class of 1897 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
His brother, who had preceded him in this institution, was graduated in 1894 
with the same degree. He married Eva, daughter of Samuel Poteet, of 
Westport, Missouri, and in the thirty-eighth year of his age ranks as a first- 
class business man. In 1898 James L. Roberts was appointed official court 
stenographer by Judge Samuel Davis, of the fifteenth judicial circuit, and 
was also appointed official stenographer of the criminal court of the same 
circuit, by John A. Rich, the presiding judge. These responsible positions 
have occupied all his time since his appointments were received and he has 
gained high reputation for the expertness and accuracy of his work. In 
1895 he was admitted to the bar, and is now a member of the firm of Barbee 
& Roberts, with offices in the Marshall building. As court stenograplier 
and law reporter his services are in demand over the state. He took the 
testimony for the state of Missouri, by appointment of ex-Chief Justice 
Theodore Brace, commissioner, in the ouster proceedings instituted by At- 
torney General Hadley against the International Harvester Company of 
America and also in the lumber trust ouster proceedings. He is a member 
of the Presbyterian church, was official stenographer for the Cumberland 
Presbyterian general assembly, and is now official stenographer for the Pres- 
byterian general assembly. In Masonry he is a member of the blue lodge, 
chapter and commandery, and also belongs to the Elks. He is an enthu- 
siastic Democrat and always is found at the front working for his party 
during campaigns. As a side line he acts as correspondent for St. Louis, 
Kansas City and other metropolitan newspapers. He has traveled extcn- 
sivelv ()\-er the L'nited States, is well informed and makes an instructive 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 751 

companion in leisure hours. He holds fine views of life, being optimistic, 
enthusiastic in good causes and reliable in all relations. In 1900 Mr. Roberts 
married Lula Stephens, of Macon. Missouri, who died in 1903. without issue. 
Mr. Roberts makes his home with his parents. 



CHARLES E. BRADFORD. 

This enterprising farmer and representative citizen of Arrow^ Rock town- 
ship is a native of Saline county, Missouri, and dates his birth from March 25, 
1869, having first seen the light of day about two miles west of the village of 
Arrow Rock, near which place the greater part of his life has been spent. His 
father, Charles H. Bradford, formerly of the township of Arrow Rock, but 
since 1900 an honored resident of Marshall, belongs to one of the old and 
reputable families of Saline county, as does also the mother, who prior to her 
marriage bore the maiden name of Susan Smith. A complete sketch of this 
family appear upon another page. 

Charles E. Bradford spent his early years in close touch with the farm, 
with proper conceptions of life and duty and the idea that true success is the 
legitimate result of inflexible integrity and honorable effort. He was reared 
to agricultural pursuits and when his services were not required in the fields 
he attended the public schools, although the greater part of his education con- 
sists of that practical kind which is only obtained at mature age by coming in 
contact with his fellow men. During- his minority he assisted his father in cul- 
tivating his home fann in Arrow Rock township, which the latter purchased 
in 1879. and on which since his tenth year the subject has lived, taking- charge 
of the place in 1900, when his father discontinued active labor and retired to 
the city of Marshall. 

The farm which Mr. Bradford now cultivates consists of one hundred 
twenty acres in section 35, and forty acres in section 25, Arrow Rock township, 
the g-reater part under a high state of cultivation and otherwise well improved. 
The land lies in one of the most productive districts of Saline county, and is 
admirably adapted to agriculture and stock raising, all the crops common to 
this latitude being grown with success and profit while the pasturage is unex- 
celled for cattle and other domestic animals upon which farmers rely as a 
source of income. Mr. Bradford is an advocate of improvements and the 
beautifying and making attractive the home, the result being seen in the 
splendid condition of everything on the premises and the desirability of his 



752 PAST AND PRESENT 

farm as a place of residence. While Mr. Bradford gives his support to the 
Democratic party, he is not a partisan nor office seeker, being- first of all a 
farmer and making evei-y other consideration subordinate thereto. He holds 
membership with the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Order of Eagles 
and stands well with both societies, besides holding from time to time official 
positions involving responsibility and trust. 

The domestic life of Mr. Bradford began in 1908, on February 15th of 
which year w^as solemnized his marriage with Leila Morris, who was born 
near the town of Butler, Bates county, Missouri, November 18, 1887. Mrs. 
Bradford, who is the daughter of Sue Morris, of Eldorado Springs, this 
state, enjoys the confidence of the neighbors and friends among whom she lives. 



WILLIAM JOSEPH CONNELL. 

In the death of the honored subject of this sketch, which occurred at his 
home in Arrow Rock township, August i, 1906, the community lost one of 
its most estimable and high minded men and the county of Saline a public 
spirited citizen, whose place it will be difficult to fill. A devoted husband and 
loving and indulgent father, a keen and sagacious man of affairs, he acted well 
his part in life, wielded a strong influence for good, and in his removal there 
passed from earth one who in a large measure had dignified his manhood and 
honored the race. William Joseph Connell was a Virginian by birth and a 
son of Brice and Elizabeth Connell, both natives of the Old Dominion state 
and descended from well known and highly esteemed families that settled in 
Page county, at an early day and took an active part in the development and 
growth of their respective communities. 

Brice Connell, whose birth occurred in the above county in 1798, mar- 
ried, in 1820, Elizabeth Summers and followed agriculture until his death, 
which took place on February 24, 1882. Shortly after the death of her hus- 
band, Mrs. Connell came to Missouri and spent the remainder of her days 
with her children, several of whom had moved to the state some time pre- 
viously and settled in various parts of Saline and Howard counties. Brice 
and Elizabeth Connell had a family of eleven children, of whom the subject 
of this review was the youngest and perhaps the most widely known. 

William Joseph Connell was born March 19, 1846, in Page county, Vir- 
ginia, grew to maturity on the home farm and received a practical education 
in the schools of his neighborhood. After remaining with his parents until 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 753 

twenty-three years of age, he left home to make his own way in the world, 
going to southern Illinois, where he spent about two years, at the expiration 
of which time he returned tO' his native state and in 1864 entered the Con- 
federate army, wnth which he served until a severe attack of typhoid fe\'er a 
few months later, which rendered him unfit for active duty. Feeling- the ap- 
proach of the dread disease, he started for home, but before proceeding very 
far his condition became such as to render further traveling impossible, in 
which dilemma he was found by a kind hearted old colored woman who took 
him into her humble cabin and tenderly nursed him until he was able to be up 
and about ; when sufficiently recovered he resumed his journey and in due 
time arrived at his father's house, where a grateful w^elcome awaited him. 

After recuperating for some time, Mr. Connell again severed home ties 
and went to central Indiana, where he remained for two years and then pro- 
ceeded west as far as Missouri, locating in the spring of 1869 on Luter's 
Island, Montgomen^ county, where he devoted the ensuing three years to 
farming. In 1874 he came to Saline county and settled on what is known as 
the Chestnut Hill farm, about one and a half miles w^est of Arrow Rock, 
where he lived and prospered for several years, removing from that place to 
the William Price farm, near the village, and still later transferring his resi- 
dence to a locality northeast of Hardiman, in the township of Arrow Rock, 
where he made his home until 1891. In February of the latter year he pur- 
chased two hundred and seventy-two acres in the above township, one hun- 
dred sixty in section 34, township 50, and ninety-two acres in section 3, town- 
ship 51, all in one body and lying about three-fourths of a mile northwest of 
the village of Napton. By well directed industry and excellent management 
he bought the land to a high state of tillage, made a number of substantial im- 
provements and in a few years his farm compared favorably with any other 
in the township. He took high rank as an enterprising and progressive tiller 
of the soil, also devoted considerable attention to fine live stock and it was not 
long until he was in independent circumstances, with a sufficiency of material 
wealth at his command to give to each of his children a substantial start in 
life when they left home to begin life for themselves. 

In his political affiliation, Mr. Connell was a Democrat, but he had little 
taste for party affairs and never aspired to office or public position. He was 
a firm believer in revealed religion and for a number of years was one of the 
pillars of the Smith Memorial Presbyterian church, in Salt Fork township, 
in addition to which he encouraged every laudable measure for the moral ad- 
vancement of the community and the general welfare of his fellowmen. He 
stood high in the esteem of his neighbors and fellow citizens, made every other 

48 



754 PAST AND PRESENT 

consideration subordinate to duty and lived an honorable life, the influence 
of which was felt by all with whom he came into contact. 

]\Ir. Council was married on the 20th day of February, 1877, to Bettie 
Smith, whose birth occurred in Howard county, Missouri, February 6, 1856, 
being- a daughter of Sacre and Lucy (Green) Smith, natives of Missouri, the 
father born in Boone county, the mother in the county of Howard. This 
marriag-e was a most fortunate and happy one, resulting- in the birth of 
twelve children, and was terminated by the death of Mr. Connell on August 

I, 1906. as stated in a preceding- parag-raph, his widow and all of his children 
surviving him. The oldest of the family is Virginia, who w^as born February 

II, 1878, and who is now the wife of A. J. Keys, of Marshall; William 
Ashby, the second, was bom March 20, 1879, and lived with his parents until 
March 21, 1899, when he married Catherine Townsend, whose birth occurred 
in Arrow^ Rock township, on the 12th day of December, 1880, and who is 
the mother of two children, Marie, born April 20, 1903, and Catherine E.. 
who first saw the light of day on September 17, 1907. Ernest H., the third 
in succession of the subject's children, was born May 7, 1880, and lives with 
his mother on the home farm. Lester, who is also at home, was born March 
23. 1882. Jesse Yewel, born September 8, 1883, lives in Chicago. Frances, 
wife of E. L. Hite, of Cooper county, Missouri, was born April 14, 1885, 
and has one child. Cecil, whose birth occurred on January 10, 1906. Nora 
Connell, who was born December 14, 1886, is still with her mother, as is also 
Joseph, w'ho w^as born October 22, 1888. Bessie w-as born June 20, 1890, 
and Anna M. on July 25, 1892. Flora, born July 14, 1894, and John H., 
whose birth occurred on the 28th day of July, 1897, are also at home and with 
their mother and others under the parental roof constitute a happy and con- 
tented domestic circle. 



SAMUEL B. THOMPSON. 

AuKjng- the honored citizens of Saline county is the subject of this re- 
view, who has here maintained his home for a period of over forty years, 
winning- a definite success b}' means of the agricultural industry, to which he 
has devoted his attention during his mature years. His career has been 
without shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil and he has ever commanded 
the confidence and esteem of his fellow men. 

The subject is a son of John and Catherine (Dingas) Thompson, the 
former of whom was born near Glasgow, Scotland, April 15, 1822. When 
he was five years old, death deprived him of his father and thereafter he 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 755 

made his home with his grandfather in Ireland until he was sixteen years 
of age, at which time his grandfather died and the young man, following 
the example of many of his countrymen, emigrated to the United States, 
locating in Philadelphia, where he made his home with an aunt. Mrs. Mary 
Adair. He secured a good practical education in the public schools of Phil- 
adelphia, and then served an apprenticeship of three years in the Holloway 
machine works. He was employed at the machinist's trade a short time and 
then was induced by a cousin, Robert Adair, to learn the trade of a gas fitter. 
He did so and worked at that trade in Philadelphia until about 1846, when 
he moved to Albany, New York, and he and his cousin were employed at 
gas fitting there until 1850. In that year the subject moved to Buffalo, New 
York, where he became superintendent of the city gas works. While re- 
siding in Buffalo, Mr. Thompson became a member of a companv which 
started the first gas plant in Detroit, Michigan, about 1852, and of this plant 
he became the superintendent. After, retaining this position a few vears, 
the gas plant was sold and Mr. Thompson went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
where another gas plant was started and again Mr. Thompson became su- 
perintendent. This plant was sold in 1857 and a short time afterwards he 
went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met James Clarkson, who induced him 
to come to Saline county, Missouri, and buy land. He came here and located 
on Blackwater creek, but did not buy land, simply renting up to 1872. when 
he bought a small piece of two acres in Brownsville (now Sweet Springs), 
where he made his home until his death, which occurred on April 25, 1874. 
Mr. Thompson was a Democrat in his political views. During the Civil war 
his sympathies were with the South and he entered the army under General 
Price, serving in a company commanded by Capt. William Brown, under 
whom he had participated in the second battle of Boonville. He later joined 
Captain Emerson's company and at the Blackwater surrender he was made a 
prisoner and was confined at McDowell College, St. Louis, for a time. Sub- 
sequently he was transferred to the prison at Alton, Illinois, in 1862, but 
there he took the oath and was permitted to return home. He was a member 
(^f the Presbyterian church. His wife died February 25, 1894. In 1846 Mr. 
Thompson married Catherine Dingas. who was born in Kensington. Penn- 
>ylvania, in September, 1824, and to them were born twelve children, namely: 
Six that died in infancy; Mrs. M. A. Andrews, residing at Sweet Springs, 
this county; Samuel B., the subject of this sketch; William J., of Arrow 
Rock township, this county; Mrs. Letitia Herndon. of Liberty township, this 
county; Price L., of Canon City. Colorado, and George A., of La Junta, 
Colorado. 



7^6 PAST AND PRESENT 

Samuel B. Thompson was bora at Albany, New York, on October 28, 
1849, and made his home with his parents until 1873, securing in the mean- 
time a good public school education. In the year mentioned he went to work 
as a clerk in a mercantile establishment in Jonesboro (now Xapton), this 
countv. where he remained until 1875, when he entered a store in Browns- 
ville (now Sweet Springs), remaining there a year. In 1876 he accepted a 
clerkship in a store at Marshall, but in the following year he moved onto a 
farm of Dr. C. Lester Hall, in Marshall township, which he rented for three 
years. In 1880 he moved onto a forty-acre farm in section 17, township 49, 
range 19, Arrow Rock township, which he purchased the year previously. 
He has since that time made his home on this place, to which he has added 
forty acres, making his present holdings eighty acres. The subject has 
made many permanent and substantial improvements on the place and has 
maintained it at the highest possible standard of excellence. The residence 
is neat and attractive in appearance, the barns commodious and well arranged 
and the general appearance of the entire property indicates to the passerby 
that the owner is a man of good judgment and practical in his methods. He 
here raises all the crops common to this section of the country and also gives 
some attention to the raising of live stock, in which also he has met with 
success. 

Politically Mr. Thompson is a Democrat and has taken an active part 
in advancing the interests of the party in this county. In 1889 he was ap- 
pointed deputy county assessor, holding the office four years, and in 1892 and 
again in 1894 he was elected for two-year terms in the same position. In 
1900 he was elected for a four-year term and in 1904 was re-elected for a 
like period. In June, 1909, he retired from the office, the duties of which he 
had so capably performed for a number of years, but in August following- 
he was appointed deputy assessor by his successor in office and continued in 
that capacity until the completion of his work in November of that year. On 
December first he was elected cashier of the Farmers and Merchants' Bank 
at Nelson, a corporation which he assisted in organizing in the fall of 1909. 
It is capitalized at fifteen thousand dollars, the date of incorporation being 
November 8th. At that time the new concern purchased a private institution 
known as the Bank of Nelson, which effected the consolidation of all the bank- 
ing interests of that prosperous village. Mr. Thompson continues as the 
cashier of the bank at the present time, while George T. Jenkins serves as 
president and B. E. Staples vice-president. In addition to the president the 
following constitute the board of directors: Homer Conaway. August Petry, 
H. A. Smith, C. W. Smith, R. H. Scott and J. T. Jones. Religiously Mr. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 757 

Thompson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South, and Mrs. 
Thompson is a member of the Christian cliurch. 

On April 2, 1889, Samuel B. Thompson was united in marriage to Mrs. 
Frances M. (Collins) Kincheloe, who was born in Choctaw' county, Alabama. 
March 29, 1853, ^ daughter of Dillard and Harriett E. (Jones) Collins, the 
former born in Kentucky and the latter in Alabama. Her parents left Ala- 
bama and came to Cooper county, Missouri, in 1866, where they lived until 
1882, when they moved to Saline county, their last home being at Sweet 
Springs, where the father's death occurred May 22, 1897, ^^ the advanced age 
of eighty-seven years. The latter became a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church South at the age of sixteen years, but after locating in Cooper 
county he joined the Christian church about the year 1868 and continued to 
be a member of that society during the balance of his lifetime. He and his 
wife were the parents of eight children, four boys and four girls. Those now 
living are as follows: Mrs. Thompson, who is the eldest of the children; Mrs. 
W. H. Burton, Mrs. J. N. Nixon, R. F., R. E., D. F. and J. P., all of whom 
live in Kansas City excepting R. E., who lives in Sweet Springs with his 
mother. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are the parents of two children, namely : 
Samuel Earl, born November 30, 1891, and John Ernest, boni February 7, 
1893. Mr. Thompson is a man of splendid qualities and has long enjoyed the 
unlimited confidence of all who have come in contact with him. 



I 



JOHN W. KEYS. 



Among the well-to-do fanners and public spirited citizens of Arrow 
Rock township is the well known and highly esteemed gentleman whose 
career is brieflv outlined in the following paragraphs. John W. Keys was 
born December 19, 1858, in Fairfax county, Virginia, and is a son of James 
and Mary J. (Elgin) Keys, both natives of the Old Dominion state and de- 
scended from prominent families of the same. James Keys began life as a 
railway contractor and at one time was quite wealthy, but lost all of his prop- 
erty during the late Civil war. He was an ardent pro-slavery man and ere 
the war closed it is said that he donated something like thirty thousand 
dollars to the Southern cause. He entered the Confederate army at the 
breaking out of hostilities and gave about three and a half years to the 
service, his regiment during the earlier part of the struggle being under the 
command of Gen. Stonewall Jackson and participating in nearly all the 



758 PAST AND PRESENT 

bloody battles in which that distinguished leader took part. He was cap- 
tured near Fairfax Court House, Virginia, and with a number of his com- 
rades was imprisoned in the basement of the old capitol at Washington, 
where he remained until exchanged, a short time before the surrender of 
Lee and the downfall of the Confederacy. 

Mr. Keys, although a member of no church, was a man of strong re- 
ligious convictions and a profound student of the Scriptures. His wife, a 
most excellent woman, was a member of the Episcopal church and deeply 
devoted to the duties which emanate from the same. Their children, three 
in number, are all living and well situated, the subject of this sketch being 
the oldest of the family : Mrs. O. J. Watts is the second in order of birth and 
Ashby K. Keys, of Marshall, the youngest. The mother died July 18, 1896, 
aged seventy years, the father on April 24, 1902, in his seventy-seventh year. 
James Keys, in 187 1, moved his family to Johnson county, Missouri, where 
he resided until the following year, when he came to Saline county, Missouri, 
and purchased a farm of forty acres in the northern part of Arrow Rock 
township, which he improved and on which he and his good wife spent the 
remainder of their days and from which they went to their final reward, as 
stated above. 

John AV. Keys was about thirteen years old when his parents left Vir- 
ginia and since the year 1872 he has been a resident of Saline county, Mis- 
souri, and closely identified with the material prosperity of the township in 
which he now lives. He was reared to agricultural pursuits and remained 
with his parents until twenty-three years of age, at which time he became 
associated with Jesse T. Baker in farming and stock raising, on the latter's 
fann, an enterprise which lasted three years and proved the beginning of 
his fortune. In 1885 he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land 
in section 13, Arrow Rock township, which he at once began to improve and 
which he increased in the year 1900 by the addition of eighty acres, making 
a fine farm of two hundred acres on which he has since lived and prospered. 

Mr. Keys' rapid rise as an agriculturist and raiser of live stock has 
gained for him more than a local reputation and today he is widely known 
throughout the county as one of the leaders in the branches of farming to 
which he gives the greater part of his time. He also deals quite extensively 
in horses, devoting special attention to the finer breeds of roadsters, in which 
his success has been most gratifying. He is now not only one of the leading 
farmers and stock raisers of his part of the country, but also ranks among 
the financially solid men and representative citizens of the county, being 
public spirited and up-to-date in all of his enterprises and deeply interested 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 759 

in whatever tends to the material progress and moral advancement of the 
community. He gives his support to the Democratic party, but has never 
entered the political arena as a candidate for official honors, preferring the 
practical and satisfactory life which he now leads and the simple title of 
citizen to any public distinction within the gift of his fellow men. Frater- 
nally he belongs to the Masonic brotherhood, the Kniglits of Pythias. Odd 
Fellows and the Order of Eagles, in all of which he has been an active and 
influential worker besides being- honored from time to time wnth important 
official positions. In matters religious he has strong convictions and as a 
worthy member of the Christian church demonstrates the beauty and value 
of an abiding influence. 

Mr. Keys, on August 29, 1883, was united in marriage to Susan E. 
Ayres, daughter of H. D. and Sallie (Turner) Ayres, of Kentucky. These 
parents moved to Saline county, Missouri, in the fall of 1878 and located 
near the city of Marshall, but two years later transferred their residence to 
Arrow Rock, where they lived until the family removed to Caldwell county, 
three years later, Mrs. Ayres dying in 1883 in the county of Saline. Mr. 
and Mrs. Ayres had five children, three of whom are living, viz: Mrs. Keys; 
William, of Bariy county, this state, and Mrs. Lottie King, who lives in 
Marshall. Mr. iVyres was accidentally killed on January 23, 1909, by a 
railway train which struck him ere he could escape its rapid approach, being 
seventy-five years of age at the time of his death. 

Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Keys, namely : ]\Irs. A\'. 
B. Marshall, of Black Water township ; James E. ; Verlinda L. ; Amanda 
Van Wert; John W., Jr., and Ana Alloueze, all except the oldest being at 
home with their parents, constituting a happy domestic circle. 



WILLIAM DAVIS. 



One of the leading farmers of Arrow Rock township and of high char- 
acter and strong influence as a citizen, the subject of this sketch fills a large 
place in the esteem of the community in which he lives and is also widely and 
favorablv known throughout the county of which for many years he has been 
an honored resident. William Davis is a native of Sullivan county, Indiana, 
where his birth occurred on November 9, 1823. His parents. Guilford and 
Marv (Grav) Davis, were born near Guilford Court House. Virginia, in 
1796, the former a son of William Davis, whose birth occurred in the year 



760 PAST AND PRESENT 

1740, and who was descended from the Davis family that came from Guil- 
ford, England, and settled in Virginia at a very early period in the history 
of the colonies. This William Davis moved west about the time General 
Harrison was appointed governor of Indiana territor}^ and settled near the 
site of Bloomington, where he entered land, improved a farm and spent the 
remainder of his life, dying in the year 1836. He was twice married and 
reared a family of five children, of whom Guilford, father of the subject, was 
the youngest. 

Guilford Davis li\'ed on the farm near Bloomington until attaining his 
majority, when he hired to his brother-in-law, a millwright, whom he assisted 
in building a mill at Merom, Indiana, for Thomas Gray, a prominent and 
well-to-do citizen of Sullivan county. While thus engaged he formed the ac- 
quaintance of MaiT Gray, a daughter of Thomas Gray, w^ho subsequently, 
about the year 1819, became his wife. Thomas Gray was a native of Penn- 
sylvania, his wife, who bore the maiden name of Martha Gay, having been 
born in Rockingham county, Virginia. Shortly after their marriage, in 
1799, they migrated to the western part of Kentucky, where they lived until 
1 81 6. when they removed to Sullivan county, Indiana, where they spent the 
rem.ainder of their days. Of their eleven children, Mrs. Davis was the second 
in order of birth. She was born in Kentucky and grew to womanhood amid 
the stirring scenes of the pioneer period and was well fitted for the duties 
which fell to the lot of the hc^usewife in a new and sparsely settled country. 

Guilford Davis and wife located on a farm in Sullivan county, Indiana, 
and lived there until about 1851, when they moved to Wapello county, Iowa, 
whither some of their children had preceded them in the year 1847. They 
spent the residue of their lives in the latter state, Mr. Davis dying in 1879, his 
wife in the year 1886. They were the parents of ten children, the subject 
of this sketch being the second of the family and one of the four now living, 
the others being, Nancy Davis, of Ottumwa, Iowa. Joseph, of Missouri, and 
John G., who makes his home in Niles, Kansas. 

^^^illiam Davis, whose name introduces this review, was reared to farm 
labor and remained with his parents until twenty-one years of age, receiving 
in the meantime such limited education as the schools of those early days 
were able to impart. In 1845 ^""^ l^^t home and went to Warsaw. Illinois, 
where he remained until the spring of the following year, when he made a 
trip to New Orleans. In the ensuing fall he secured employment at Terre 
Haute, Indiana, at ten dollars per month, but during the winter his wages 
were reduced to nine dollars, and at these figures he put in the time until the 
spring of 1847, when he gave up his job and during the remainder of that 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 761 

year worked on the rivers, making- his second trip by flat boat to the city of 
New Orleans. In the spring of 1848, in partnership with his uncle, John 
Gra}^, he bought a land warrant, paying one-half of the price, sixty-two 
dollars, in cash ; going to Iowa, he purchased eighty acres seven miles east of 
Ottumwa, which he improved and on which he lived and prospered until 1867. 
during which period he increased his holdings from time to time until at the 
date indicated he was the owner of three hundred and sixteen acres, the 
greater part under cultivation. 

Disposing of his real estate in Iowa in the above year, Mr. Davis moved 
to Pettis county, Missouri, but after one year in that county, came to Saline 
county and purchased four hundred and eighty acres in Arrow Rock town- 
ship, which he immediately began to improve and which in due time became 
one of the finest farms and most desirable countrv homes in the community. 
Air. Davis has always been a tiller of the soil and as such has made his calling 
very successful. He has long enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most 
enterprising and progressive farmers and stock raisers in the county of Saline, 
and has so managed his affairs as to amass a handsome competency for his 
declining' years, besides providing' each of his sons with sufficient means to 
start in life with every assurance of ultimate success. He has been a hard 
worker, but has divided his labors so as to obtain the largest possible returns, 
the result being an ample fortune and a conspicuous place among the leading 
men and representative citizens of his part of the country. Politically Mr. 
Davis has been an ardent supporter of the Democratic party ever since old 
enough to exercise the rights and privileges of citizenship, but his ambition 
has never led him to desire, much less to seek, office or public position. All 
worthy enterprises have received his sanction and support and during a long 
and active life he has not been unmindful of the needs of the poor and un- 
fortunate or withheld his assistance from measures and movements having 
for their object the social and moral welfare of the community. 

In the year 185 1 Mr. Davis entered the marriage relation with Elizabeth 
Major, a native of Ohio, a daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth (Green) 
Major, natives of Yorktown, Pennsylvania. These parents moved many 
years ago to Ohio, thence to Indiana and in 1846 migrated to Iowa, locating 
near the citv of Ottumwa, Mrs. Davis, whose birth occurred in the year 1826, 
being the fourth of their five children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Davis reared a family of six children, four of whom grew 
to maturity as follows: Andrew J., Simon. Thomas J. and John G. Despite 
his advanced age, Mr. Davis is still hale and hearty and a stranger to the 
aches, pains and various ailments with which the majority of men are afflicted. 



y(M PAST AND PRESENT 



He has never been sick and. thoug'h in his eighty-seventh year, still has com- 
mand of all his faculties and walks with the firm, elastic step of one in the 
prime of life. Acti^■e outdoor exercise and temperate habits account very 
largely for his longevity and bodily strength, to which may also be added a 
contented mind and a desire to use his life and influence for the good of his 
fellow men. 



THOMAS R. LAWLESS. 

iXmong- the honored old pioneer citizens of Saline county, Missouri, none 
stood higher in public esteem than did the late Thomas R. Lav^less, of Arrow 
Rock township. He was born March 6, 1828. in Virg-inia, and was the eldest 
of four children. The father died when the youngest child was yet but a baby 
and in 1835 the widowed mother and her four children came to Howard 
countv, Missouri. They made their home at Cooper's Fort several vears and 
then moved to Boone county, this state. In 1845 they came to Saline county, 
where ]\Irs. Lawless bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in section 34, 
near the town of Arrow Rock. Li 1852 the son Thomas R. bought his 
mother's farm, and there he made his home until 1866, wdien he moved to 
ALirshall township, this county, where he remained two years. Li 1868 he 
bought three hundred and twenty acres in sections 23 and 26. Arrow Rock 
township, for which he paid fifteen dollars an acre, and on this farm he re- 
mained until his death. He was prospered in his farming operations and at 
the time of his death he was the owner of over six hundred acres of land. He 
was a slave holder and at the beginning of the Civil war he had a colored boy 
by the name of Press Cole, fourteen years old. During the war the Union 
troops took Press with them to act as servant. He had never ridden a horse, 
but was placed astride an animal behind one of the soldiers. Press could not 
keep his seat and several times fell off to the ground. The soldier became angry 
and, placing his pistol at Press's head, he said. "Now, d — n you, stay on or I'll 
kill you." Press said, "Yes, sah. I'll ride," and afterwards in telling of the 
incident, he said, "I shore did stick to dat boss." At the close of the war Press 
returned to his master and is at present working for Benjamin F. Lawless, 
the latter's son. Thomas R. Lawless was a loyal Confederate in his sympathy, 
but. not being able to leave his family during the war, he sent a substitute. He 
was a faithful member of the Baptist church for many years. 

On November g, 1852, Mr. Lawless married Elizabeth Jane Harv^ey, who 
was born in Virginia February 19, 1836. To this union were born six chil- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 763 

(Iren. namely : Burrell T., born January 21, 1854, died October 25, 1865 ; John 
T.. born July 14, 1857, died Januaiy 13, 1891, leaving a widow, Adeliai, and 
three children; William H., born January 17, 1862. resides at Marshall, this 
county; Mrs. Ida C. Whiteside, born December 27, 1867, resides at Kahoka, 
Missouri: Benjamin F., bom June 21, 1873, resides on the old homestead in 
Arrow Rock township; Dr. C. L., born May 15. 1876. also resides on a part of 
the oKl homestead. The subject's mother made her home with him until her 
death, which occurred in 1886, at the age of eighty-six years. She was a good 
Christian woman and was possessed of much determination and personal 
courage. In 1849 Thomas R. Lawless went to California, in company w4th 
the thousands of others who were attracted by the hope of quickly-acquired 
wealth. He walked almost the entire distance and remained in the West about 
a year. He died November 28, 1899. Mrs, Lawless now makes her home with 
her daughter, Mrs. Whiteside. 

Benjamin F. Lawless, the fifth child of Thomas and Elizabeth Lawless, 
was educated in the public schools and was reared on the home farm. He 
early decided to take up the pursuit of agriculture as .his life work and he has 
always followed that line, meeting with a gratifying degree of success. He 
is a man of splendid personal characteristics and is well liked by all who know 
him. Politically he is a Democrat, while fraternally he is a member of the 
I\Iodern \\'oodmen of America. He and his family are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church South. 

On December 29, 1897, ^'I^- Lawless married Dena Moehle. who was born 
in Cooper county. Missouri, June 20, 1880, a daughter of Augustus and Anna 
(Seiberth) Moehle, of Arrow Rock, the former a native of Germany, and the 
latter of Cooper county, this state, though of German parentage. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Lawless have been born the following children : Roy Redman, born 
December 16, 1898; Edith Josephine, born July 26. 1900; Margaret Rosalie, 
born April 11. 1904; Benjamin F., Jr., born November 2.^], 1907. 

Charles L. Lawless, the sixth of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth 
Lawless, received his preliminary education in the schools of the home neigh- 
borhood, supplementing this by attendance in the Missouri Valley College, of 
Marshall. Having decided to make the practice of medicine his life work, he 
matriculated in the medical department of Washington University, at St. 
Louis, where he graduated April 27, 1899, with the degree of Doctor of 
Medicine. He at once returned to his home and entered upon the active prac- 
tice of his profession, in which he has since continued. His practice covers 
a wide scope of territory, extending as far west as Marshall, east to Arrow 
Rock, north to Slater and south to Nelson. He is well grounded in the knowl- 



764 PAST AND PRESENT 

edge of his profession and keeps in close touch with the latest advances made 
in the healing art. He has met with splendid success and has handled with the 
best of results some exceedingly difficult cases, being now numbered among 
the leading physicians of his section of the county. 

At the time of his father's death, the Doctor inherited about two hundred 
acres of land and his wife also received forty acres, all of which the Doctor has 
greatly improved. He built a beautiful and well arranged modern residence 
and has now one of the most comfortable homes in the community. 

On June 19, 1901, Doctor Lawless married Mary L. McMahan, who was 
born in Arrow Rock township, this county, on June 30. 1880, the daughter of 
William H. C. and Martha E. (Hawpe) McMahan, of Arrow Rock town- 
ship. To this union have been born three children, tw^o of whom died in in- 
fancy. The one living is Catherine Louise, born September 25, 1908. 



ANDREW J. DAVIS. 



A. J. Davis, a progressive farmer and stock raiser and the oldest son of 
William and Elizabeth (Major) Davis, was born in Wapello county, Iowa, 
on the 22d day of March, 1855. He spent his early life amid the bracing air 
and wholesome discipline of the country, received a practical education in 
the public schools and grew to manhood on the farm, remaining with his 
parents until twenty-seven years of age. He then moved to a farm of two 
hundred and forty acres in section 20, township 50, Arrow Rock township, 
where he has since resided and which under his effective labors and judicious 
management has been highly improved, being at this time one of the pro- 
ductive and valual)le farms of the county. 

On December 20, 1882, Mr. Davis was united in marriage with Mary 
E. Jamison, whose birth occurred in Saline county, June 17, 1858, being a 
daughter of James X. and Edmonia (Huston) Jamison, the father born 
June 14, 1814, in Virginia, the mother in Cooper county, Missouri. Sep- 
tember 28, 1823. Mrs. Jamison's parents were Benjamin and Polly ( Tem- 
pleton) Huston, both natives of Virginia, and among the early pioneers of 
Missouri, moving to Cooper count v when that part of the state was a wilder- 
ness and the foot of the savage still pressed the soil. James N. Jamison came 
to Saline county about 1839 and located three hundred twenty acres of land, 
which he improved and on which he spent the remainder of his life. Soon 
after locating in Saline county, he married Lucy Townsend, daughter of 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 765 

Sanders A. Townsend. of Virginia, a union terminated by the death of Mrs. 
Jamison one year later. Subsequently, 1849, he went to California, but after 
remaining- a short time in that far-off country he returned to Missouri, and 
■dhout the year 1851 entered the marriage relation with Edmonia Huston, 
who bore him five children, two sons and three daughters, namely: Newton 
R., of Oklahoma; Belle, of Marshall, Missouri; Mrs. Andrew J. Davis; 
Edmonia. who is unmarried and lives in Marshall ; the youngest, Benjamin 
H., died in 1887, at the age of twenty-three years. Mr. Jamison was a con- 
sistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church South and active in all 
lines of religious and benevolent work. He was a true type of the upright 
Christian gentleman and enterprising citizen and his death, which occurred on 
May 23, 1907, was a matter of profound regret to all who knew him. Since 
the above date, his widow has lived with her daughter in Marshall where her 
many estimable qualities of mind and heart have endeared her to the large 
circle of friends with whom she is accustomed to mingle. The marriage of 
Mr. and Mrs. Davis has been blessed with seven children, the oldest of whom 
is Emmet E., who was born December 20, 1883, and is still with his parents; 
C. Jamison, the second child, was born November 4, 1885, and married on 
the 1 2th of December, 1907, in Kansas City, Elizabeth Piper, whose birth 
occurred in Clinton, Missouri, July 4, 1885, being a daughter of John W. 
and Lutie (Lindsay) Piper. One daughter is the result of this union, a sweet 
little daughter by the name of Lunora E., who first saw the light of day 
October 24, 1908. 

Guilford Gay Davis, the third of the subject's family, was born August 
21, 1888, and is still a member of the home circle; Minnie May, who is also 
at home, was born December i, 1890, after whom are William Major, bom 
March 7, 1893; Martha Linton, November 2, 1895. ^^^ Henry Huston, 
whose birth occurred on November 22, 1898, all these at home and pursuing 
their studies in the public schools. 

Mr. Davis devotes his attention to general farming and stock raising 
and, as already indicated, has met with encouraging success in his vocation, 
being at this time in independent circumstances with a sufficiency of this 
world's goods in his possession to insure his future against the worry and 
anxiety which fall to the lot of the careless and improvident. He believes in 
progress in all the term implies, cultivates the soil according to the most ap- 
proved methods and having made agriculture the subject of close and critical 
study never fails to realize abundant returns from the time and labor ex- 
pended on his farm. He is held in high esteem by his neighbors and is proud 
of the fact that his antecedents were among the old and honored families of 



766 PAST AND PRESENT 

Virg'inia and that his wife is connected with the best people of central Mis- 
souri. He is a Democrat in politics, but not a partisan, takes an active in- 
terest in whatever tends to the material progress and moral advancement of 
the community and enjoys to a marked degree the confidence of his fellow 
citizens of the county of Saline. 



THE THORNTON FAMILY. 

The name of this old family is intimately associated with the pioneer 
history of central Missouri, one of the first permanent settlements in Saline 
county having been made by Daniel Thornton as early as the year 1816. 
Daniel Thornton was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, where his birth 
occurred on the 26th of March, 1788, being the third of four children born to 
John and Polly Thornton. When a mere youth he removed with his parents to 
the eastern part of Tennessee, where he assisted his father on the farm until 
twenty years of age, when he married Maiy Neff, of Jackson county, that state, 
and began cultivating the soil upon his own responsibility. Mrs. Mary Thorn- 
ton, who was bom March 28, 1791, was a daughter of John and Susan Neff, 
whose respective families were among the old and well known settlers of 
Jackson county. 

Eight years after his marriage Daniel Thornton disposed of his interests 
in Tennessee and moved to Missouri, which at that time was the western 
border of civilization, traveling by water dowai the Ohio and up the Mississippi 
and Missouri rivers, pulling the boat with ropes and poling it against the cur- 
rent until arriving, in June, 1816, at a point just north of the present site of 
Arrow Rock, in what is now Saline county, where a landing was made and a 
settlement founded. According to well authenticated information, this, as al- 
ready stated, appears to have been the first settlement within the present limits 
of the county of Saline. Mr. Thornton was accompanied from Tennessee by a 
brother-in-law of Mrs. Thornton, one Isaac Clark, who with his family located 
near the site of Saline City, where he remained a short time and then removed 
to Lexington, near which place he secured land and made a permanent settle- 
ment. For a short time after his arrival in the new country Mr. Thornton lived 
in a tent. but. the Indians becoming quite troublesome, he took his family to 
Cooper Fort in Howard countv where they remained until all danger from the 
savages was over. Returning to his land,- he erected a comfortable log cabin 
and, clearing a few acres, raised a crop of corn, which, with vegetables and 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 767 

wild game, afforded the family ample subsistence until a larger crop was grown 
the following year. Later he entered a quarter section of prairie land, to which 
he added at intervals until at one time he owned five hundred acres, the greater 
part of which he reduced to cultivation. Mr. Thornton conducted farming on 
quite an extensive scale, raising crops of hemp, flax, corn and oats, for all of 
which there appears to have been ready sale at fair prices. He was a man of 
intelligence and great force of character, a leader in the settlement and for 
many years took an active part in the development of the country and in 
directing matters of public moment. Religiously he and his family belonged to 
the Christian church, the first organization of which body in Saline county was 
the old Concord congregation, near Saline City, with which he held member- 
ship. Previous to his removal to Missouri he had sensed as private in the 
United States army, during the war of 1812, and w'hile living in Saline county 
he took part in the Black Hawk war, but was absent from home only a few^ 
months during the latter trouble. Mr. Thornton lived a useful life and his 
death, which occurred on the 31st of August, 1855. was greatly deplored by 
his fellow citizens of Saline county. His widow, w^ho survived him nearly 
nineteen years, departed this life on the 3d day of March, 1874. 

Daniel and Susan Thornton were the parents of twelve children, namely: 
Susan, Rebecca, John, Isaac, Catherine, Elizabeth, Polly, Nancy, Lydia, Hen- 
derson, Mary and Andrew J., the first four born in Tennessee, the others in 
Missouri. Of this large family but two are living at the present time. Mrs. 
Nancy Cameron, of Slater, Missouri, who was born March 5, 1824, and An- 
drew Jackson, of Thornton, this state, who first saw the light of day on May 
4. T833. 

Isaac Thornton, the fourth of the above children, was born in Jackson 
county, Tennessee, January 26, 1816, and brought to Missouri in infancy. He 
grew to maturity on his father's farm near Arrow Rock, and at the early 
age of nineteen took to himself a wife in the person of Rachel Chappell, who 
was born in North Carolina in 181 5, being a daughter of Elisha Chappell, who 
came to Saline county in an early day and settled near the Thornton homestead. 
A short time after his marriage Mr. Thornton moved to northwestern Mis- 
souri and entered land in Buchanan county, which he improved and on which he 
lived until 1855, when he sold this fami and returning to Saline county, be- 
came associated with his father and brother-in-law in the manufacture of 
lumber. AA^hile in Buchanan county he built a water-powder sawmill, to which 
he afterwards added machinery for grinding flour and meal and which in its 
twofold capacity was greatly prized by the people of the community. 

Isaac Thornton, like his father and brothers, was a Democrat and a most 



768 PAST AND PRESENT 

excellent and praiseworthy citizen. He lived a long and useful life and died 
lamented by all who knew him, in 1905, after rounding out his eighty-ninth 
year, his wife preceding him to the grave in September, 1891. They had a 
family of eight children, one of whom, Isaac L., died in infancy, the names of 
those w^ho grew to maturity being as follows : James H., of Tulare City, Cali- 
fornia; Daniel, who lives in Clinton, Missouri; John C, deceased; Andrew J., 
Jr., of Clay township, Saline county; Elisha E., a merchant of Saline City; 
Mrs. Mary F. Morris, a resident of Marshall, and William H., whose home is 
in Malta Bend, Missouri. 

Elisha E. Thornton, the fifth child of Isaac and Rachel Thornton, was 
born April 8, 1846, in Buchanan county, Missouri, and remained with liis 
parents until twenty-two years of age, attending school during his youth and 
later assisting his father with the w^ork of the latter's sawmill. On September 
I, 1868, he entered the marriage relation with Mary E. Stapp, who was born 
in Howard county, Missouri, December 13, 1849, and during the three years 
ensuing continued the milling business with success and financial profit. At 
the expiration of that time he rented a farm in Clay township, but after a few 
months' residence, returned to the county of Saline and accepted the position 
of engineer of his father's mill. After serving three years in that capacity he 
moved to a small farm on Island; No. 2, Clay township, where he lived three 
years and then took up his residence in Saline City, leasing the mill of his 
father and operating the same in partnership with his brother, James, during 
the four years following. Discontinuing the manufacture of lumber at the 
end of the period indicated, Mr. Thornton, in 1886, took a contract for carry- 
ing the mails from Saline to Slater, which position he held until 1891, when 
he moved to the latter place, where for about six months he was engaged in 
the poultry business. Returning to Saline City in 1892 to care for his father, 
he still makes his home in that city, and since the year 1899 has had charge of 
a grocery store, which formerly belonged to Mr. Dysart, his son-in-law, but 
which since his death he conducts in his own name. On the death of his father 
Mr. Thornton inherited the latter's home on the banks of the Missouri river, 
which he now occupies and which is one of the most beautiful residence sites 
in Saline City. Mr. and Mrs. Thornton have two children, namely ; Perlula, 
born June t. 1869, married at the age of nineteen T. S. Dysart. of Randolph, 
who died in 1899, leaving two children, Estell and Jefif H. Dysart. Subse- 
quently. ]\Iarch, 1909, Mrs. Dysart became the wife of Onie Thomas, of Clay 
township, where they now reside. Wilbern E., the second child of E. E. and 
Man- Thornton, was born in Saline City, May, 1872, and now lives in Mari- 
copia, near Bakerfield, California. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 769 

Andrew Jackson Thornton, youngest child of Daniel and Mary ( Xeff) 
Thornton, was born in Arrow Rock township, Saline county, Missouri, May 
4, 1833. He received a common school education and remained with his 
parents until their respective deaths, receiving as his share of the homestead 
one hundred ten acres, on which he lived and prospered until 1875, when he 
sold the place and moved to another farm in the vicinity, which he also 
owned. After residing on the latter farm until 1880, he built a beautiful and 
commodious modern dwelling in Saline City, which he has occupied since that 
year, devoting his attention in the meantime to l)lacksmithing and wagon 
making. 

On November 6, i860, was solemnized the marriage of Andrew J. Thorn- 
ton and Sarah J. \\'iley, the latter born December 22, 1844, in Xorth Carolina, 
being a daughter of Norwood and Alice (Gossett) \\'iley, natives of the Old 
North state, but since 1858 residents of Saline county, Missouri. Nine children 
have resulted from this union, viz : Mrs. Mary B. Romine, born August 23, 
1 86 1, now living at Enid. Oklahoma; Susan Ada, wife of James Thornton, 
born January 6, 1863, and residing in Clay township; Mrs. Alice D. Walling, 
of Hugo, Oklahoma, born February 28, 1865; Henr}^ N., of Clay township, 
Saline county, born April 18, 1869; Mrs. Alice Childers, born August 28, 
1872; Rebecca E., who was born January 23, 1875, is still with her parents; 
Charles A., of Clay township, was born i\ugust 2y, 1878; Mrs. Susan I. 
Reynolds, born September 7, 1880, lives in Saline City, and Willard W., who 
is still a member of the home circle and a pilot on the Missouri river, was born 
November 24, 1882. 

Politically Mr. Thornton is a Democrat and religiously subscribes to the 
plain teachings of the Christian church. During the late Civil war he espoused 
the Southern cause and for about ten months served in the Confederate army 
under General Price, going to the front as a private in a Howard county com- 
pany, and achieving a creditable record. 



CHARLES H. BRADFORD. 

A worthy descendant of a prominent and honored pioneer family of 
Saline county, Missouri, is Charles H. Bradford, one of the substantial and 
representative citizens of this locality. He was born near Arrow Rock, this 
county, June 13, 1845, reared in the town of Arrow Rock, where he received 
his preliminary schooling, later attended the St. Louis University, then took a 

49 



7/0 PAST AND PRESENT 

course in St. John's College, Westchester county. New York, from which he 
was g-raduated in i860, from the law department; later he attended the Mili- 
tary Colleg-e at Poughkeepsie, New York, for one year, retiring from the same 
with the rank of captain. He returned home on account of the rebellion in the 
South, and read medicine with his father as preceptor; he took a course of 
lectures at St. Louis, but was interrupted in the completion of his medical 
course. In 1864 he crossed the plains to Montana, where he engaged in mining, 
and in the fall of 1865 came home by way of the Yellowstone river, there being 
in his party fifteen hundred people; this move was made in anticipation of In- 
dian trouble. They built their own pirogues and, after some difficulty, made 
their way home. Mr. Bradford then gave up the study of medicine and decided 
to take up the quiet life of the agriculturist. While in Montana he was actively 
engaged in mining enterprises and did a great deal of prospecting, locating 
paying mines there and being fairly successful, but when the Civil war closed 
he sold out his holdings there and returned home. His mother gave him a 
farm and he at once began farming and stock raising, handling high-grade 
stock successfully. This farm was near Arrow Rock, but several years later 
he changed farms and located near Napton, there continuing farming and stock 
raising until 1899, when he came to the home his mother had provided for him 
in Marshall and retired from all active work, renting- his farms to his oldest 
son. 

Mr. Bradford is a strong Democrat, but has never aspired for public 
office nor public notoriety, preferring to lead a quiet life and look after his 
individual business interests. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and 
a liberal supporter of the same, his family also belonging to this church. He 
has lived to see the great development of Saline county, saw the county seat 
moved to Marshall, witnessed Marshall rise from a few huts on the prairie to 
a progressive, modern city. All the material for the construction of Marshall 
was handled from Arrow Rock, at which place all the milling and business of 
the county was done for many years. It was formerly a prosperous little city. 

Mr. Bradford was married in 1867 to Susan L. Smith, Avho was born in 
Cooper county, Missouri, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Lacey) 
Smith, both natives of Kentucky. John Houx, Mrs. Bradford's mother's step- 
father, was also a native of Kentucky and a very early settler in Cooper county, 
Missouri. Thomas Smith married in the old Blue Grass state and came to 
Cooper county, Missouri, in 1833; he was a farmer and slave owner and be- 
came a prominent man there, remaining in Cooper county until his death. He 
was the father of four children, namely: Susan L., wife of Charles H. Brad- 
ford, of this review: Maggie, now Mrs. Todd; Dee, who has remained single: 
Massee M., a farmer in Cooper county, this state, now living at Boonville 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 77I 

To Mr. and Mrs. Charks H. Bradford the following children have been 
born : Charles E., who is living on the old farm; Thomas G., proprietor of a 
dental school at Dallas, Texas ; Helen L., who has remained single. 

Charles H. Bradford is the son of Dr. C. M. and Lavinia M. (Pearson) 
Bradford, the latter born in Howard county, Missouri, August 23, 1825, the 
daughter of John G. Pearson, of Tennessee, who came to Howard county about 
181 5 and became a farmer and slave owner. Dr. C. M. Bradford was born in 
East Haddam, Massachusetts, February 27, 181 7. He graduated in medicine 
at the University of Pennsylvania in 1839, after which he came to Howard 
county, Missouri, where he taught one term of school and settled at Arrow 
Rock where he began the practice of his profession, and in 1840 he was mar- 
ried. He soon afterward fonned a partnership with Doctor Sappington and 
Doctor William M. Price, Doctor Sappington being then the pioneer physician 
in northwestern Missouri and he later became famous. Doctor Bradford was 
the first physician in this county able to handle malarial diseases successfully, 
and the first to use the Peruvian bark as there was no quinine here. He went 
to Philadelphia and purchased a large quantity of quinine, which he and his 
partners formed into pills and started a general medicine business. They 
equipped a large and attractive wagon drawn by four mules and in this manner 
peddled their medicines all over Missouri and into Arkansas and other malarial 
districts, the firm name being Sappington & Company, which became famous 
and out of which they all made considerable money, and later made fortunes 
of their general practice. Doctor Bradford becoming an eminent physician 
and surgeon. He had a wide field for his practice — four counties ; he became 
widely known and was recognized by other physicians as standing at the head 
of the medical profession in this part of the state. At an early day he entered 
large tracts of land, having his farms worked, and he also bought and sold 
large numbers of mules, marketing them in the South, whither he had them 
driven. 

Joel Bradford was the grandfather of Charles H. Bradford, a native of 
Connecticut, the son of Jeremiah Bradford, who was born in 1730 in Con- 
necticut, the son of Gresham Bradford, who was born in 1691 at Brighton, 
Boston. Samuel Bradford, who was born in 1671, was appointed to look after 
and develop the common lands of the Plymouth colony. William Bradford 
was born in 1588 in England and came with the old Mayflower colony that 
landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, and, next to^ Miles Standish, he had 
command of the affairs of the colony, and was commander-in-chief of the 
colonists in King Philip's war, holding the rank of major, and he was also as- 
sistant marshal and deputy governor of Plymouth, being generally recognized 



^^2 PAST AND PRESENT 

as one of the leading men of the colony. In 1608 he went to Holland, coming 
to this country in 1620, on the "Mayflower," as stated, of which colony he 
became the permanent leader, als(3 filled the office of governor of the colony, 
having been elected to that office thirty-one times, and was practically the 
leading spirit of the colony, and this branch of the Bradford family from the 
landing of the "Mayflower" to those living at the present day in Saline county, 
Missouri, have always stood at the head of whatever profession they adopted, 
and have been advocates of good government. 

The father of the Pilg-rim was William Bradford, who was born in Eng- 
land, in 1530 and died in 1595. He had a coat-of-arms. The original was John 
Bradford, who^ was burned at the stake at Smithfield, England, July i, 1555. 
in "Bloody" Queen Mai-y's time. He was a celebrated preacher, having been 
burned because he advocated a religion other than that of the church of Eng- 
land. 

Dr. Charles M. Bradford, father of Charles H. Bradford, of this review, 
was an active worker in the Democratic ranks, but he never held office. He 
accumulated considerable property and was a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, His death occurred August 21, 1862, at the age of 
forty-four years. His widow survives and is now^ making her home with her 
daughters in St. Louis. To Dr. Charles M. Bradford and wife seven children 
were born, namely: Charles H., of this review; Sarah M., Mrs. Col. Tom 
Price (deceased); Ida, now Mrs. Rev. William Shaw, a Cumberland Presby- 
terian minister; Isabelle, now Mrs. J. T. Baker; Louisa, Mrs. L. C. Nelson: 
George died in infancy. The mother of these children is a woman of beautiful 
Christian character, and is now eighty-four years of age. 



FRANCIS E. RIGNEY. Jr. 

To win recognition in as exacting a profession as the law at an age when 
most men are only beginning the serious struggle, called by the poets, "the 
battle of life," indicates the possession of no mediocre talents and personal 
characteristics that command the commendation of all classes everywhere. 
These attributes fonn a component part of the nature of the popular young 
city attorney of Marshall, Francis E. Rigney, Jr., who was bom near Shackel- 
ford, Saline county, Missouri, February 24, 1877. He is the son of F. E. 
Rigney, who was a native of Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, where he grew to 
maturity and was educated. He emigrated to Missouri about 1870, settling 
first in Carroll county, later removing to Shackelford. He was one of the 



i 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 773 

good farmers of the county, and while he does not carry on his business on so 
extensive a scale as formerly, he is still, at the age of sixty-six years, directing 
the afifairs of his fine farm near Shackelford. 

The Rigney family originally came from Seven Churches, Ireland, the 
first member of the family, John Rigney, landing- in the United States in 1801 
and settled in Rome, New York, soon afterward. He devoted his life to 
farming, becoming fairly well situated. His children settled in Wisconsin and 
Illinois. Grandfather John Rigney settled in Wisconsin and reared his family 
at Manitowoc, that state. He died when the father of the subject was just a 
boy. 

The mother of Francis E. Rigney, Jr., was Ellen E. Prior, born near 
Shackelford, Saline county, Missouri. Her father, William E. Prior, settled 
in that neighborhood in 1845 and devoted his life to farming. Mrs. F. E. 
Rigney died on March 12, 1877. She was the mother of only one child, Francis 
E., Jr.. of this review. After her death, F. E. Rigney again married, his last 
wife being Mrs. H. E. Parker, of Augusta, Georgia: no children were born 
of the latter union. 

Francis E. Rigney, Jr., was born and reared on the home farm, on which 
he worked when he became of proper age, remaining under the parental roof- 
tree until he was twenty-three years of age. He received his primary schooling 
at Miami and in his home district, and at St. Savior's Academy at Marshall. 
In 1 89 1 he entered St. Mary's College at St. Mary's, Kansas, from which he 
was graduated in 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then took the 
junior year in the law department of the Georgetown University, Washington, 
D. C, and he spent his senior year at Washington Univer.sity, St. Louis, from 
\\hich institution he was graduated in 1900. haA'ing made a very commendable 
record in all the above named schools. Soon after leaving- the university he 
began the practice of his profession in Marshall and he has continued here ever 
since, practicing alone ; he has built up a very satisfactory patronage and has 
become one of the best known members of the liK^al l)ar. His knowledge of 
the law, governing both civil and criminal cases, is lucid and profound, and he 
has a power of persuasive argument that never fails to appeal to jurors. Such 
rare qualifications do not fail to attract public attention, and he was singled out 
by part^• leaders for offices of public trust, having been elected city attorney 
(^f Marshall in 1908, wdiich position he is now filling with credit to himself and 
satisfaction to all concerned, irrespective of party affiliations. 

Mr. Rignev has considerable farming- interests, being the owner of a fine 
farm of eightv acres near Shackelford, this ccumty. He has never assumed 
the responsibilities of the married state. 



774 



PAST AND PRESENT 



Mr. Rig-uey is a charter member of the Knights of Columbus, of which 
he is at present chancellor. He is a faithful member of the Catholic church. 
Personally he is a man of pleasing address and a good mixer, very studious, 
possessing an excellent library, and, judging from his past record of honor, 
the future to such as he must needs be replete with success, worthily attained. 



ROBERT OSCAR BAGNELL. 

Although yet a young man, having merely reached the age when most 
pei'iple are becoming only fairl\- well launched on their chosen life work, Robert 
Oscar Bagnell has accomplished much as an agriculturist, stock man and public 
spirited citizen, being the well known proprietor of the beautiful "Elkhill Stock 
Farm,"" ha\'ing shown \vhat may be accomplislied by correct habits and rightly 
applied principles when they are backed by an ambition to do something worth 
while. He was born in southern Illinois, April 21, 1880, the son of Thomas 
Henry and Anna Amelia (Gaunt) Bagnell, the father a native of Rowden, 
Canada and his death occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1895. He was the 
son of Robert Bagnell, a native of Canada, and a major in the British army,. 
Thomas H. Bagnell was reared on the farm' and received an excellent edu- 
cation in the public schools. When a young man he came to the United States 
and farmed and ranched in Colorado, handling large numbers of cattle, re- 
maining there several .years, leaving there in 1888. He owned a large tract 
of land there and the large droves of sheep attracted attention even in the 
West. Upon leaving Colorado he came to Saline county, Missouri, and 
bought one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six acres of land in Black Water 
township, his son, Robert O., of this review, now living on the place. He 
later removed to St. Louis, where he died. He was very successful in all his 
business relations, engaged extensively in timber and was a widely known 
railroad tie contractor. He was an excellent financier, a man of keen fore- 
sight and he accumulated considerable property, having made it all unaided. 
Prior to going to Colorado he lived for a short time in southern Illinois. He 
was a member of the Masonic lodge, was a Democrat and belonged to the 
Episcopal church. It was about 1876 that Thomas H. Bagnell married Anna 
Amelia Gaunt, daughter of John and Mary Gaunt. She was born in southern 
Illinois, where she was reared and educated. Her death occurred in 1888. 
She became the mother of six children, namely : Nellie is the wife of Byron 
Babbitt, living in St. Louis; Robert O., of this review; Thomas H. is engaged 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 7/5 

in the grocery business in Marshall ; William Frederick lives in St. Louis ; the 
two youngest children died in infancy. 

Six children were born to Robert Bagnell and wife, paternal grandparents 
of Robert O. Bagnell, namely: Robert is deceased; William lives in St. Louis; 
Thomas H., father of Robert O. ; Jane and Sarah live in St. Louis; Samuel 
is deceased. 

Robert O. Bagnell was educated in the common schools and at Wash- 
ington University, St. Louis. He was reared by an aunt, Miss Jane Bagnell, 
in St. Louis, until he was twenty-one years of age, when he came to his present 
fine farm of twenty-one hundred acres, which part of the father's estate fell 
to him, and here he at once began farming and stock raising and has been re- 
markably successful in each, becoming known throughout this and adjoining 
counties for his excellent farm and his high grade stuck. He has cleared off 
the timber from much of the land and placed it under a high state of culti- 
vation, dividing it into two large farms. He has built over thirty miles of 
wire fence. Li 1909 he completed a modern, attractive, commodious and costly 
twelve-roomed brick house at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, which is the 
finest country residence in Saline county. It is ecjuipped with all modern ap- 
pliances, — steam heat, acetylene lights, bath, hard wood finish, — everything of 
the finest and most modern design. It is imposingly located in the midst of 
beautiful surroundings and is elegantly furnished, — in fact everything about 
the place shows thrift and prosperity and indicates that a gentleman of excel- 
lent tastes and sound judgment has its management in hand. This magnificent 
home is situated on an eminence overlooking the entire farm and surrounding 
county and an inspiring panorama may be had from its windows. The home 
is often the gathering place for the numerous friends of Mr. and Mrs. Bagnell 
and here they ahvays find good cheer and a free hospitality that is charac- 
teristic of the refined and cultured everywhere. This valuable and desirable 
farm is located about five miles west of Nelson, in Black \\^ater township. 

In 1907 Mr. Bagnell was married to Ella Williams, a lady of talent and 
affable personality, a native of Saline county, and the daughter of C. P. and 
Amanda (Umphrey) Williams, a fine old family, natives of Pike county, i\Iis- 
souri, but who for many years have lived in Saline county. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Bagnell has been blessed by the birth of one 
child, Robert Samuel. 

Politically Mr. Bagnell is a Democrat, but he does not find time to take 
any especial interest in political affairs, preferring to devote his entire atten- 
tion to his farm and stock ; however, he is always ready to support any measure 
that has for its object the betterment of Saline county in any way. He is a 



77(^ 



PAST AND PRESENT 



iiKMihcM- ^A the lipiscopal church, while Mrs. liagnell holds memlxn-ship with 
the local liaptist congregation. 

The excellent condition of everything with which Mr. Bagnell is con- 
nected indicates his care and .supervision. He is both practical and prog-ressive 
in his methods and to his energy and perseverance is attributed much of the 
gratifying success that has attended his efforts. Fidelity is one of his chief 
characteristics, such lidelity as manifests itself to his family and friends and in 
his faitliful discharge of all the duties of life, and it has won him warm re- 
can 1 \\here\er he is known. 



[OHX AT. TENNILL. 



A lifelong resident of Saline county. Missouri, the son of honored an- 
cestr\-. a veteran of the Civil war. successful as an agriculturist and one of the 
solid and substantial citi/rens of his community — possessing these charac- 
teristics, lohn M. Tennill is pecuHarh' entitled to representation in a work of 
this natin-e. the specific purpose of wdiich is to record the lives of the repre- 
sentative citizens of Saline county. 

Mr. Tennill is a native son of the township in which he now lives, his 
Ijirth having- occurred there on June 8, 1842. He is a son of Hugh and Eliza- 
beth ( McCarty) Tennill. The father was born in Tennessee in 1784 and in 
young manhood he came to Saline county, Missouri. Some time later he built 
a tread-power grist mill, to which he later added a distillery. He became the 
owner of one hundred and seventy-six acres of land, wdiich his brother, George, 
had entered and deeded to him. Prior to coming to Missouri he had operated 
an iron furnace in Tennessee. About 1827 he married Elizabeth McCarty, 
whip was born in Virginia al)out 1800. Her parents dying when she was a 
young girl, she came out to Saline county, Missouri, with a Mr. and Mrs. 
Staples, who located in Arrow Rock township. Mr. and Mrs. Tennill became 
the parents of five children, three of whom are living, namely: Mrs. Mary F. 
Haley, who was born about 1829, lives near West Point, California: Mrs. 
Elizabeth J. Sullivan, born about 1833, lives in Oklahoma; John M. is the 
immediate subject oi this sketch ; Hugh Tennill died in 1844. and was sunnved 
a number of years by his widow, whose death occurred in 1870. She was a 
faithful member of the Bapti.st church. 

John M. Tennill remained with his mother until he was about sixteen 
years old. and received his education in the district schools of the township. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI J'J'J 

At the age mentioned he started out in hfe on his own account, hiring out as 
a farm hand. Later he was employed for awhile on the ferry at Glasgow, Alis- 
souri. He was industrious and energetic and was wisely economical of his 
earnings, so that at length he was enabled to buy forty acres of land in sec- 
tion 17, Clay township, and he at once entered upon its operation. He was 
successful from the start and has added to his original farm from time tn time 
as he has been prospered, until at present lie is the owner of one hundred and 
forty acres, comprising one of the best farms in Clay township. To the culti- 
vation of this land he is devoting his attention and is meeting with a very grat- 
ifying degree of success. His farm is adorned with a neat and attractive resi- 
dence, good barn and other necessary outbuildings, the general appearance 
of the place indicating the owner to be a man of excellent taste and sound 
judgment. 

In 1 86 1, at the outbreak of the great Civil war, Mr. Tennill enlisted for 
service in Company E, Gordon's regiment of cavalry, Confederate army, with 
which he served until compelled to retire from the sen^ice because of disability 
resulting from wounds received in battle. He was twice wounded severely 
and twice slightly, being at all times found in the thick of the battle. He 
participated in six big battles, besides a number of minor battles and skirmishes 
and his record was one of which he had just reason to be proud. At the battle 
of Cape Girardeau he was shot in the left arm with grape shot, which also 
passed through his body and lodged in his back, where the iron was cut out by 
the surgeons. At this time he fell into the hands of Union forces and was 
sent to a hospital, where he was compelled to remain all summer. In the fall 
of the same year, being on the road to recovery, he took the oath of alle- 
giance and returned home. He is now a member of the Confederate Veteran's 
Association. In politics he is a stanch Democrat and has held the office of 
road overseer of Clay township for eleven years, giving efficient service in 
this capacity. Religiously he and his wife are members of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, to which they give an earnest and generous support. 

In June, 1866, Mr. Tennill was united in marriage to Columbia Good- 
man, who was born in Clay township. Saline county. Missouri, May 11, 1849, 
the daughter of Edward and Minerva (Dennis) Goodman, the former of whom 
was born in Virginia and the latter in Indiana. To the subject and his wife 
have been born eleven children, who are briefly mentioned as follows : Hugh 
E., Ixirn April i, 1869. resides in Slater. IMissouri ; James T., born May 28, 
1871, resides in Clay town.ship. this county; Joseph V., born March 5, 1873, 
lives near Marshall: Filena T., bom March 11, 1875, is the wife of Cephas 
Iman, of Clay township; Sophrona A., born June 2, 1877, is the wife of Nich- 



— v.- PAST AND PRESENT 

(lias I man. of Clay township; Elizabeth is the widow of David Dobbins and is 
the mother of three children, who are living with their grandfather, the siib- 
jcci : Wilham M.. born March 17. 1880. remains at home; Clayborn F., born 
September 22, 1882; Luther E., born January 27, 1884. Hves in Cambridge 
township; Mary F,, born March 31, 1886, is the wife of Lloyd Richardson, of 
Clay township; Bessie E., born • April 15, 1889, is at home; two children 
are dead. 

'rhn)ugh a long course of years in the same community, Mr. Tennill 
has lived a consistent and honorable hfe and has at all times stood high in 
the esteem of his fellow citizens. He is public spirited and gives a hearty 
support to every movement having for its object the advancement of the best 
interests of the communitv in wdiich he lives. 



THOMAS T. STIVERS. 



Among the prominent and successful agriculturists of Clay township. Sa- 
line county. Missouri, the subject of this sketch has attained a high position. 
Enterprising and progressive in his methods, he keeps in close touch with the 
most advanced ideas relating to the science of agriculture and is achieving a 
success commensm-ate with his efforts. 

Mr. Stivers was born in Boone county, Missouri. July 17. 1857. and is a 
son of Francis S. and Xancy E. (A\"ade) Stivers. The subject's paternal 
grandparents. Marshall and Xancy E. (Barnes) Stivers, were natives of Ken- 
tucky. In about 1829 they moved from that state to Boone county. Missouri. 
and took up government land. Soon after their arrival Mrs. Stivers died. 
leaving two children, l^^rancis S. and Mrs. Jane Wade, whose death occurred 
about 1905. After the death of his wife, Marshall Stivers returned to his old 
home in Kentucky and there married Mary Ann Houchens, of that state. 
After the marriage, they returned to his farm in Boone county, Missouri. 
They l)ecame the parents of two children, J. H. and Cynthia. Marshall Stivers 
was a wheelwright by trade and for this purpose he started a shop on his farm. 
He was a slave owner and the farm work was performed by slaves. Francis 
Stivers, the son, acted as overseer and manager, while Marshall, the father, 
gave his attention to the wagonshop. The latter lived on his farm until about 
1873, ^vhen he sold that place and bought a farm in Howard county, Missouri. 
In 1874 he sold that place and moved to Dallas, Texas, where he spent the 
remainder of his days and where his younger son, Dr. J. H. Stivers, had 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 779 

located some time previously. Francis Stivers lived with his father on the 
farm until 1849. I" July, 1847, he married Nancy E. Wade, who was born in 
Boone county, Missouri, in March, 1832. They remained on the farm until 
1849, when he got the gold fever and went to California, then the mecca of 
thousands, and there he remained until 1856. when he returned home. He 
had met with very gratifying success in the Golden state, and on his return 
home he bought a farm of eighty acres in Boone county, and devoted himself 
to its operation until the winter of 1870, when he sold the farm and 
liought eighty acres of land in Monroe county, this state. Four years later, 
however, he sold that and moved to Saline county, locating near Orearville, 
Clay township, where he rented land and farmed. In 1861 Francis Stivers 
enlisted in the Confederate army under General Price and served valiantly 
until the end of the war. He enlisted as a private and at the time of his dis- 
charge had risen to the rank of first lieutenant. He has been a member of the 
Baptist church for about sixty years. To him and his wife were born five 
children, namely : Thomas J., the subject of this sketch ; Sarah E. ; James H., 
who lives in Colorado ; Lucy, deceased ; John M., who is engaged in the oper- 
ation of a rented farm near Marshall. Mrs. Stivers died in November, 1899, 
and Air. Stivers and his daughter, Sarah, now live with the son, John M. 

The subject of this sketch lived with his parents until 1888. In his boy- 
hood he was given the advantage of attendance at the common schools of the 
neighborhood and his early years were spent as his father's assistant in the 
farm work. In 1888 he started out for himself, operating rented farm land 
until 1898, when he purchased a farm of sixty acres in section 26, Clay town- 
ship. Saline county, where he has since continued his agricultural pursuits. 
He here carries on general farming, raising all the crops common to this sec- 
tion of the country, and in connection with the tilling of the soil he also gives 
some attention to the raising of live stock, in which also he is fairly successful. 
He is up-to-date in his methods and is counted among the successful men of 
his locality. 

Politically Mr. Stivers is a Democrat and has taken an active part in 
local public affairs. In 1890 he was elected supervisor of Clay township and 
is still the incumbent of the office, his present term expiring on January i, 
iQio. Fraternally he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of iVmerica, 
while his religious affiliation is with the Baptist church, to which he gives an 
earnest support. 

On May 23, 1893, Mr. Stivers married Ludie A. Neff, who was born in 
Clay township, Saline county, September 15, 1857, the daughter of John and 
Mary (Neff) Neff. These parents. were both natives of Tennessee, and, 



-So 



PAST AND PRESENT 



lliou.^h both horo the same laiiuly name, they were in no way related. Be- 
cause .)f liis splendid personal qnalities. Mr. Stivers has gained the confidence 
and rci^-ard of the entire community, in the best life of which he takes a prom- 
inent ])art. 



GEORGE E. TROUT. 



In one <>f the most exacting- of all callings the subject of this sketch has 
attained distinction, being- recog-nized as one of the most successful teachers 
in the county of Saline. He is a well educated, symmetrically developed man. 
his work as an educator having brought hin-i prominently to the notice of the 
public, the result of which is a demand for his services where a high standard 
of ])rofessional excellence is required. 

George E. Trout was born near Nelson. Saline county, Missouri, April 
13. 1867. and is a son of James P. and Margaret A. (Marshall) Trout. James 
P. Trout was born in Carthage, Jasper county, Missouri, April 16, 1844, and 
is a son of James and Elizabeth (Lane) Trout. The latter couple were natives 
of Indiana, who moved to Carthage, Missouri, in an early day, living there 
until 1863. when they moved to Saline county. They were the parents of ten 
children, five sons and five daughters, of whom James P., the subject's father. 
was the ninth in order of birth and the only one of the children now living. 
James Trout died in 1853 and his wife, Elizabeth, in 1867. James P. Trout 
was reared on the home farm, and secured his education in the common schools 
of the neighborhood. In 1862 he was pressed into the Confederate army, in 
which he served as flag bearer. After serving four months, he came to Saline 
county, Alissouri. where, during the remainder of the war, he devoted himself 
to the care of his mother and family. 1'hree of his brothers were killed in the 
Confederate army under General Price after thev had been mustered out of 
service. In 1865 Mr. Trout married Margaret Marshall and they moved onto 
rented land, to the culti\-ation of which Mr. Trout devoted his energies until 
\^S(), when he Ijegan work at his trade of wagonmaking. He was the first 
wagonmaker in Nelson, Missouri, and one of the first business men there. In 
1003 he sold his business and moved to Black Water, Missouri, where he 
remained until igo6. when he went to Galena, Kansas, and now makes his 
home there with his daughter, Mrs. Jane Son. Margaret, the wife of James 
P. Trout, was born in Cooper county, Missouri, in 1846. on a farm now owned 
by her Ijrother. She was a daughter of Richard and Minen^a A. (Reynolds) 
Marshall, natives of Missouri, and was the fourth in order of birth in a family 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 78 1 

of thirteen children. Of the three children born to James P. and Margaret 
Trout, two are living, George E., the subject of this sketch, and Mrs. James 
Son, of Galena, Kansas. Mrs. Truut died on February 12. 1876. She and 
her husband were both faithful and earnest members of the Christian and 
Baptist churches, respectively. 

George E. Trout lived with his father until he was sixteen years of age, 
when he hired out as a farm hand, in which manner he was engaged until he 
attained his majority. He then went to McMahan Institute, at Arrow Rock, 
:\lissouri, and subsequently entered the Nelson high school, where he grad- 
uated in 1891. He then engaged in teaching school for a year, after which he 
engaged in the mercantile business in Nelson, but after two years in this line 
he again took up the profession of teaching, in which he has been engaged 
ever since. He has met with marked success as a pedagogue and has taught a 
number of the best schools in the county. He has a keen appreciation of the 
responsibilities resting on the teacher and also recognizes the opportunity pre- 
sented to the teacher for directing the moral character of the young men and 
women with whom he is brought in contact. 

In the year 1894 Mr. Trout was married to Mary E. . Porter, who 
was born in this county in 1870, a daughter of ^Villiam and Sue i\Iason 
( Childs) Porter. Mrs. Trout is the youngest of their children and the only 
one now living. To the subject and his wife have been born the following 
children; Beatrice E., born January 19, 1895; James W., born x\ugust 19, 
1898: Lonnie E., born February 29, 1900, and Aubrey M., born April 16, 

1903- 

Fraternally Mr. Trout is a member of the Modern A\^oodmen of America, 

while his religious sympathies are with the Baptist church, of which he is a 

consistent member. He is a Democrat in political faith and in 1907 he was 

appointed a justice of the peace, being reappointed in 1908, being the present 

incumbent of the position. 



JOHN I. HARDIN. 

Prominent among the citizens of Saline county, Missouri, who, by lives 
of ]:»robity and honorable usefulness, have won and retain the high regard and 
confidence of their associates and acquaintances, is the subject of this sketch, a 
prominent and successful fanner of Miami township. He is a native of 
Loudoun county, Virginia, his natal day having been February 23. 1857. His 
parents, John R. and Anna (Wortman) Hardin, were also natives of that 



-Sj past and present 

county, his nn.lher bcino- a ilaughter of Isaac Wortman. The latter was a 
native of Virginia and he served vahantly throug-hout the war of the Revolu- 
tion, in which he received severe wounds. He subsequently settled down to 
agricultural pursuits and died in Virginia at the age of one hundred and three 
vears. He was widelv known and highly respected, his personal honor and 
integrity being above reproach. The Hardin family was an old one in the Old 
Dominion state and John R. was, because of the death of his father, placed at 
the head of his family. He was reared on a farm and received his education in 
the subscription schools of the period, gaining a fair education. He was mar- 
ried in his native state and in 1866 he came to Saline county, Missouri, where 
for two years he was employed as a farm hand, at the end of which time he 
rented a fann and conducted farming operations on his own account, which 
continued throughout his life. During the Civil war he served with the Con- 
federate army in a Virginia regiment. He saw much hard service, but escaped 
without wounds or imprisonment. He has now a number of interesting relics 
of his war days. He was a strong Democrat in matters political and was well 
informed on public matters, state and national. He was a plain, honest faraier, 
never aspiring to public office or notoriety of any kind. In religion he was a 
member of the Baptist church. He died January i, 1904, at the age of eighty- 
three years. His wife died in March. 1894, she having been also a member of 
the Baptist church. To John R. and Anna Hardin were born eleven children, 
two of whom died in infancy, and are briefly mentioned as follows : Margaret. 
the wife of T. B. Phillips; Robert H., a farmer; J. I., the subject of this sketch ; 
George ]\[., a farmer; Anna, the wife of B. Smith; William P., a farmer; Ed- 
ward, a fruit fanner in California; Fannie E., who became the wife of Ed- 
ward Rudd ; Emma J., the wife of James Turner. 

John I. was brought to Missouri at the age of eight years and remained 
under the parental roof until he had attained manhood. When twenty-three 
years old he married and entered the employ of L. A. Smith as a fann hand, 
remaining so employed for one year. He then rented the farm, Mr. Smith fur- 
nishing the teams and seed, and this arrangement continued until 1890, when 
he bought a farm. He was not financially able to pay entirely for the land, 
but his reputation and credit were good and he had no trouble in making sat- 
isfactory arrangements for the future payments. Since 1888 he had been de- 
voting much attention to the handling of live stock and to this he now gave a 
good deal of attention in connection with his other operations. At times he 
had partners, and in all his operations he has been successful to a gratifying 
degree. He is a good judge of live stock and an untiring and persistent 
wi«rker, ])ushing to completion everything he undertakes. Early in his active 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 783 

career he bought a second-hand threshing outfit and was engaged in this line 
for a number of years, doing some of the hardest work of his hfe. In this 
work he was measurably assisted by his wife, who did the cooking for the 
hands and in other ways helped to make the business a success. This work 
Mr. Hardin has continued to the present time, though his old machinery has 
been superseded by a completely new and up-to-date threshing outfit. :\Ir. 
Hardin has established a reputation for good honest work and during the 
season he is kept busy handling the work which comes to him unsohcited. In 
all of his business transactions Mr. Hardin has been very jealous of his credit 
and has scrupulously fulfilled every obligation which he has taken upon him- 
self. In 1901 he sold his farm and the same year bought the William Par- 
rish farm, wdiich he operated until 1904, when he sold it and bought the three- 
hundred-acre farm in Miami township, where he now resides. He has since 
added by purchase one hundred and twenty-six acres. He has ninety acres in 
a high state of cultivation, the balance being in good grass. He gives his 
attention to general farming-, raising all the crops common to this section of 
the country, and is meeting with splendid success, sustaining a high reputa- 
tion as a progressive and enterprising agriculturist. The farm has been im- 
proved in a permanent and substantial manner, not the least of which is the 
enlargement and remodeling of the residence, which is a convenient and modern 
home, having hot and cold water throughout and lighted by an acetylene 
gas plant. Mr. Hardin has reached the position where he can enjoy life, 
though he is in no degree inclined to relax his business activities, being today 
if anything more energetic and active in his business affairs than at any stage 
in his career. 

Politically Mr, Hardin is a strong and ardent Democrat and has a keen 
and intelligent interest in his party affairs, though in no sense a seeker after 
public office or political preferment of any nature. He is public spirited in 
his attitude to all movements having for their object the advancement of the 
higher interests of the community and his support is given to all W'Orthy objects. 

In 1879 Mr. Hardin married Laura J. Shoemaker, who was born in Adams 
county, Illinois, in 1862, and who has indeed been to him a worthy companion 
and true helpmate. In e^•ery stage of his business experience she has been his 
counsellor and adviser and in many ways has contributed to his success. She 
is a daughter of Andrew J. and Elizabeth (Hutton) Shoemaker, the former 
a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Indiana, their marriage occurring 
in Adams county, Illinois. When a young man Andrew Shoemaker was a 
steamboatman on the Mississippi, subsequently becoming a fanner and team- 
ster. In 1870 he moved from Adams county, Illinois, to Missouri, first locating 



.-^4 



PAST AND PRESENT 



in Manuii cuuiiu. He made three other moves, first to Lewis county, then to 
Knox county, and finally came to Saline county, where he rented a farm in 
^[iami township. Subsequently he bought a farm and as an agriculturist he 
achieved a distinctive success. He was a strong Democrat in his political belief 
and took an intelligent interest in current public events. Both he and his wife 
were adherents of the Baptist church and were well known and highly re- 
spected in their community. Mrs. Shoemaker passed to the silent land in Feb- 
ruary. 1884, and was survived several years by her husband, whose death oc- 
curred in March. 1889. They were the parents of nine children, namely: 
George, a railroad man; Laura J-, wife of the subject of this sketch; Clara 
Belle, the wife of R. Hardin; William, of Nebraska; Thomas, a farmer; Har- 
ry, a railroad man; Richard, a veterinarian;. Alice, who is married and living 
in Wyoming; Andrew J., a railroad man, residing at Slater, this county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Hardin are the parents of five children, namely : Eva, the wife of E. 
Morgan; Maud, the wife of H. Akeman; Bessie, at home; Lewis, who died 
at the age of five and a half years ; Robert M.. at home. Mr. and Mrs. Hardin 
are well liked throughout the communit}- because of their fine personal quali- 
ties, their friends being in number as their acquaintances. 



CHARLES B. DUNCAN. 



I1 is always pleasant and profitable to contemplate the career of a man 
who has made a success of life and won the honor and respect of his fellow 
c citizens. Such is the record of the well known farmer whose name heads 
>-<. this sketch. 

' Charles B. Duncan is a son of George \Y. Duncan, a prominent resident 

^ of Clay township, who was bom in Logan county, Kentucky, February 5, 
1834. George W. Duncan is a son of Benjamin and Sarah (Pendleton) Dun- 
can, who were born in Culpeper and Fauquier counties, Virginia, respectively, 
the former's birth occurring on December 4, 1800. On their marriage they 
'• removed to Kentucky, where they made their home until 1837, when they 
p mos'ed to Sheridan .county. Missouri, locating two miles north of where Glas- 
gow now is. Their stay there was brief, as they soon moved to Howard coun- 
ty. Missouri, where they lived about four years. In 1841 they came to Saline 
county and located on farming land in Jefiferson (now Clay) township. In 
1844 they moved to Lafayette county, where Mr. Duncan was engaged in the 
o])eration of a mill on Tabo creek until 1847. He had met with a fair degree 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 785 

of prosperity in all of his undertakings and in 1847 he disposed of his property 
and returned to Clay township, Saline county, where he bought a farm of over 
two hundred acres. On this he remained until his death. He had been a life- 
long farmer with the exception of the time when he operated the Tabo creek 
mill, and he enjoyed a splendid reputation because of his habits of industry and 
his large fund of good common sense. Benjamin and Sarah Duncan became 
the parents of six children, five of whom were sons, and of these, three are 
living, namely; James P., of Clay township, this county; George W., father of 
the subject; John R., of Marshall. Mrs. Duncan died in 1883, and her hus- 
band in 1886. George W. Duncan was reared on the home farm and remained 
with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age, when he bought one 
hundred acres of land, forty lying in section 13 and sixty in section 24. He 
entered actively upon the operation of this place and has prospered in his enter- 
prise, being considered today, as he has been for many years, one of the enter- 
prising and successful agriculturists of his community. He has added to his 
original holdings from time to time until now he is the owner of one hundred 
and fifty acres, having sold fifty acres which he owned some time ago. 

In 186 1 Mr. Duncan joined a company of militia at Arrow Rock and 
retained his membership about a year, purchasing his release at the end of 
the period. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never been an aspirant for 
public office. In December, 1857, George W. Duncan married Charlotte 
Shumate, who was born in Lewis county, Missouri, about 1839, her death 
occurring in 1880. She left the following children: William E., born March 
14, 1858, who now resides at Slater, this state; Henry C, born July 22, i860, 
lives in Cambridge township, this county; James F., born January 17, 1863, 
lives near Marshall, this county; Charles B., born October 27, 1865, of Clay 
township; Leona J., born January 7, 1868, is the wife of James O. Cott, of 
Clay tow^nship; Lillie A., deceased; George R., bom January 24, 1873, re- 
sides in the state of Idaho; Ida M., born July 20, 1875, is an invalid. In 1881 
Mr. Duncan married Mary Hayes, who was born March 28, 1841, in Clay 
township, Saline county, Missouri, the daughter of James and Rebecca 
(Ford) Hayes, the former born in Tennessee and the latter in Virginia. Mr. 
Hayes came to Saline county with his parents in 18 16, and Rebecca Ford 
came to this state with a married sister. 

Charles B. Duncan was born in Cambridge township. Saline county, Mis- 
souri, October 27, 1865. He was reared on the paternal homestead and se- 
cured his education in the district schools of the neighborhood. He assisted 
in the labors of the home farm until he had attained his majority, when, wish- 
ing to take up life's work on his own account, he rented land of his father and 

50 



786 



PAST AND PRESENT 



was ens-ao-ed in its operatic ni until 1896, when he bought eighty acres of good 
land in section 23. Chiy township, to which he has since devoted his attention. 
He has made many permanent and substantial improvements on the place, the 
latest of which is the beautiful and modern cottage which he erected in the 
summer of 1909 and which is numbered among the best farm homes of this 
section of the county. Mr. Duncan is progressive in his ideas and keeps his 
place up to the highest possible standard of excellence. He carries on a 
diversified system of farming, raising all the crops common to this section of 
the country and in addition he also gives some attention to the raising of live 
stock, and in all his operations he has met with a gratifying degree of success. 
( )n January 17, 1905, Mr. Duncan was united in marriage to Eada 
flaring, who was born in Clay township, this county, in April, 1879. She 
is the daughter of George and Sarah (Hayes) Haring, the former a native 
of Indiana and the latter of Clay township. Saline county, Missouri. 



JOSEPH A. JOHNSON. 

The life history of him wdiose name heads this sketch has been closely 
identified with the history of Clay township, Saline county, Missouri. His life 
has been one of untiring activity and has been crowned with a gratifying" 
degree of success attained only by those who devote themselves indefatigably 
to the work before them. He is a native of Clay township. Saline county, 
Missouri, born on October 8, 1859, and is a son of Morgan and Sarah (Kirby) 
Johnson. The father Avas born in Indiana, March 20, 1835. and came to 
Saline county with his parents in 1840. His wife was born in Albemarle 
county, Virginia, August 2, 1836, and came to this state with her parents about 
the same time her future husband arrived here. Morgan Johnson's parents 
located near Saline City, Clay township, where they entered a tract of gov- 
ernment land. Tliey were the parents f)f nine children, of w'hom Morgan was 
the eighth in order of birth. His father died when he was very small and he 
continued to make his home with his mother on the farm until about the time 
when he attained his majority, when he w^ent to live with his brother, James, 
the oldest of the family, who lived on a farm near Oreannlle, in the northeast 
part of Clay township. While living there he met Miss Kirby, and they were 
married January 3, 1859. They continued to make their home wnth his brother 
for a period of about five years longer, and then, in about 1865, Mr. Johnson 
lx)ught one hundred acres of land adjoining that of his brother in sections 22 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 787 

and 2^. Later he bought twenty acres more, located in section 19, Clay 
township. To the cultivation of this land Mr. Johnson devoted his entire at- 
tention and was soon numbered among- the leading farmers of the community. 
In addition to raising the crops common to this section of the countiy. he was 
also engaged in the breeding and raising of live stock, in which also he met 
with success. He was a Democrat in politics, though he paid little attention 
to public affairs, devoting his entire attention to his family and his private 
business affairs. He died on August 10, 1874, leaving a widow and eight chil- 
dren, two of whom are now living, Joseph A., and James M., born May 29, 
1861, and who is engaged in the operation of the old homestead. The mother 
of these children passed away October 2, 1903. 

Joseph A. and James M. Johnson remained on the home farm with their 
mother until her death, after which event they purchased the interests of the 
other heirs in the home farm and also bought one hundred and twenty acres 
additional, lying in section 27. They farmed this entire tract together until 
1907, when they divided the property, after selling the twenty-acre tract lying 
in section 19. In this division James M. received the old home residence and 
one hundred acres adjoining, while Joseph A. received the one hundred and 
twenty acres unimproved. 

Joseph A. Johnson received a fair education in the district schools of the 
home neighborhood and spent his early life with his parents. He has always 
followed farming, in which he has attained to a due measure of success. In 
matters political he is affiliated with the Democratic party, but has never held 
public office, though during the past four years he has rendered effective 
sennce as a member of the county central committee from Clay township. 
Fraternally he is a member of the ^Masonic order, holding membership in 
Tranquility Lodge, No. 275, at Orearville. 

On October 3, 1878, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Senora 
Johnson, who was born near Saline City, Missouri. She died August 18, 
1900, aged forty years and nine months. She left six children, of whom five 
are now living, namely : Rosie, the wife of F. M. Mattix, of Clay township, 
this county ; Josie, the wife of William Morrison, of Slater, Missouri : Willie 
M.. the wife of Edwin Nugen, of Norton, Missouri; Lottie, at home; Oliver, 
at home. On December 9, 1901, Mr. Johnson wedded Fannie E. Pugh, who 
was born near Orearville, Clay township, January 13, 1874, the daughter of 
William and Louisa (Drummeller) Pugh. These parents were natives of 
Virginia and came to Boone county, Missouri, about 1871, and in the fol- 
lowing year they located in Clay township, Saline county. To this union Mr. 
Johnson had born two children, Percy and Pauline. In all the qualities that go 



788 



PAST AND PRESENT 



to the making- of an upright and well developed manhood, Mr. Johnson is 
well endowed and during the years of his residence in Clay township he has 
always enjoyed the uniform respect and regard of all who know him. 

James M. Johnson was born May 29, 1861, and has always lived on the 
old homestead. After his mother's death, he operated the place jointly with 
liis brother, and in the division of the property in 1907 he retained the home 
place and one hundred acres of land, in the cultivation of which he is now 
engagetl. He is an enterprising and progressive farmer and the general ap- 
pearance of the place indicates him to be a man of good judgment and excel- 
lent taste. He is energetic and gives his attention to every detail of the work. 
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, to which he ren- 
ders an earnest support. Politically he is a Democrat. 

On December 23, 1885, Mr. Johnson married Rosa A. Neal, who was 
born in Decatur, Illinois, December i, 1866, the daughter of George \\\ and 
Sarah E. (Frock) Xeal. Mr. Neal was born in Illinois in 1816 and his wife in 
Laclede county, Missouri, in 1844. They were married in Illinois and lived 
on a farm there until 1866, when they moved to Decatur, that state, but a 
year later they resumed farming near Decatur, where Mr. Neal died in 1868, 
leaving a widow and two children, of whom Mrs. Johnson was the youngest. 
Subsequently the other child died and in 1870 Mrs. Neal became the w'lfe of 
Alexander Neal, brother of her first husband. In 1874 they moved to Mar- 
shall, Saline county, Missouri, where they lived tmtil 1876, when they rented 
a farm in Clay township. Mrs. Neal died in 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have 
become the parents of ten children, three of whom are dead, the others being- 
Ruby Gertrude, bom June 27, 1891 ; Floyd McClure, born June 13, 1898; 
Florence Vivian, bom January 28, 1901 ; Nannie Lee, born April 22, 1903: 
Catherine Luella, born March 23, 1905; lona Lois, born July 15, 1907; Rob- 
ert Dean, l>orn March 18, 1909. The members of the family move in the 
best circles of Clay township and are highly esteemed by all who know them. 



JOSEPH H. AUER. 



Among those citizens of sterling worth and earned prominence in Clay 
township. Saline county, mention should be made of Joseph H. Auer, who is a 
successful and progressive agriculturist. Mr. Auer was born on the farm 
where he now lives, on March 25, 1866, and is a son of Martin and Anna 
Marie (Ault) Auer. Martin Auer was born in Dingolfing, Bavaria, Germany, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 789 

on May i6. 1830. He was a well educated man, having been for a time a 
student in a military academy in his native land. He graduated in geology 
and by trade was a miller. At the age of twenty- four years he came to America 
and was engaged as a geologist until the time of his marriage. Upon arriving 
in this country he first lived for a short time in Pennsylvania, subsequently 
moving to \\'isconsin and from there to Fayette county, Missouri. About 
i860, after his marriage, he came to Saline county and rented land for three 
years. He was industrious and economical and at the end of that time he 
bought ten acres of land in section 17, Clay township. He operated this land 
and at the same time, as opportunity offered, he worked at his profession. His 
industry was rewarded and from time to time he was enabled to buv more land, 
so that eventually he was the owner of one hundred and thirty acres of good 
land. He died March i, 1895. Mrs. Auer was born in Germany April 4, 
1842, and at the age of twelve years she came to the United States with her 
parents, who located on a farm near Xorborne, Carroll county, ^Missouri. 
Later the family moved to Miami, Saline county, where Mrs. Ault died. Mr. 
Ault and his family then moved to Dover Landing, near Lexington, Fayette 
county, where the daughter Anna Marie met and married Mr. Ault. Both Air. 
and ]\Irs. Auer were invalids for a number of years before their deaths, Mrs. 
Auer being rendered helpless from rheumatism for nine years prior to her 
death, which occurred on July 12, 1903. Mr. Auer, during the last fifteen 
years of his life, was a sufferer from bronchial trouble. He was for a number 
of years a member of the Baptist church, though he was reared in the faith 
of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. and Mrs. Auer were the parents of fif- 
teen children, of whom thirteen are now living, namely: John F., born Xn- 
vember 30, i860, living in Clay township, this county; Elizabeth K., born 
June 21, 1862, makes her home with her brother, the subject of this review: 
AA'illiam S., born May 26, 1864, lives near Slater, this county: Joseph H., 
born Alarch 2^, 1866, lives in Clay township: Emma, born June 18, 1868, is 
the wife of Jerry Sailor, of Clay township; Sophia, born April 26, 1870. is 
the wife of Rudolph Kochs, of Clay township; Belle, born June 16, 1874, is 
the wife of \\'illiam Murphy, of Clay township: James A., born February 9, 
1876, lives in Xowata, Oklahoma : Charles AL, born April 20, 1878, lives in 
Clay township; Lloyd AL. born September 8. 1880, lives in Clay township; 
Sarah M.. born July 11, 1882, is the wife of L. L. Lowery, of Clay township; 
Viola M., born Xovember 12, 1884, and C. Pearl, born August 14, 1887. both 
make their homes with the subject. 

Joseph H. Auer has spent his- entire life on the home farm, and in his 
boyhood days he attended the district schools in the home neighborhood. His 



790 



PAST AND PRESENT 



parents liaving been invalids for a number of years, he was compelled to as- 
sume the entire care of them as well as the management of the home farm. 
\\'hile still quite young, he engaged in the cattle business, and formed a part- 
nership with L. C. Warner, under the firm style of Warner & Auer. The 
firm was ver>- successful in its operations and became one of the most exten- 
sive cattle shippers on the Chicago & Alton railroad. In connection with that 
line of work, he also gave proper attention to the operation of the home 
farm, which he has always maintained at the highest standard of excellence. 
He and his three sisters, Elizabeth, Viola and Pearl, now live together in the 
home, and they are numbered among the popular people of the township, 
their splendid personal qualities commending them to the respect of all who 
know them. 

Politically Mr. Auer is a stanch Democrat, while in religious belief he 
is a Baptist. His fraternal relations are with the Ancient Free and Accepted 
Masons, of which he is an appreciative member. 



JAMES W. FIZER. 



Among the enterprising and successful agriculturists of Clay township. 
Saline county, Missouri, the subject of this sketch occupies a prominent place. 
Of good business ability, a capable and energetic farmer and a public-spirited 
citizen — he has long enjoyed a high position in the esteem of his fellow citizens. 
He is a native of the township in which he now lives, having been born on 
the 27th day of October, 1874. He is a son of Samuel L. and Martha E. 
(Mayfield) Fizer, both of whom were born also in Saline county, the former on 
December 30, 1849, ^"d the latter on March 30, 1856. They were both reared 
on farms and their marriage took place on November 23, 1873. Immediately 
after their marriage they moved onto a farm in the Linn Grove district. 
Sometime afterwards they bought forty acres of land in section 20, and to this 
they afterwards added eighty acres. Politically Mr. Fizer was a Democrat, 
though he never held public office of any nature. Fraternally he was a member 
of the Court of Honor. Mr. and Mrs. Fizer were the parents of nine children. 
of whom seven are living, namely: James W., the subject of this sketch; 
Eugene, who lives with the subject; Mrs. Virginia R. Crane, of Salem, 
Oregon; George S., of Oklahoma; William H., at home; Jessamine M.. at 
home; Minnie G, at home. The parents of these children both died in 1899, 
the father on April 17th and the mother on September 13th. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 79 1 

James \\'. Fizer received his education in the common schools of the home 
neighborhood and was reared in the paternal home. Being- the oldest child, at 
the time of his parents' death he became guardian of his brothers and sisters 
and, under public administration, assumed charge of the home place. He has 
devoted himself assiduously to the management of the fa nil and has so con- 
ducted it as to realize each year a handsome income. Since assuming charge of 
it 1ie has added by purchase twenty acres and has also given particular atten- 
tion to the development of a vein of coal on the place, out of which about one 
thousand tons are produced annually. Altogether this is considered one of the 
most valuable farms in the locality and it is maintained at the highest standard 
of excellence, its general appearance indicating the owners to be persons of 
good taste and energetic habits. 

On October 28, 1896, Mr. Fizer was married to Minnie I. Dobbins, who 
was born in Saline county, Missouri, in June, 1879, the daughter of Allen and 
Letha (Peakenpall) Dobbins. To Mr. and Mrs. Fizer have been born four 
children, namely: Amarintha I., born May 20, 1900; Harry B., born May 19, 
1902 ; Francis M., bom November 4, 1905 ; and Mattie L., born September 10. 
1907. Politically, Mr. Fizer is a Democrat, while fraternally he is a member 
of the Ancient Free and Accepted Alasons, the Modern \\'oodmen of America 
and the Court of Honor. He is a man of splendid personal qualities and enjoys 
the friendship of all who know him. He is a progressive and energetic farmer 
and bv his sterling traits of character he has merited the high position which he 
holds in the esteen of the community. 



I 



^^^ILLIAM C. STAFFORD. 

Among those citizens of sterling worth who have contributed by their 
earnest and consistent effort to the material prosperity of their home com- 
munity, none is held in higher esteem than William C. Stafford, of Clay town- 
ship, Saline county. Mr. Stafford, who is a native of Missouri, was born near 
Steelville, Crawford county, on the 7th day of September, 1849. He is the 
son of Jesse B. and Sarah A. (Butt) Stafford, both of whom were natives of 
Crawford county, the former born October 4, 181 8, and the latter, March 
12, 1829. Their respective parents were farmers in Crawford county and 
were persons of the highest respectability in the community. Jesse and Sarah 
Stafford were married in 1846 and at once went to housekeeping on jMr. Staf- 
ford's farm. He was the owner of about four hundred acres of land, much 



7q2 PAST AND PRESENT 

t.i" ii. however, being rough and not very productive. In 1866 Mr. Stafford 
sold this farm for a1x)ut twelve hundred dollars and came to Saline county, 
where he bought one hundred and sixty acres of good land in sections 20 and 
2g and forty acres in secti(Mi 17, all being located in Clay township. On this 
fanu he lived until his death, wdiich occurred November 16, 1885. 

Mrs. Sarah Stafford died May 14, 1858. She had borne her husband 
.seven children, four of whom survived her. Subsequently Mr. Stafford mar- 
ried Man- A. Butt, a cousin of his first wife, and her death occurred in 1887. 
During the Civil w'ar Mr. Stafford's sympathies were wdth the Union. Of 
the four children who survived ]\Irs. Sarah Stafford, who came to Saline 
county with their father, but two are living. Mrs. Matilda E. Richardson, 
who was the eldest of the family, came with her father and her husband to 
Saline count v. but a vear or two later they removed to Arkansas and subse- 
(|uentlv to Texas county, Missouri, where she died in 1873. William C, the 
subiect of this sketch, w^as the second in order of birth. The next in order 
of birth was John R., now a resident of Clay township, w-hile the youngest 
was Marv C. who was the wife of Stephen Craig, of Arrow Rock tow-nship, 
and whose death occurred in June, 1898. 

\\^illiam C. Stafford secured his early education in the common schools 
of Craw^ford and Saline counties. He remained with his father until he had 
attained his majority, when he went on a visit to his native county and later 
was in Texas for a time. In 1876 he returned home and w^as married, after 
which he engaged in farming a part of his father's land. He built a good 
residence on the w^est side of his father's land and this he has occupied to the 
present time. Jesse Stafford, prior to his death, had deeded to his tw^o sur- 
viving sons his land, and by this act the subject became the owner of one hun- 
dred and sixty acres. This land he has continued to operate and by his energy 
and progressive methods he has come to be numbered among the leading- 
farmers in his township. 

In October, 1876, Mr. Stafford married Jennie V. Chestnut, w^ho was 
born in Ray county, Missouri, February 28, 1858. and whose death occurred 
on September 16. 1882. She left one son. Claude E.. who was bom Febru- 
ary 27. 1880. and who now lives on a farm near that of his father in Clay 
township. In April, 1886. Mr. Stafford married Emma A. Pinkard. wdio 
was bf.rn in Virginia in April. 1856. She came to Saline county with her 
sister a few years prior to her marriage. To this union were born two chil- 
dren, a son who died at the age of three years, and a daughter. \\^illie E., bom 
January 29, 1893. ^^ho is a beautiful and accomplished girl, the sunshine of 
the home. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 793 

Politically Mr. Stafford is a Democrat, and he takes a live interest in 
local public affairs. He has never been a seeker after public office, but he has 
been prevailed upon to serv^e his township as school director and road com- 
missioner, in both of which capacities he gave eft'ective servdce to his fellow 
citizens. He is a man of broad views and public spirit and gives a hearty 
support to ever}^ movement calculated to advance the best interests of the 
community along any line. A man of pleasing address and fine qualities, he 
has long occupied an enviable position in the estimation of those who know 
him. 



ALFRED T. ALLISON. 



I 



Among the industrious and enterprising citizens of Clay township. Saline 
county, the subject of this sketch occupies an enviable position, and because of 
his sterling qualities of character he enjoys the high regard of all who know 
him. Mr. Allison was born in the township in which he now resides, his 
natal day having been March 25. 1875. He is the son of Alfred J- and Mar}- 
F. (Ingram) Allison, who also are honored residents of Clay township, and 
who will be mentioned in subsequent paragraphs. The subject was reared on 
the paternal homestead and secured his education in the district schools of the 
neighborhood. He early became inured to the hard labor of the farm and 
remained as his father's assistant until the time of his marriage, in 1898, when 
he rented land of his father and moved into a house located on the land. He 
has since devoted his attention to the operation of this land and in his efforts 
he has met with a very gratifying degree of success. He had also learned the 
carpenter's trade and worked at that for about five years. He is practical in 
his methods and gives his personal attention to every detail of his work, so 
that he has been enabled to realize a good income as the reward of his labors. 
He had had good educational training in his youth, having supplemented his 
common school training by attendance at the jMarshall high school and the 
Central Business College at Sedalia. this state, and is thus able to give intelli- 
gent direction to his affairs. 

On the 23d day of February, 1898. Mr. Allison was united in marriage to 
Fannie K. Hanna, who was born in 1876 at Hartford City. Virginia, the daugh- 
ter of R. C. and Lucinda (Long) Hanna. Her parents also were natives of the 
Old Dominion state, but subsequently moved to Saline county, ^Missouri, 
locating in Miami township, where they gave their attention to farming, in 
which thev were successful. To Mr. and Mrs. Allison have been born the fol- 



794 



PAST AND PRESENT 



Inwinj; cliiUlion : ' .en roc !•:., l)i)ni Xuvember 21, 1898: Xellie M., born July 
4. ii)Oo: Susie .\[.. b(im Xoveniber 25. 1901, died Septenil)cr 5. J902; Frances 
L., b(»ni A])ril 17. 1903; Ray H., born November 23, 1904; and Kalberine 
T.. born March 5, 1908. 

Alfred J. Allison, father of the subject of this sketch, is a native son of the 
state of Missouri, having been born in Cooper county, on the 8th day of Sep- 
tember, 1828. He was the son of Thomas and Lydia (Jones) Allison, the 
former of whom was born in Tennessee in 1800 and the latter in Kentucky in 
1802. Thomas Allison came to Missouri with his parents, Ephraim and 
Elizabeth Allison, when quite small. His maternal grandfather, David Jones, 
was a soldier of the war of the Revolution, having served as an officer under 
General Washington. On their arrival in Missouri, the Allisons first located 
in Howard county, but soon afterwards moved to Cooper county, where they 
spent their remaining days. They entered government land, which they cleared 
and improved, making of it one of the best farms in that locality. Lydia Jones 
was brought from her native state, Kentucky, to Missouri, by her parents, 
David and Annie Jones, who located below Arrow Rock, in Saline county. 
Here the^• lived on a farm, but during the Indian raids of those early days they 
were compelled to flee for protection to Cooper's fort in Howard county, 
being at that place at the time of Captain Cooper's death. Thomas Allison and 
Lydia Jones were married in Cooper county, and there Mr. Allison was en- 
gaged in farming until 1848, when he moved to Saline county, and rented a 
farm in Arrow Rock (now Clay) township, where the family lived about four 
years. In 1850 Mr. Allison went overland to California, where he remained 
about eighteen months, at the end of which time he returned to Missouri and 
moved to Henry county, where he made his home until i860. In the year 
mentioned the family came to Saline county, where Mr. Allison died in 1865. 
His widow sui-vived him many years, dying at the home of her son Alfred J., 
in, 1902. She was a member of the Baptist church. Thomas Allison, in the 
early part of his life, was a trader and made a number of trips from Missouri 
to Santa Fe, New Mexico, on trading expeditions. He generally traveled with 
companies who were led by Kit Carson and other noted Indian fighters and 
guides. Thomas and Lydia Allison were the parents of the following children : 
Mrs. Josephine Claycomb, of Marshall, this county; Alfred J., father of the 
subject of this sketch ; Mrs. Sarah J. Dysart, of Texas: William H., of Cripple 
Creek, Colorado ; three children are dead. 

At the age of twenty years Alfred J. Allison made a trip across the plains 
to Santa Fe, as teamster with John S. Jones, a trader. After making two trips 
in this capacity, he entered forty acres of land in Arrow Rock (now Clay) 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 795 

township, Saline county, later entered another forty acres, and to this he added 
by purchase from time to time three hundred and eighty acres. Mrs. Allison 
inherited forty acres of land from her father, making the total land holdings of 
Mr. Allison five hundred acres, all located in Clay township excepting one 
hundred and twenty acres in Marshall township. In 1851 he located his home 
on a part of this land, it being situated in section 3. township 50, range 20, 
and there he has continued to reside to the present time. 

In December, 1850, Mr. Allison married Man^ F. Ingram, who was born 
in Mississippi August 6, 1832, the daughter of James S. and Mary J. (Coram) 
Ingram. To this union have been born the following children: Mrs. Sarah 
M. Kidd, of Marshall township, this county; Mary J., at home; James T., of 
Marshall township; Edwin B., at home; Addie L., at home; Alfred T., whose 
name forms the caption to this article; three members of this family are de- 
ceased. The mother of these children died on Februarv^ 11, 1908. Mr. Allison 
is an appreciative member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and en- 
joys the esteem of all who know him. 



JOHN R. STAFFORD. 

No citizen of Clay to\\iiship, Saline count}-, occupies a higher position 
in the esteem of his fellow citizens than does John R. Stafford, whose splendid 
farm is located in section 30. The Cjualities of keen discrimination, sound 
judgment and indomitable industry enter very largely into his make-up and 
have been contributing elements to the material success which has come to 
him. 

John R. Stafford was born December 22, 185 1, in Crawford county, 
Missouri, and is a son of Jesse B. and Sarah A. (Butt) Stafford, both of 
whom were natives of Crawford county, the former born October 4, 18 t8, 
and the latter March 12. 1829. Their respective parents were farmers of 
Crawford county and were "people of the highest respectability in the com- 
munity. Jesse and Sarah Stafford were married in 1846 and at once went to 
housekeeping on Mr. Stafford's farm, consisting of about four hundred acres, 
much of which, however, was rough and unproductive. In 1866 Mr. Stafford 
sold this tract for twelve hundred dollars and came to Saline county, where 
he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land in sections 20 and 29, and 
forty acres in section 17, all in Clay township. On this farm he spent the re- 
mainder of his days, his death occurring on the i6th day of November, 1885. 
His wife had died May 14, 1858. She had borne her husband seven chil- 



7i>(> 



PAST AND PRESENT 



drcn. four of whom survived lu-r, uaniely : Mrs. Matilda E. Richardson, 
who was the eldest of the family, was married before she came to Saline 
county, and a vear or so after comini;- here she and her husl)and removed to 
Arkansas. Later they removed to Texas county, Missouri, where she died 
in iS;^. William C. is mentioned elsewhere in this work. The next in order 
nf birth is ]uhn P.. the subject of this sketch. May C. was the wife of 
Stci)hen Craig, of Arrow Rock township, and her death occurred in June. 
1898. After the death of his first wife Mr. Stafford married Mary A. Butt, 
a onisin of his first wife. Her death occurred in 1887. no children being 
born to this union. During the Civil war period Mr. Stafford was a staunch 
.su|)porter of the Union cause. 

John R. Stafford receix'ed his early education in the district schools and 
he remained on the hcMiie farm with his father until the latter's death, after 
which he made his home with his brother, Williaixi C, until January, 1889. 
when he married, and immediately went to farming on land which he had 
previously purchased. He is the owner of tw'o hundred acres of splendid land 
lying in .sections 29 and 30. and is also the owner of one hundred and thirty- 
six acres in section 5, Clay township. He is progressive and up-to-date in his 
methods and raises all the crops common to this section of the country. His 
keeps the property in the best of shape and the general appearance of the place 
indicates the excellent taste and sound judgment of the owaier. 

On January 9, 1889. Mr. Stafford married Lilla Gambrell, who was 
born in Clay township on October 6, 1865. the daughter of William J. and 
Ida R. { Rrown ) Gaml)rell. William Gambrell was born in Virginia and for 
a numljer of years he was the commanding officer and part owner of steam- 
boats plying the Mississippi river between St. Louis and New Orleans. He 
was an officer on and part owner of the ill-fated steamer "Sultana," which 
was destroyed by an explosion of its boilers on the river below Memphis. 
Tennessee, in April. 1865, Mr. Gambrell losing his own life in the terrible 
disaster. His wife was the youngest daughter of Judge B. Brown, of Arrow 
Rock township, who was one of the pioneers of Saline county. To Mr. and 
Mrs. Stafford have been born four children, namely: Sara A., born January 
7. 1891 ; Rowena K.. born December 18, 1892; James R.. born June 28. 1895; 
Robert R.. horn June 23. 1897. l" matters political the subject gives his 
support to the Democratic i^arty. though he has never aspired to local office 
of any nature. His fraternal relations are with the time-honored order of 
I'Veemasons. In every avenue of life's activities he has been true to his trust 
and as a man of unimpeached integrity and sterling rectitude, he has won 
and retains the unbounded confidence of his fellow citizens. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 79/ 

FRANK H. BROCKWAY. 

For a number of years Frank 11. Brockway, of Arrow Rock township, 
has occupied a conspicuous place among the successful agriculturists of Saline 
county. His career has been that of an honorable, enterprising business man, 
whose well rounded character has also enaljled him to take an active interest 
in education and social and moral affairs, and to keep well informed con- 
cerning the momentous cjuestions affecting the nation. 

Air. Brockway was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, on the 13th day of 
September. 1864. and is a son of Uriah and Helen J. (Anderson) Brockway. 
Her father was a native of Pennsylvania, but her mother was a native of 
Scotland who came to the United States with her parents in her childhood, 
the family locating in Pennsylvania. There she grew to womanhood and 
was married to Uriah Brockway. Sometime later they moved to Ohio, and 
in Alarch, 1865, they came to Missouri, the trip being made by boat and loca- 
tion being made in Arrow Rock township. Here Mr. Brockway rented land 
and was successfully engaged in the dair\- business. He was a man of fine 
personal qualities and gained a high standing in the community. He was a 
Republican in politics, but took little interest in political matters. He Avas a 
member of the Presbyterian church, which he had joined in young manhood, 
while his wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and a very 
devout woman. They were the parents of ten children, the subject of this 
sketch being the seventh in order of birth, and of these children five are now 
living, namely : Mrs. Hattie Morrison, of Katy, Texas ; Mrs. Elizabeth L. 
Scott, of Vernon county, this state; Frank H., the subject of this sketch; 
Edward A\ \ makes his home with his brother Preston, who is a farmer in 
Clay township, this county. 

Frank H. Brockway received his mental discipline in the common schools 
of Saline county and he remained on the farm with his father until he was 
twenty years of age. He then rented land in Clay township, in the operation 
of which he was engaged during the next four years. In 1889 he bought 
forty acres of land in Clay township, a half mile south of Saline City, but two 
years later he sold this and bought the splendid one-hundred-and-sixty-acre 
farm in section 2^, township 50, range 19, where he now resides. He has 
been prospered in all his undertakings and he has added to his landed posses- 
sions from time to time as he was able until now he is the owner also of the 
five hundred and six acres known as the Smith farm and four hundred and 
ninety-six acres of bottom, land, making a total of eleven hundred and sixty- 
two acres owned by him. Mr. Brockway carries on general farming, raising 



juS 



PAST AND PRESENT 



iUl the cr()])s 0)mni..n lo iln^ .secUuii of the state, and he also gives consider- 
able attention to livestock, feeding annually about two hundred cattle and four 
hundred hogs. He also handles many mules, being considered the heaviest 
dealer in this line in this part of the county. His home farm is finely improved 
and stands in unmistakable evidence of the fact that he is progressive and 
practical in his ideas. 

In iM)litics Mr. Brockway is allied with the Democratic party and takes 
an active interest in the success of his party, being a member of the county 
central committee from Arrow Rock township, and rendering appreciated 
service during campaigns. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America. His religious 
connection is with the Christian church. 

On the 5th day of April, 1885, Mr. Brockway was united in marriage 
w ith Marv AI. Sappington, of Clay township, this county, where she was born 
September 28, 1863. She is the daughter of Marshall and Caroline 
(Howard) Sappington, natives respectively of Saline county, Missouri, and 
Virginia. To Mr. and Mrs. Brockway have been born six children, of whom 
fi\e are living, naniel}- : ]\lrs. Myrtle Wade, born November i. 1886, now 
living in Arrow Rock township, this county; Earl H., bom July 17, 1888, at 
home; Rowena H.. born August 29, 1889, died January 18, 1898; Franklin 
Eugene, born October 15, i8qi, at home; Theodore H., born February 11, 
1893, '^t home, and Jennie K., born July 8, 1894, also at home. The members 
of this family are all highly respected in the community and the attractive 
home is the center of a large social circle. Air. Brockwav has, because of his 
many sterling qualities of character, long enjoyed the unbounded confidence 
of all who know him. being numbered among the representative citizens of his 
township. 



ISAIAH GARRETT. 



Isaiah Garrett was born about four miles west of Frankfort, Saline 
county, Missouri, on the 5th day of January, 1844, and is a son of James D. 
and Alarietta (Durrett) Garrett. The subject's paternal grandparents were 
-Abel and Nancy Garrett, both of whom were natives of A'irginia, the former 
born August 25, 1766, and the latter Alarch 2, 1769. After their marriage 
they moved from their native state to Tennessee, and from there to Saline 
county, Missouri, where they were numbered among the early settlers. Al)el 
Garrett died November 11. 1838, and his wife on Alay 19, 1843. They were 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 799 

people of moderate circumstances, though probably as wealthy as the majority 
of their neighbors. It is said they owned several stoves which they had 
brought with them from the Southland. They were the parents of ten chil- 
dren, of whom James D., the subject's father, was the seventh in order 
of birth. One son, Laban, was the first country-school teacher in Saline 
county. 

James D. Garrett was born January i6, 1805. in either Virginia or 
Tennessee, it is not positively known which. But little is known of his early 
life. He was a farmer, but is supposed to have also conducted a store at 
Tonesboro (now Napton), in Arrow Rock township, for a short time. When 
his father first came to Saline county he located in the northern part, west 
of Frankfort, where he had a farm of about six hundred acres. When James 
D. married he occupied this farm, and lived there until his death, which 
occurred April 8, 1847. 

James D. Garrett was married on May 22, 1834, to Nancy C. Durrett, 
who was born November 20, 18 17, in Virginia. She died July 7, 1836, leav- 
ing one son. Richard A., who was born June 10. 1836, and died July 28, 1836. 
On August 29, 1839, Mr. Garrett married Marietta Durrett, a distant relative 
of his first wife. She was born February 21, 1822, in Virginia, and was a 
daughter of William L. and Elizabeth (Roberts) Durrett. Her parents were 
both natives of Virginia, the father born November 24, 1797, and the mother 
on December 24, 1798. Mr. Garrett was survived by four children, of whom 
but two are now living, the subject of this sketch and Mrs. Anna Eliza 
Robertson, who was born March 31, 1842, and now lives in Arrow Rock 
township. William H., the eldest son, died about 1858. at the age of eighteen 
years, and John R., the youngest son, died June 27. 1864, while serving" in 
the Confederate army, having received a wound in battle three days pre- 
viously. He was born May 7, 1845. After the death of her husband, ]Mrs. 
Alarietta Garrett became the wife of Richard Marshall Durrett, the ceremony 
being performed on September 5, 1848. He was a brother of Air. Garrett's 
first wife, Nancy. To Richard and IMarietta Durrett were born four children, 
of whom three are living, namely: Marcellus, of Marshall, this county: 
James D.. of Clay township, this county, and Airs. Ella H. Mitchell, of Alar- 
shall. Richard M. Durrett died about 1858 and Airs. Durrett died during the 
later years of the Civil war. 

Isaiah Garrett secured his education in the schools of Arrow Rock town- 
ship and also attended about one year in the George Newton school, Pettis 
connty, this state. He remained with his mother at home until April. 1861, 
when he became a member of one of the first companies of cavalrv raised in 



S(->o i'AST AND PRESENT 

>;iiiiR- uiUiiiN, ilic 1.. .iiipauN licing- under the comiuand uf Capt. William 
P.rcwn. After the battle of Boonville, the company became a part of a regi- 
ment of which Captain lirown was made the colonel. After the battle of 
Cartha"-e. Missouri, the regiment was commanded by Colonel McCullough. 
The subject remained with the regiment until after the battle of Lexington, 
Missouri, when he was taken sick and returned home. In January, 1862, he 
rejoined his regiment at Cove Creek, Arkansas, and remained under Colonel 
McCullough's command until the close of the war. At the conclusion of the 
war Mr. Ciarrett returned to his home and w-ent to farming- on rented land, 
though at that time he owned a part of the old homestead near Frankfort. 
Soon after his marriage, in 1869, he bought one hundred and twenty acres of 
land in Marshall tow-nship, this county, and lived on this place until 1876, 
when he traded that farm for eighty acres in section 12, towaiship 50, range 
20, Clav township, where he has since made his home. He has sold all his 
other real estate holdings and is confining his attention exclusively to the 
operation of this farm. 

On February 22, 1869, Mr. (larrett married Sallie M. Brown, who was 
born in Clay township, this county, March 16, 1845, the daughter of James B. 
and Eliza (Durrett) Brown. These parents were natives of Kentucky and 
Virginia respectively and came to Saline county with their parents, being 
united in marriage here. To Mr. and ?^Irs. (larrett ha\e been born four 
children, namely: James P., who died in infancy, was born January 5, 1870; 
Lewis, born May 13, 1873, lives on his father's farm; Maurice, born June 
14, 1876, lives at home; Annie L., born April 8, 1880, is the wife of A. C. 
\ enable, of Clay tow^nship. 



ARCHIBALD GREGORY. 

Among the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of Arrows 
Rock township. Saline county, is the gentleman whose name appears at the 
hearl of this .sketch. A native of this county, be has been a witness and a 
participant in the wonderful development wdiich has characterized this section 
during the past half century. He has passed through some unique experiences 
ami his reminiscences of the eariy days are exceedingly interesting. 

Mr. Gregory was born near Marshall, this county, August 2, 1840, and 
received his education in the common schools of the neighborhood. He is a 
son of William and Jane (Merrill) Gregory. William Gregory was born 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 8oi 

near Kiioxville, Tennessee, and his father was a soldier of the war of the 
Revolution. Details of the early life of William Gregory are unknown. 
In 1825 he married Jane Merrill, who was born in Knox county, l>nnessee, 
June 9, 1807. They came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1830, driving 
through in a wagon. They located near Marshall, where ]\Ir. Gregory bought 
forty acres of land. This original purchase was never added to, as the con- 
dition of Mrs. Gregory's health was such that they constanth' feared they 
would be compelled to return to Tennessee. Mr. Gregory was a hard wori<ing 
man and enjoyed the esteem of all who knew him. Though not a member of 
any church, he was a conscientious and God-fearing man and had a host of 
friends. He was a Democrat in politics and was deeply interested in the 
issues of the day, though not in any sense an aspirant for public office. His 
wife was a devoted member of the Baptist church. They were the parents of 
eight children, of whom those living are as follows : Mrs. Sarah West, of 
Clay township, born in November, 1826; Mrs. Matilda Odell, of Marshall, 
this county; Samuel, of College City, California; Archibald, the subject of 
this sketch; Henry, of College City, California, died in May, 1909; William 
also died in 1909 in Nevada. William Gregory, senior, died in July, 1844. 
having been preceded several years by his w?ife, who died in August, 1840. 

At the time of Mrs. Gregory's death her eldest daughter, Sarah, took 
upon herself the care of the younger children, and the two youngest, twins, 
of whom the subject was one, became her special care. One of the couple 
died at about a year old. but Archibald grew strong and healthy. His sister 
Sarah married, and still he made his home with her, looking to her as to a 
mother for counsel and advice. In September, 1861, Mr. Gregory joined 
Capt. George Mason Brown and his Confederate troops and w-ent to the 
second battle of Boonville. The subject was not enlisted as a soldier, but 
went with the Captain for the novelty of the experience. Before the battle 
the colonel of the regiment placed him with others in care of the horses and 
supplies, but as Captain Brown was going into action he espied his young 
friend and requested the colonel that Archie be sent to the front with him. 
The permission was granted and while in the thick of the fight the subject 
heard a bullet strike someone near him and, turning, found his friend. Captain 
Brown, on the grotmd, mortally wounded. He assisted in bearing the 
wounded man to the hospital, and then he secured of the colonel permission to 
take the Captain's horse and accoutrements home. He started at once for 
Arrow Rock, arriving there the following morning, at which time word was 
received that the Captain was dead. 

Immediately after these events Mr. Gregory went to Lincoln, Illinois, 

51 



^02 PAST AND PRESENT 

and secured a position with a wealtliy farmer, Squire Bennett by name, at 
lliirtv dollars per month. Soon afterwards he \vas sent to Lincoln, with three 
wat>()ns. for Ixjards. Being- accustomed to calling everything planks except 
clapboards, when he reached tlie lumber yard he asked for clapboards. He 
was sent several miles to the mill for the material and did not reach home 
until after midnight. The next morning he was awakened by Squire Bennett, 
who was roundly cursing him for being many kinds of a fool, saying that he 
wanted fence boards. The sul)ject was at once discharged and fifteen dollars 
of his salary was held back to pay for the boards. Mrs. Bennett, who had 
taken a liking to the young man, gave him the fifteen dollars and insisted on 
his remaining as her guest, also furnishing him with a gun and ammunition, 
with which he killed wild duck and other game, which he sold to the markets 
in Lincoln. At the end of a w-eek. Squire Bennett sent for him and asked him 
to return to work. Mr. Gregory refused to return for less than fifty dollars 
a montli. which the Squire agreed to give, and in addition made him general 
manager of his estates, which w-ere large. Mr. Gregory retained this position 
about three months, when he was compelled to resign and return to his sister 
Sarah, her husband having enlisted for military service. Mr. and Mrs. 
Bennett were loath to part with their eflicient and gentlemanly manager and 
upon his leaving presented him with many tokens of their regard. 

Mr. Gregory remained with his sister until the close of the war, and 
during this time he rented and w^orked land for himself. The first year he 
raised ten tons of hemp, which he hauled to the warehouse at Arrow Rock, 
where Wood & Huston offered him two hundred dollars a ton for it. Be- 
lieving he could get a better price by shipping his hemp, he refused to sell. 
As the steamboat which was to take his hemp drew up to the wharf sparks 
from her smokestacks blew into the warehouse, which caught fire and the 
hemp was completely destroyed, together with a five-hundred-dollar bill, 
which Wood & Huston had put in their safe for him. Nothing daunted by 
this discouraging experience, Mr. Gregory borrowed money from Wood & 
Huston and entered the cattle business. He bought and sold large numbers 
of livestock and always so managed as to end every transaction with a profit. 
He has continuously since that time been to some extent engaged in the same 
business, and has been uniformly successful. About 1870 Mr. Gregory 
bought his first land, comprising one hundred and sixteen acres located four 
miles west of Saline City, Clay township. Subsequently he w^ent into partner- 
ship with his brother-in-law% John B. West, and together they owned one 
thousand and thirty acres. Mr. West died in 1907 and since that time Mrs. 
West Hiis sister") and he have ow-ned the property in partnership. Mr. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 803 

Gregory lives on his farm of three hundred and sixty acres in section 21, 
Arrow Rock township, but he still calls Mrs. West's residence his home. He 
has remained unmarried, but despite this handicap he has enjoyed life, being 
of an optimistic temperament, which always sees the bright side of things. He 
is large hearted and generous and has been a friend to all who have needed 
his friendship and assistance. He has in his employ a negro man by the 
name of Edward Taylor who has been with him twenty-three years. Mr. 
Gregory is a Democrat and gives a stanch support to the tickets of his party. 
Of a genial disposition and possessing those innate qualities which attract 
men to him, he has never wanted for friends, and today few men in the town- 
ship enjoy as large a circle of appreciative acquaintances as does he. 



* 



BURELL L. THOMPSON. 

Among the large land owners, successful farmers and highly esteemed 
citizens of Saline county, none are more deserving of mention in this work 
than Burell L. Thompson, whose fine homestead is located in section 26, 
Arrow Rock township. A lifelong resident of the county, he has had much 
to do with its material development and is today numbered among the repre- 
sentative citizens of the county. 

The subject's paternal grandparents were Philip W. and Brunette (LaAv- 
less) Thompson. The former was born in Virginia, July 3, 1790, and at the 
early age of six years he was left an orphan, practically raising himself after 
that time. He was a soldier in the war of 18 12. It is supposed that he came 
to Missouri soon after the close of that conflict and located in Howard county, 
where he owned considerable land and a number of slaves. He was among- 
the first Santa Fe traders and at a very early day established a trading post 
in what then was old Mexico, near Santa Fe. He had a Spaniard for a 
partner, the latter conducting the business at the post while Mr. Thompson 
brought the hides, furs, etc., to Old Franklin, Missouri, and thence by water 
to St. Louis, where he traded them for supplies for the post. Each of these 
trips usually required about three years, and during each return east he stopped 
for a month or more at his Howard county farm. He was ver}- highlv 
educated in the Spanish language, but could hardly read or write in English. 
He was, however, a shrewd and sagacious man and was well adapted to the 
business enterprises in which he engaged. During the Mexican war he again 
entered the service of his country, being a major in the quartermaster's de- 



8o4 



PAST AND PRESENT 



parmienl of the regular army. For services rendered by him in this capacity 
the government gave liim a large tract of land in Texas, but, considering it 
practically worthless, he never proved his claim and it is supposed the prop- 
erty revertctl to the government. Mr. Thompson conducted personally some 
\ery large freight trains or outfits to Santa Fe and other points in the South- 
west and on several of these trips he was attacked by hostile Indians, suffer- 
ing hea\v material loss. About the lieginning of the Civil war he started for 
New Mexico with his usual outfit, including a herd of cattle, but was stopped 
by General Price's Confederate troops, \vho 'took his cattle and all his goods. 
He abandoned this trip and never afterwards started on a similar expedition. 

Aljout the time he located in Howard county. Missouri, Mr. Thompson 
married Brunette Lawless, a native of Kentucky and a sister of Burton Law- 
less, who located in Arrow- Rock township, Saline county, about 1817. They 
became the parents of several children, not one of whom lived to be thirty 
years of age, although several of them were married at the time of their death. 
Soon after the close of the Mexican w-ar Mrs. Thompson secured a divorce 
from her husband, who gave her property in How^ard county, and in 1844 ^^^ 
built a large house in Arrow Rock township, where he ow^ned fourteen hun- 
dred acres of land. This land, the first of which he bought about 1828, was 
located about one mile from the town of Arrow Rock, and the house re- 
ferred to above is now occupied by his grandson, the subject of this sketch. 
About 1 85 1 Philip Thompson niarried Mrs. Penelope .Alexandria, wliose 
death occurred in 1884. Mr. Thompson died in January. 1870. He was a 
Republican in politics and a slave holder in practice, but during 'the Civil war 
he gave his sympathy and support to the Federal government, saying: 
"Having fought under the Stars and Stripes twice. 1 could never do other- 
wise than remain lo}al to them." He was very religious and for manv years 
was a member of the Christian church. 

Of the children of Philip and Ih-unette Thompson. Burell L. Thompson 
was born in Howard county, Missouri, in 1825. He was educated priniaril>- 
in the common schools of his native county, and deciding upon the medical 
profession, he studied in a St. Louis college, receiving his degree of Doctor of 
Medicine in 1846. He was then married and at once located at Georgetown 
(now Sedalia), Missouri, where he for a time was engaged in the practice of 
his profession. Later he took charge of the hospital at Lexington, Missouri. 
He died at the hotel in Arrows Rock in August, 1849, oi cholera after an 
illness of but six hours. He left a wddow and one son, Burell L., Jr., the sub- 
ject of this sketch. After Doctor Thompson's death, his wddow kept house 
for Philip Thompson until the latter's marriage, in 185 1, at which time she 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 805 

became the wife of a Mr. ]\Ic\\'illiams and they moved to Cahfornia. where 
she died in 1862. 

Biirell 1^. Thompson, Jr.. was born on the old homestead in Arrow Rock 
township, in the house in which he now hves February 15, 1849, ^^""^^ received 
his education in the pubhc schooLs of Arrow Rock township. When his 
mother, after her second marriage, went to Cahfornia, the subject went to 
]i\'e with his grandfather, Phihp Thompson, at the latter's urgent request. 
He remained there but a short time, however, going to hve with his grand- 
mother Brunette in SaHne county. He remained with her until about the 
beginning of the Civil war, when he returned to his grandfather, but a 
\ear later he left because the old gentleman placed a small United States flag 
on his horse's bridle. The subject returned to his grandmother, with whom 
he remained until the fall of 1865, when he returned to his grandfather, with 
whom he remained until the latter's death, at which time he inherited three 
hundred and fifty acres of the estate. In 1883 Mr. Thompson bought two 
hundred acres more, including the old homestead, which had been owned l^y 
his step-grandmother, whose death occurred the following year, 1884. Sub- 
sequently the subject bought another tract of ninety-two acres, making his 
total landed possessions five hundred and thirty acres. He is applying his 
effc'rts to the management of his farming interests and has met with uniformly 
gratifying results. He follows general farming, raising all the crops common 
to this section of the country, and in addition to the tilling of the soil he also 
gi\es considerable attention to the raising and fattening- of livestock, prin- 
cipally cattle and hogs, for the market. He is practical and energetic in his 
operations and is numbered among the successful and representative farmers 
of the county. 

Mr. Thompson has twice been married. In August, 1872, he married 
Celeste B. Amsbur}-, who was born in Rockland, Maine, in 1854, and came to 
Missouri with her parents when a very small girl. She and the subject were 
schoolmates and earlv sweethearts. She died in 1882, leaving four children, 
one ha\'ing died in infancy. Those now living are Charles E., born in 1873, 
who resides on his father's farm; Mrs. Media A. Gibson, born in 1875, now 
living in Arrow Rock township; Mrs. Maude Pickering, born in 1877, now 
]i\ing in Higginsville, Missouri; Mrs. Catherine Grow, born in 1880, living 
in Xew York. In April, 1886, Mr. Thompson married Airs. Rachel A. 
(Casey) Dysard, who was born in Adams county, Illinois, in 1858, and to this 
union were born two children, namely; Robert L., born February 17, 1887. 
who remains with his father, and Airs. Jessie Rummans, born in 1889, who 
resides in Higginsville, this state. The subject is the only member of Philip 
Thompson's family now living, all of the others having died at early ages. 



8o6 I'ASr AND PRESENT 

lU- is himself the grandfather of nine children. The subject's grandmother, 
^Irs. Bninette (Lawless ) Thompson, lived on her farm in Howard county for 
a number of years after her separation from her husband, but sometime in the 
latter fifties she became the wife of Judge Joseph Huston, of Arrow Rock, 
Missouri, and made her home in that place until her death, which occurred in 
the fall of 1873, at the age of about seventy years. Her husband had died 
soon after their marriage. In politics Mr. Thompson is a stanch Democrat 
and takes a commendable interest in public affairs, though not a seeker after 
public office. He is public spirited in his attitude toward all public enterprises 
and gi\'es a hearty support to every movement that promises to be of benefit 
to the community. He is a man of splendid personal qualities and enjoys the 
highest regard of all who know him. 



LELAND B. GREEN. 



Prominent among the worthy representatives of the pioneer element in 
the county of Saline is the well known gentleman to a review of whose life 
the attention of the reader is now invited. For many years Leland Green has 
been a forceful factor in the growth and prosperity of Arrow Rock township, 
and his name and reputation have extended far beyond the limits of the 
locality where his life has been spent. 

Leland B. Green was born on the same farm in Arrow Rock towaiship 
where he now^ resides, his natal day having been during Christmas w^eek of 
December, 1837. He is the son of Samuel H. and Elizabeth (Cain) Green, 
of Madison county, Kentucky, before their emigration to Missouri. The sub- 
ject's mother w^as born in Virginia, but their marriage occurred in the Blue 
Grass state. About a year after that event, in 1818, they came to Missouri, 
locating in How^ard county. The long, tiresome and dangerous trip was made 
by horseback, in which w^ay they conveyed, besides themselves, their first 
baby, a feather bed and all their clothing. On their arrival at their destination, 
they took an invoice and found that one dollar v^^as the sum total of their 
cash capital. They were undaunted, however, and the father bravely went to 
work to make a living for his family. They remained in Howard county 
until 1833. when they came to Saline county and located in Arrow Rock 
township, where they bought eighty acres of land located in section 39, towm- 
ship 50, range 19, this land being that now occupied by the subject. Mr. 
Green was energetic and possessed a large fund of good common sense, so 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 807 

that in his operations he was prospered to a degree that enabled him to in- 
crease his landed estate as the years went by until he became the owner of 
four hundred acres of land. Of this, he afterwards gave each of his sons 
eiglity acres. J\Ir. and Mrs. Green were faithful and earnest members of the 
Christian church, being honest and God-fearing people. Mr. Green was a 
strong Republican in politics and took a great interest in the political affairs 
of the country, though he never sought office for himself. Mr. and Mrs. 
Green became the parents of nine children, all of whom lived to mature years 
excepting a daughter who died at the age of twelve years. Those living, be- 
sides the subject, are : Samuel H., aged seventy-eight years, living near 
Napton, Arrow Rock township, and Mrs. Emily Forson, aged ninety-one 
years, living in Ray county, Missouri. Samuel H. Green died in 1869, aged 
seventy-two years, and was survived more than two decades by his widow, 
wdio died in 1890, at the remarkable age of ninety-six years. 

Leland B. Green, who is the youngest of the children born to his 
parents, was reared on the home farm and remained with his parents until 
their deaths, at which time he came into possession of the old homestead of 
eighty acres, wdiich he has since operated successfully. The place is well im- 
proved and is recognized as one of the best farms in the township. Mr. 
Green has been a hard working man all his life and his efforts have been re- 
warded by a gratifying measure of success. 

Mr. Green is public spirited in his attitude towards all movements which 
promise to benefit the community and is a man of force and influence in the 
community. His political affiliation is wath the Republican part}-, and, like 
his father, he takes a keen and intelligent interest in the trend of public 
events. Mrs. Green is a member of the Christian church, Mr. Green being 
prevented from attending- religious worship by the fact that he is very hard 
of hearing; nevertheless, he is a man of finer feelings and is orthodox in his 
beliefs. 

On the 14th day of January, 1858, Mr. Green was united in marriage to 
Nancy E. Rummans, who was born in Boone county, Missouri, in 1834. 
She is the daughter of Stephen and Susan (Eastin) Rummans. natives of 
Kentucky, who moved to Saline county, Missouri, in i860. They died in 
Arrow Rock township, the father in 1862, at the age of fifty-five years, and 
the mother in 1867. They were the parents of six children, of which number 
Mis. Green w-as the second in order of birth. Those living are, Mrs. Green, 
Mrs. Eliza Hill, of Pittsburg, Kansas, Abraham, of Marshall, this county, 
and Mrs. Susan J. Myers, of Warsaw, Missouri. To Mr. and Mrs. Green 
have been born eight children, of whom three are living, namely : Elihu L., 



^o8 P^^ST AND PRESENT 

oi I'ar.Miii^. i\.iii-.i.>: Edward E. and David L., both of Arrow Rock township, 
this conntx . 

l^ihvard E. Green, son of the subject of this sketch, was born September 
(i, iSho. on the farm which his father now occupies. He was educated in the 
schools of Arrow Rock townshi]), and hved at home w-ith his parents until 
1890. when he moved to a farm of forty acres in section 34 which he had 
bou.q-ht in 1875. He is now devoting his attention to the operation of this 
jjlacc and is meeting- with a good measure of success. He is in politics a 
Republican, but has never aspired to public office. His religious membership 
is with the Presbyterian church. 

In fnne. 1890, Air. Green married Lulu O. Black, who was born in 
Howard county, Missouri, in March, 1875, the daughter of Newton and Mar}- 
(Tanner) Black, natives of Kentucky. To Mr. and Mrs. Green have l^een 
born the following children: John, born in November, 1892; Paul E.. born 
AFav JO. 1894; R. Elmer, born in August. 1898, and \Mllard L., born in Sep- 
ti'inliiM-. 1906. 



JOHN PERCY HUSTON. 

The life history of him whose name heads this sketch is closely identified 
with the history of IMarshall and Saline county. His life has been one of 
untiring activity and has been crow'ued with a degree of success attained b}- 
tliose only who devote themselves indefatigably to the work before them. He 
is of a high type of Intsiness man and none more than he deserves a fitting 
recognition among the men w-hose genius and abilities have achieved results 
that are most enviable and commendable. 

John Percy Huston, banker, is descended from one of the earliest and 
most prominent of the pioneers of central Missouri. His paternal grand- 
father. Joseph Huston, a native of Augusta county, A^irginia, niarried a Miss 
Brow.nlee, and in 1819 moved to Saline county, settling on a farni in Arrow 
Rock township. There he built a hotel, the first in the neighborhood, which 
he conducted for many years, later in life establishing a commercial business 
there \\hich he conducted in connection with the hotel. After his first wife 
died, he married the widow of Bradford Lawless. He was a man of great 
influence in Saline county, and for many years in the early history of that 
place was the only justice of the peace in his township. His reputation for 
probity, integrity and strength of character descended to the son Joseph, and 
IS als(j the heritage of the grandson. Joseph Huston, Jr., son of the pioneer. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 809 

was born and reared on the farm in Saline county. In youth he entered his 
father's store as a clerk and for some time continued in that business. In 
1859 he formed a partnership in the same business with Will H. \\'ood and 
in 1865 they added a commission business to their joint interests. The firm 
was dissolved in 1869. and four years later a new partnership was organized 
by them, as Wood & Huston, for the purpose of engaging in the banking 
business in ^Marshall. In 1874 they opened their bank for the transaction of 
business, on the northeast corner of the public square in Marshall, their capital 
being twenty thousand dollars. The institution was conducted as a private 
bank until 1882, when the capital stock was increased to one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, stock issued for that amount, and incorporation under the laws 
of Missouri effected. Of this bank Joseph Huston served as president until 
his death in 1884. ]\Ir. Huston was twice married, first in 1849 to Virginia 
Thompson, daughter of Philip Thompson, an early settler of Howard county. 
His second wife, to whom he was united in 1857. was ]\Iary C. Smith, the 
daughter of G. S. Smith, who was a nati^•e of Kentucky. They had ten 
children, of whom six are living, namely: John Percy, Bettie, Harry L., 
^^'ill S., Louise (wife of Charles L. Bell, of ^Marshall) and Arthur E. Joseph 
Huston was a quiet, unostentatious man, of great integrity and iron-clad 
business principles. He seldom made an error in judgment and was equally 
correct in his clerical work. He was a quiet and retiring man, of generous 
impulses, giving liberally of his means to worthy causes. He was public 
spirited to a marked degree, and from every point of view a valuable member 
of the community. 

John Percy Huston was born in Saline county, ]^Iissouri. Xovember 28, 
i860. At the age of fifteen years he was graduated from Kemper Military 
School at Boonville, being the youngest graduate to leave that institution. 
The year following his graduation he entered his father's bank as bookkeeper 
and in 1882 was made assistant cashier and in 1885 cashier. Since the death 
of Will H. Wood, in 1890, the management of the institution has been in 
his hands. So successful has his conduct of its affairs been that he is recog- 
nized by the bankers of Missouri as one of the most sagacious financiers of 
the state, with a masterly grasp of questions pertaining to this most important 
interest. In 1895 he was complimented by election to the oftice of president 
of the Missouri Bankers' Association. In 1897 he was elected vice-president 
from Missouri of the -\merican Bankers' Association, and in 1900 was 
elected a member of the executive council of that association. At its meeting 
at Cape Girardeau in 1898, he read a carefully prepared paper on "The 
Banking Department of the State of Missouri and the Laws Governing the 



8lO PAST AND PRESENT 

Same."' which was awarded a prize of one hundred dollars, as the best paper 
on the new Ijank inspection law. At the meeting of the American Bankers' 
Asscx'iation at Denver, Colorado, in August, 1898, he delivered an address on 
liie "Resources and Banking Statistics of Missouri," which was applauded as 
tiie i)cst address on a kindred subject delivered before that session. For 
several years he has been treasurer of the Sappington fund for the education 
of poor children. In 1885 he Ijecame one of the incorporators of the Ridge 
Park Cemetery Association, which laid out the present attractive burying 
grounds at Marshall. Fraternally he is a Freemason, having taken the de- 
grees up to and including that of Knight Templar. In the Methodist Epis- 
copal church South he is president of the board of stewards, and was elected 
in I goo a trustee of Central College at Fayette, Missouri. Politically Mr. 
Huston is a Democrat, and he was a member of the military staff of Governor 
Stephens, with the rank of brigadier-general. 

Mr. Huston married, November 14. 1889, Nellie Cary, a native of 
Kansas City and a daughter of the late Judge Lucius and Martha (Stone) 
Cary. They are the parents of three children, Lucius Cary. John Percy. Jr., 
and Mary Louise. Genial in disposition and of pleasing address. Mr. Huston 
easily makes friends and throughout the community he enjoys unljounded 
confidence and esteem. 



C. W. DOWNS. 



Holding worthy prestige among the leading farmers and enterj^-ising 
citizens of Marshall township, C. W. Downs fills a large place in the public 
eye and is entitled to specific notice in a work devoted to the lives of the rep- 
resentative men of Saline county. His father. Benjamin F. Downs, was a 
native of Kentucky and his mother, whose maiden name was Letitia Neely. 
came from Indiana. This couple were married in Saline county, Missouri, 
and reared a family of seven children, the subject of this sketch being the 
oldest of the number; the others were Margaret, who married a man by the 
name of Folck; EHzabeth, wife of A. J. Wilson; Alvin F., of Vernon county, 
Missouri; Virginia, wife of A. J. Wilson; Mrs. Laura Sandridge. and 
Cynthia, who first married Thomas Sparks, after whose death she became 
the wife of Clarence Fant. 

Benjamin F. Downs grew to manhood in Indiana and in 1820 came to 
Missouri and settled in Saline county, where he afterwards married and be- 
came a prosperous tiller of the soil. He was a prominent citizen, took an 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 8ll 

active interest in all public matters and as a Democrat became a leader of his 
party in Saline county and was also actively identified with the Christian 
church and all laudable measures and movements for the moral advancement 
of the community in which he spent so many years and in which his death 
occurred in 1867, his wife surviving him until December 18, 1898. 

The subject's paternal grandfather was Thomas Downs, a native of 
Kentucky and a man of high character and sterling worth. He had a family 
of three sons, whose names were as follows : Thomas, who died many years 
ago in Indiana, Benjamin F., and James A., who came to Missouri in an 
early dav, and departed this life in the county of Pettis. 

C. W. Downs was born October 20, 1843, in Saline county, ^Missouri, 
and received his educational training in the public schools and the high school 
of Marshall. Reared amid the wholesome discipline of rural life, he early 
became familier with the rugged duties of the farm and grew up to the full 
stature of well developed manhood with a proper conception of life and its 
responsibilities. He remained with his parents, assisting in the cultivation of 
the farm, until the age of twenty-five, when he chose a wife and helpmeet 
in the person of Susan Ramsey, to whom he was united in the bonds of wed- 
lock in 1869, and immediately thereafter engaged in agriculture for himself 
which useful calling, with other pursuits at intervals, he has since followed. 
^Meantime, 1864, he entered the Confederate Army, Col. Bob Woods' cavalry 
regiment, of General Shelby's command, and saw considerable active service 
during that and the following year in southwestern Missouri, Louisiana, 
Arkansas and Texas, taking part in several battles and a number of skinnishes 
until the surrender of General Lee, when he and his comrades laid down their 
arms and, after being paroled, were given free transportation home. 

Mr. Downs resumed the pursuit of agriculture on the home farm at 
the close of the war and remained there until 1870, when he purchased and 
improved a farm of his own. on which he has since lived and prospered. His 
place is admirably situated in one of the finest agricultural districts of the 
county and, being only two and a half miles from the court house, has steadily 
grown in value and is now considered one of the most beautiful and attractive 
homes in the vicinity of the county seat. Mr. Downs is a self-made man and. 
in the full sense of the term, the architect of his own fortune. He has been 
engaged in various kinds of occupations, including the breaking of prairie, 
operating a threshing machine, working on the farm for wages, renting land 
and running a dairy, farming on his own responsibility and other lines of 
work, in all of which he met with reasonable success, as his present independ- 
ent position abundantly attests. He has dealt considerably in real estate in 



,Sij PAST AND PRESENT 

his tuvn and other couniics and at iln^ lime owns a fine farm of two hundred 
and sixtv acres, which is highly improved and in an excellent state of cultiva- 
tion, also property in Marshall and Eldorado Sprinos, besides owning stock- 
in ihe .Marshall Creamery Company and other enterprises. 

in his i)olitical faith Mr. Downs is a Democrat and as such keeps well 
informed on the questions of the day and in close touch with his party in 
local, state and national affairs. He is a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd I'ellows. in which he has filled the chairs in both subordinate lodge 
and encampment, and is now treasurer of the organization in Marshall. He 
is also identified with the Ancient Order of United \V(M-kmen. and in religion 
subscribes to the plain and simple teachings of the Christian chiu-ch. his wife 
also being a member of the same l^od}-. 

Mrs. Downs was born in Saline county in 1854. being a daughter of 
Higinbotham and Jeannette (Guyer) Ramsey, both natives of Missouri and 
descendants of old Virginia families, which were represented in this state 
earlv in the ]Moneer period and took a ])rominent part in the development of 
the country's resources. 

Higinbotham Ramsey was an influential citizen and prominent farmer 
and stock raiser and for many years wielded an influence for the Democratic 
party, which made him one of its leaders in the central part of the state. He 
sympathized with the South during the Civil war, and was brutally murdered 
by i'ederal Inishwhackers in 1864. after suffering tortures which savages 
would have hesitated to inflict. Ivlrs. Ramsey died in the year 1894. She 
was the mother of the following children; Mrs. Susan Downs, James, 
Thomas. William and Mrs. Anna Harris, the last named and Mrs. Downs 
being the only survivors of the family. 

Mr. and Mrs. Downs are the parents of the following children: Ben- 
jamin, a farmer of Saline county and also running a general delivery in Mar- 
shall ; Ida, who died at the age of two and a half vears ; Lulu died in infancy; 
lA-a. wife of Paul Evans; Harris and Jeannette. still memliers of the home 
circle. 



THO^LAS HUDNALL HARVEY. 

.Missouri has been especially honored in the character and career of her 
i;ublic and jirofessional men. In every county there are to be found in the 
vari<ius vocations and professions men who dominate not alone by superior 
nuelligence and natural endowment, but by natural force of character. It is 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 813 

profitable to study their lives, weigh their motives and hold up their achieve- 
ments as incentives to greater activity and higher excellence on the part of 
those just entering upon their first struggles with the world. These reflec- 
tions are suggested by the career of one who. h\- a strong inherent force and 
superior professional ability, directed by intelligence and judgment of a high 
order, stands today among the representative men of Saline county. 

Thomas Hudnall Harvey, who occupies a leading position at the Saline 
countv bar. is a native son of Missouri. ha\ing been born on a farm seven 
miles northwest of the city of Marshall, on the 22d day of February, i860. 
His paternal grandfather. Thomas H. Harvey, was of English descent and 
was born in Northumberland county. Virginia. February 20. 1799. He re- 
ceived a good education and in mature life became a successful and prominent 
agriculturist. He was appointed by President Tyler as superintendent of 
Indian affairs, and was re-appointed to this position by President Polk. He 
held the rank of major in the state militia of Virginia. In 1836 he came to 
Saline county, Missouri, and two years later he was elected to the lower house 
of the State Legislature. His services in that body were eminently satisfac- 
torv and in the election of 1840 he was chosen a member of the State Senate. 
He followed the vocation of farming all his life. From his early youth he 
was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church South. His death occurred 
February 6. 1852. He was twice married. On August 19, 1817, he married 
Sallie C. Harding, of his native county, who died shortly after their mar- 
riage, and on January 30. 1820. he married Elizabeth S. Edwards, whose 
death occurred January 25, 1853. 

Thomas R. E. Harvey, father of the subject, was born in Northumber- 
land county, Virginia, December 16, 1827, and in 1836 he accompanied his 
parents on their removal to Saline county, Missouri. He was then a boy of 
nine years and he was reared on the parental farmstead. He received a pre- 
paratorv education in the common schools of the neighborhood and later a 
classical course in the University of St. Louis, graduating with honor in 
1850, and receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He further enjoyed 
the advantage of attendance in the law school of the University of Virginia 
at Charlottesville, that state. He immediately engaged in the practice of his 
profession in St. Louis, but at his father's death he returned to Saline county 
and took up the operation of the home farm, which engaged his attention 
until 1891, when he removed to Marshall, where he died on August 30, 1902. 
at the age of seventy-five years. He stood high in the opinion of his fellow 
citizens and he represented Saline county in the lower house of the State 
Legislature in 1872. He married Virginia E. Yerby, who was born in Fau- 



J^j I PAST AND PRESENT 

(initT c<ninly. Virginia, in 1825. When but a child she came to Missouri 
with her parents, who located in Lafayette county. She now makes her home 
with her son. the subject of this sketch, and is eighty-three years old. To 
Thomas and Virginia Harvey were born four children, namely: Maud L., 
the wife of Prof. B. G. Shackelford, professor of physics and chemistry in 
the Cape Girardeau (Missouri) Normal School; Thomas H., the subject of 
this sketch : Emest Y., who is engaged in the manufacture of white pressed 
brick in Jacksonville. Florida; Dr. Horace G., of Denver, Colorado. 

Thomas H. Harvev received his elementary education in the schools near 
his home. In 1878 he entered the Central College at Fayette, Missouri, 
where he was graduated in 1882. After his graduation he became a member 
of the facultv of this institution for one year as adjunct professor of Greek 
and Latin. He then began reading law with Yerby & Vance at Marshall and 
in November, 1885. he was admitted to the bar. In the same year he began 
the practice of his profession at Miami, Saline county, and reniained there 
until 1890, at which time he was elected prosecuting attorney for this county 
and removed to Marshall. He was re-elected to the office in 1892. He made 
a most commendable record as prosecutor, and in this connection it is worthy 
of note that he secured the first conviction in the state of Missouri for rape 
where the death penalty was inflicted. Fie has from the beginning enjoyed 
a splendid practice and has been connected with some of the most important 
litigation in the Saline courts. Of mature judgment and keen discrimination, 
he possesses the valuable faculty of getting quickly at the heart of whatever 
engages his attention, and in the trial of cases he has proved himself an an- 
tagonist to be feared. He has met with very gratifying success in the prac- 
tice an.d is numbered among- the leaders in his profession in Saline county. 
Mr. Harvey has been a member of the board of curators of Central College, 
of l-'ayette, this state, for a number of years. He is a director in and attor- 
ney for the Bank of Marshall, the Central National Savings and Loan Asso- 
ciation of Marshall, and the Saline County Telephone Company, and is also 
a director of the Marshall Floral Company. 

Politically Mr. Harvey is a stanch Democrat and takes a keen interest 
in the success of his party, being numbered among the influential counselors 
in the organization. Fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Religious- 
ly his membership is with the Methodist Episcopal church South, of which 
he was formerly a member of the board of trustees. Mrs. Harvey is a mem- 
ber of the Episcopal church. They are both liberal in the support of their re- 
spective churches, as well as all other benevolent and worthy objects. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 815 

On July 29, 1903, Mr. Harvey was united in marriage to Linnie M. 
Montague, who was born in Marshall, the daughter of E. D. and Mary L. 
Montague, of that city. This union has been blessed in the birth of two chil- 
dren, Edward Montague and Harold Lee. 



P. C. ARMENTROUT. 



The gentleman whose life history is lierewith outlined is descended from 
stanch old German stock, though all of his immediate ancestors have lived in 
Virginia. The Armentrout family is numbered among the pioneer families 
of the Old Dominion, and the land first entered by the family in Rocking- 
ham county, Virginia, in 175-3, during the reign of King George, is still in 
the possession of the family, a record remarkable in these days of constantly 
changing land titles. The subject's paternal grandfather, George Armen- 
trout, was born, reared and died in Rockingham county, where he followed 
farming and was a highly respected citizen. The subject's parents were Jere- 
miah and Sarah J. (Miller) Armentrout, who also were born, reared and 
lived their entire lives in Rockingham county. The father also followed the 
tilling of the soil and his death occurred in 1886, his wife having died in 1868. 
They were the parents of eleven children, of whom nine are still living. The 
subject's maternal grandfather was Peter Miller, who, like the other mem- 
bers of this connection, was a successful farmer in Rockingham county, Vir- 
ginia, where he was born, lived and died. 

P. C. Armentrout was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, on the 
4th day of November, 1849, and was reared under the paternal roof, receiv- 
ing his education in private schools in the neighborhood, and spending his 
vacation periods in assisting in the labor of the farm. On September 28, 
1869. before he had attained his majority, he came to Saline county, Missouri, 
and for four years was employed in teaching school. During the following 
four years he was engaged in farming near Shackelford, this county, meeting 
with fair success. At the end of the period noted he sold his farm and during- 
the following five years he was in the grain and general mercantile business 
at Shackelford. Desiring a larger field for operations, he removed, in 1881. 
to Marshall and, in partnership with B. F. Naylor, went into the grocery 
business. He was also for six years engaged in the hardware and furniture 
business, also in partnership wdth Mr. Xaylor. In all these enterprises ]\Ir. 
Armentrout was steadilv successful and makino- substantial advances in a 



8l6 PAST AND PRESENT 

iiiiancial and material way. his shrewdness and business sagacity being ex- 
hibited in every business transaction in which he engaged. On May i, 1894, 
he was tendered and accepted the position of vice-president of the Farmers' 
Savino-s Bank at Marshall, and. selling his mercantile interests, he has since 
that time devoted his attention to the banking business, in which he has also 
demon.strated lousiness qualities of a high order. The Farmers' Savings 
Bank is one of the strong and popular monetary institutions of Saline county. 

On March 8, 1871. Mr. Armentrout w^as united in marriage to Rachael 
V. Kiser. who is a native of Saline county, Missouri, and a daughter of 
Tames Kiser. The latter \vas one of the old pioneers of this county, his father 
having brought his family here in a very early day. To the subject and his 
wife have been born four children, namely : Ida, who is the wadow of the late 
Dr. Melvin Young; W. J., wdio is a successful farmer living about five miles 
from Marshall ; Lotta and Edna, the younger children, remain at home. 

Politically Mr. Armentrout is a stanch Democrat and takes a healthy 
interest in the trend of public events, though in no sense an office seeker. 
Fraternally he is a member of the /Vncient Free and Accepted Masons, be- 
longing to the blue lodge of Master Masons, the chapter of Royal Arch 
Masons and the commandery of Knights Templar. In religion Mr. and Mrs. 
Armentrout are members of the Baptist church, to which they give an earnest 
and liberal support. Combined with business qualifications of a high order, 
unimpeached integrity, a public spirited attitude toward all local interests 
and a genial personality, have combined to gain for Mr. Armentrout a de- 
ser\'ed ])opularitv in the community in which he so long resided, he being 
justly numbered among the representative citizens of Saline county. 



HENRY CLAUDE YOUNG. 

Among the enterprising farmers and successful business men of Saline 
county none were better known or exercised a more beneficent influence than 
the worthy and high-minded gentleman whose name appears at the head of 
this sketch. In all that constituted upright manhood and progressive citizen- 
ship, he was easily the peer of any of his fellowmen and his name will go 
down to posterity as one who gave impetus to the great agricultural and live- 
stock interests of his county and added to the good name and reputation of a 
community long noted for its high standard of morals and respect for law and 
order. Like the majority of the men of central Missouri, Henry C. Young 



SALINE COUNTY,, MISSOURI 817 

was descended from Southern ancestry, although a native of SaHne county, 
where his birth occurred on the 21st of November, 1862. He was a son of 
George and Virginia (Gihiam) Young, a sketch of whom appears upon an- 
other page of this work. 

Henry C. Young, whose name introchices this review, was reared to 
agricuhural pursuits and received a good elementary education in the common 
schools, this training being afterwards supplemented by a course in Central 
College at Fayette, where he earned an honorable record as a diligent and 
critical student. On arriving at the age of life to do so, he chose agriculture 
as his life work and, directing all of his energies thereto, soon became one of 
the leading farmers and local stock raisers in his part of the country, as well 
as one of the representative citizens of the community in which he resided. 
His knowledge of live stock made him an authority on this important branch 
of farming and in addition to raising and feeding a large number of cattle he 
bought and shipped quite extensively and in due time reaped the reward 
which keen intelligence, well balanced judgment and wise foresight are sure 
to bring- to their possessor. Mr. Young was a good trader as well as an ex- 
cellent and up-to-date farmer, and his business affairs were invariably suc- 
cessful. He possessed unusual energy, also the ability to foresee with re- 
markable accuracy the future outcome of his various plans, and during his 
active years his mistakes were few and he seldom failed to realize abundant 
returns from his time and labors. In 1899 he turned his farm over to other 
hands and moved to Marshall, to afford his children better school privileges, 
and he made that city his home during the remainder of his life. 

Miss Willie Standard, who became the wife of Mr. Young on November 
15, 1885, was born in Saline county, Missouri, in 1868, being the only child 
of George W. and Elizabeth (Romine) Standard, natives of Illinois and 
Missouri respectively. Mrs. Young is a lady of sound intelligence and 
beautiful character and possesses to a marked degree those practical ideas 
which made her a fit companion and helpmeet to her husband and after his 
death enabled her to take charge of his interests, which, with those inherited 
from her parents, she still manages with commensurate ability and skill. She 
is the mother of three children, whose names and years of birth are as follows, 
Nadine, 1891, Virginia, 1893, and Henry C, who was born in 1896. 

In politics Mr. Young was a stanch Democrat and firm believer in the 
principles of his party, but at no time did he seek office or aspire to public 
honors. Personally he was sociable and of a kindly disposition, charitable 
to the poor and unfortunate, a loyal friend and obliging neighbor and an ex- 
cellent and high-minded citizen whose influence did much to promote the 

52 



yiJ^ PAST AND PRESENT 

welfare of his icllownien. His home life was almost ideall}- ha])])y and all 
witii whom he associated were ijrofuse in their praise of his admiral)le 
(|iialities and sterling worth. He died on the first day of September, 1905, 
and left not only a sorrowing- family Imt an entire commnnity to mourn his 
loss. 

Mr-. Voting's paternal grandfather, (Jideon Standard, was a native of 
Kentuck'N and a man of sturdy character and high repute. Sometime after 
his marriage he moved to Illinois, where he became a prominent stock farmer 
and spent the remainder of his days, dying a number of years ago, respected 
l)y all who knew him. He reared a large family, all of whom remained in 
Illinois excepting George W'.. who came to Missouri wdien a young man and 
engaged in the cattle business in Saline county. A few years after his arrival 
he married IClizabeth Romine and in due time accumulated a handsome estate 
and became one of the leading farmers and stock raisers in this part of the 
countv. In addition to his large agricultural interests, he acquired consider- 
able city property and was a stockholder in the Bank of Marshall, besides 
being identified with various other enterprises which added to his fortune and 
made him one of the solid men of the community. A Democrat in politics, 
he was an influential factor in his party, Imt never an office holder, and, 
though strictly moral and U|)right in all of his dealings and honorable in his 
relations with his fellow men, he belonged to no church or religious organiza- 
tion, believing that each man was a law unto himself and that a kind and 
merciful creator would deal justly with all. The death of this estimable man 
and public spirited citizen occurred in December, 1907, his wife preceding 
him to the grave in 1872. ]\irs. Standard was the daughter of Jesse Romine, 
an early settler and well-to-do farmer of Saline county. She lived an earnest 
and consistent Christian life and was long a w^orthy member of the Presby- 
terian church, and her kindl}- words and many good deeds are held in grateful 
rememljrance by those with whom she formerlv mingled. 



FRANCIS M. LAIL. 



Ihe gentleman of whom the biographer writes in this connection is not 
only a successful farmer and prominent citizen of Saline county, but is also 
widely known throughout Missouri and other states as a breeder and raiser of 
high-grade swine, a business in which he has outdistanced all competitors 
and in which he has few ecjuals and no superiors in the entire union. Like 



i 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 819 

nianv enterprising residents of Saline connty, F. M. Lail hails from the state 
of Kentucky, where his l)irth occurred on the 6th day of February, 1844, 
having- first seen the light of day in Harrison county, of which his parents, 
Charles and Louisa Lail, were also natives. His grandfather, John Lail, 
the son of German parents, was born while the family was moving from 
Virginia to Kentucky overland by ox teams. Li due time he became a promi- 
nent planter and distiller, and to him belongs the credit of constructing the 
first steam copper still of the type which afterwards came into general use in 
Harrison county, Kentucky. He was a man of great energy, stern integrity, 
did much to promote the material progress of his county and died many years 
ago, leaving a family of ten children, of whom the subject's father was the 
fourth in order of birth. 

Charles Lail was born in 1807 and when a young man married Louisa 
Ligles, whose parents, Joseph and ]Mary (Bryan) Ingles, were among the 
earliest pioneers of Kentucky, the mother of Mary Bryan having been a sister 
of Daniel Boone, the noted hunter and backwoodsman and the first white man 
to penetrate the wilderness of what is now one of the finest states of the 
federal union. Mr. Lail was a successful planter, a large slave holder and, 
by reason of his standing as a citizen and sterling worth in every walk of 
life, became widely and favorably known throughout his native county. 

Charles and Louisa Lail reared a family of eight children and died in 
Vlay, 1861, and February, 1880, respectively, the names of their offspring 
)eing as follows : Joseph, John, George, James, Francis M., Charles, Alvin 
and Edwin, all of whom grew to maturity and bore well their parts in life. 

F. M. Lail was reared on the home farm and at irregular intervals at- 
tended such schools as the country afforded. By reason of his services being 
recjuired in the fields, his education was limited, nevertheless he made the 
best of his opportunities in after years and by general reading and keeping in 
touch with the leading questions of the day he in due time became one of the 
well informed men of this community. He remained in his native state until 
1877, ^vhen he moved to California and in 1879 came to Saline county, Mis- 
souri, and little later purchased a farm on which he still lives and which, 
under the name of College Hill Stock Farm, is now one of the finest country 
homes as well as one of the best known places in the county. Mr. Lail at once 
l^egan improving his swine and it was not long until his hogs were by far the 
best in the neighborhood and the source of a handsome income. Realizing 
the necessity of an im]:)roN'ement in this important branch of farming, he not 
only opened communication with the leading hog raisers throughout the 
county, but travelled quite extensively, visiting the best stockmen, observing 



820 PAST AND PRESENT 

Ihcir niclhocis and l)U\ing- at different places the "finest animals he could pro- 
cure. Raising- onlv the higiiest grade and breeding with the greatest care, 
he achieved in a few ^•ears a wide and enviable reputation and wherever his 
animals were exhibited they invariably won the first premiums and increased 
the demand for them on the part of those who made fine stock hogs a 

specialty. 

Mr. Lail has devoted twenty-nine years to the raising of the best high- 
bred, standard and registered swine and to him more than to any other man 
are the farmers of the central part of the state indebted for the introduction 
of a breed of hogs that have proven far superior to the older and indifferent 
varieties, besides adding greatly to the income of the owners. Through his 
efforts the standard of stock in Saline county has been raised until the hogs 
in this part of Missouri have a state-wide reputation, in addition to which 
manv fine animals have been shipped from here to distant sections of the 
Union to be used for breeding purposes. Mr. Lail has received as high as 
three thousand dollars for a single male animal, and not infrequently the 
demand for his stock hogs at handsome top notch prices far exceeds his ability 
to supply. He has demonstrated that it is just as easy and a hundredfold 
more valuable to raise good animals than inferior ones and for his activity 
and influence in this respect he commands the esteem of the families of his 
own and other counties and is considered in the light of a benefactor to the 
agricultural classes throughout the entire country. He has always been 
modest in his claims for recognition and notwithstanding his enviable reputa- 
tion as a stockman and the wide notoriety to which he has attained he makes 
no boast, but lets his achievements speak for themselves. In his specialty he 
stood not on price and in searching for the best he spared no time nor expense, 
so determined was he to raise the standard of his animals higher than that of 
any other in his section of the state. The reputation accorded him of being 
the best breeder and raiser of fine Poland-China hogs in the United States 
he wears with becoming, though modest dignity, and that he is today without 
a rival in this important and far-reaching branch of business is freely admitted 
by all. 

Politically Mr. Lail is a Democrat, but not an office seeker, and 
religiously his family belongs to the Baptist church. He was married in 
Kentucky, in 1874, to Elizabeth Bell, a native of the same county in which 
he was born and a daughter of William and Nancy (McNees) Bell, whose 
paternal ancestors came to this country from Scotland and settled originally 
in Butler county, Ohio. Mrs. Lail, who is the only living representative 
of her famil\-. is a lady of high character and sterling worth and enjoys the 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 821 

confidence and esteem of the large circle of neighbors and friends with whom 
she mingles. She has borne her husband two daughters, Ida B. and Nellie, 
who are still members of the home circle. 



EDWIN MOORE HAYNIE. 

Edwin M. Haynie, an ex-soldier and highly esteemed citizen, now living 
in honorable retirement after a long and useful life devoted to the pursuit of 
agriculture, is a native of Saline county and a son of Edwin and Polly 
(Moore) Haynie, both born in Virginia. Lawrence Haynie, the subject's 
grandfather, was a prominent planter and slaveholder of Northumberland 
county, that state, and a man of great influence in the community in which he 
lived. He died there many years ago and left a family of five sons and two 
daughters, whose names are as follows: Austin, Max, Lawrence. Jr., Edwin, 
Walter, Lydia and Juda. The four older migrated in an early day to Mis- 
souri, and settled in Saline county. Austin served in the war of 1812, and 
died in his native state; Lydia remained near the place of her birth, and Juda, 
after marrying a Mr. Frisby, came to Saline county, Missouri, and later 
moved to Howard county, where she spent the remainder of her life. 

Edwin Haynie married, in Virginia, Polly Moore, and in 1836 moved 
to Missouri and located in Miami township. Saline county, where he pur- 
chased a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits. Later he entered land 
and in due time became a large farmer and slave holder and one of the lead- 
ing citizens of his community. During the late war he sympathized with the 
South and had three sons in the Confederate service, on account of which he 
was subjected to not a few indignities and dangers, which caused him to leave 
his farm and take up his residence in the town of Miami, where he remained 
until the war closed and conditions resumed their normal aspect. He then 
returned to the farm, where he spent the rest of his days. A man of strict 
integrity and sterling worth, he did much to promote the material interests of 
the country, stood for law, order and good citizenship, and will long be re- 
membered bv the people among whom he spent so many years. His first wife. 
Pollv, a daughter of Nathaniel Moore, a farmer and slaveholder of Virginia, 
died in 185 1, after bearing him four children: Rufus, who served through 
the Civil war and now lives in Miami ; Edward M., the subject of this sketch: 
Austin H.. also a soldier of the South during the late unpleasantness, and 
Ethelbert, a farmer and enterprising citizen of Saline county. In i860 Mr. 



;^2j PAST AND PRESENT 

l-lavnie entered the marriage relation with Mrs. Lanrana Williams, daughter 
of Mr. Jones, who came to Saline county in pioneer times and became a lead- 
ing fanner of the locality in which he settled. Three children were born to 
the second union. John E., Sallie and Rebecca, the latter now the wife of 
John F. Carr. 

Edward M. Haynie was born, in Saline county September 24, 1838. and 
remained with his parents until the breaking out of the Civil war, attending 
school at intervals during his minority and while still young Ijecoming fa- 
miliar with the practical duties of farm life. On May 13, 1861, he entered 
the Confederate army, under Captain Marmaduke, being among the first of 
the Cduntv to tender his sei^vices to the Southern cause. \Vidiin a short time 
he was made captain of his company, and later at Jefferson City rose to the 
rank of colonel. His men, being armed with nothing but shotguns, could 
not withstand the well drilled Federal troops and at the first engagement they 
gave way, scattered and finally disbanded, some going south and joining- 
other commands, others returning home, among the latter being the subject, 
who remained until another opportunity for enlisting presented itself. Join- 
ing Captain Brown's company of cavalry, he went to southern Missouri, 
where he spent about six months, doing little else than scouting- and at the end 
of that time entered Parson's brigade, which operated for a time in the south- 
ern part of the state, and later returned and took part in the battle of Lexing- 
ton. Afterwards Mr. Haynie went south, but, being taken quite sick, was 
carried soon afterwards to King's Point, in Greene county, Missouri. He 
then returned to Saline county, where he remained until sufficiently recovered 
to be about, when he joined the command under Captain Robertson, but 
shortly after taking the field the entire company was captured while in camp 
on the Black Water, and sent to St. Louis, thence to the Federal prison at 
Alton, Illinois, where he remained until liberated upon taking the oath three 
months later. 

Returning home in the spring of 1862, Mr. Haynie put in a crop, ])ut in 
July of that year was obliged to leave the neighborhood owing to the perse- 
cution of certain parties who knew of his sympathy for the South and the 
part he had taken as a Confederate soldier. It was owing to this that he again 
entered the sennce, joining Shelby's command, which participated in several 
battles and considerable skirmishing, the main engagement being at Spring- 
field, Missouri, where Mr. Haynie received a flesh wound in the leg, which 
laid him up for a few days. He afterwards took part in the battle of Harts- 
ville. thence marched to Cape Girardeau, where another battle was fought 
■"-1 v-liere he received a severe wound, a grape shot passing through his left 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 823 

thigh and leaving him disal)led on the field, again to fall into the enemy's 
hands. After spending some time in a hospital at Cape Girardeau, he was 
sent as a prisoner to St. Louis and later to Camp Douglas, Chicago, where 
he was kept in confinement for a few days before the Federal commander 
learned that he had violated his oath on entering the Confederate service the 
last time. The latter fact coming to the knowledge of the authorities, Mr. 
Haynie was incarcerated in a dungeon for a few days and w^as held as a pris- 
oner until February, 1865, when, with a number of other prisoners, he was 
sent to Richmond, Virginia, and paroled for forty days, before the expiration 
of which time the Confederate forces under General Lee surrendered, which 
ended the war and gave him his liberty. Receiving one hundred dollars from 
his father with which to buy clothes and pay his way home, he returned to 
Missouri as soon as possible, rejoiced that the long struggle was over and 
that peace had again come to his distracted state. Renting land near his home, 
he devoted the vear 1866 to farming, managing his own house the mean- 
while, doing his own cooking and keeping w-hat is popularly termed "bach- 
elor's hall." Not pleased with the experience and believing in the scriptural 
admonition that "It is not good for man to be alone," Mr. Haynie in the fol- 
lowing year, 1867, chose a wife and helpmeet in the person of Sarah E. 
Grayson, of Virginia, daughter of Henry M. and Jane (Price) Grayson, who 
also were born in that .state, but came to Missouri in 1856, settling in Saline 
county. 

After his marriage Mr. Havnie farmed with his wife's father for a 
period of seven years and later purchased land of his own, to which he added 
from time to time until he finally acquired a large farm and became one of 
the county's most enterprising and successful agriculturists and stock raisers. 
He continued as a tiller of the soil until 1900, when he turned his farm over 
to other hands and moved to Marshall, where he has since lived in retirement, 
although still giving personal attention to his various business interests. 

Mr. Haynie is one of the substantial men of Saline county, owning a fine 
residence property in the city and a splendid fann of five hundred sixty acres 
and another somewhat smaller, both admirably situated in one of the most 
productive parts of the county, and from wdiich his income is much more than 
sufficient for the wants of himself and family. He has dealt quite extensively 
in livestock at various times, buying and shipping to the leading markets, 
this, as well as his farming interests conducing very largely to his success 
and contributing much to the ample fortune wdiich he now commands. 

Mr. Haynie is a firm supporter of the Democratic party, and for twenty- 
one years held a place on the local school board, besides filling various other 



L>4 



PAST AND PRESENT 



positions at intervals. Since his retirement he has kept in touch with the 
times, is well informed on the leading questions of llic day and uses his influ- 
ence for all measures and movements having for their object the material 
progress of the community and the moral welfare of his fellow men. To him 
and his good wife were born eight children, namely: Edward H., present 
.slieriff of Saline county; John R. ; Robert L. ; Elmer J., who died in 1902; 
Bessie, who died in T898, unmarried; Price G. ; Mary J., wife of Jesse Rob- 
erts, and Angie. widow of the late Shelby Porter and mother of one son by 
the name of William S. Mrs. Haynie, a devoted member of the Baptist 
church and a most worthy and highly respected lady, departed this life Octo- 
ber 29, 1907. Her father, a very prosperous man and enterprising citizen, 
died in 1895. at the age of seventy-five, and her mother, who still survives, 
lives on the old family homestead, and is now (1909) in her ninety-sixth 
vea r. 



W. G. FISHER, M. D. 



Prominent among the successful medical men who from time to time have 
practiced their profession in the county of Saline, Dr. W. G. Fisher, late of 
Jonesboro and Marshall, held worthy prestige. He was born in the former 
place in February, 1845, ^^^ after obtaining his preliminary educational dis- 
cipline in the public schools of the town, for some time attended the Kemper 
Military School at Boonville, where he laid the intellectual foundation for 
his subsequent professional career. After a course of reading in the office 
of a local physician, he entered the Medical College of St. Louis, and follow- 
ing his graduation from that institution, in 1866, he opened an office in his 
native town and in due time built up a very extensive and lucrative practice. 

Doctor Fisher's professional career was successful from the beginning 
and within a comparatively brief period he forged to the front among the 
leading physicians and surgeons of the county and achieved a reputation much 
more than l(Kal. Disposing of his interests at Joncsbon^ in 1896. he found 
a larger and more favorable field for the exercise of his talents in the city of 
Marshall, to which he removed that year and where he continued the noble 
and humane work of alleviating the suffering, until October, 1901. when 
death put an end to his usefulness. He was a pronounced Democrat in poli- 
tic«, kept in close touch with the leading questions of the times and. though 
never an aspirant for official honors, was a prominent worker in his party 
and an influential factor in public affairs, both local and general. In his 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI . 825 

young manhood he united with the Presbyterian church, of which he contin- 
ued a faithful and consistent member to the end of his Hfe, and for many 
years served as ruhng elder in the local society with which he was identified. 

Doctor Fisher was a son of J. B. and Mary (Gooch) Fisher, both de- 
scended from old families of Virginia, and highly esteemed in their respective 
places of residence. Mrs. Mary Fisher was the daughter of William Gooch, 
who migrated to Ohio in an early day and about 1842 came tO' Cooper 
county. Missouri, thence to Saline county, where his death occurred in 1854. 
The family to which he belonged was a prominent one and figured much in 
public affairs, several of its members filling positions of honor and trust in 
their state and in the service of the government. Of the five children born to 
J. B. and Mary Fisher, the Doctor was the third. He inherited to a marked 
degree the amiable qualities and sturdy attributes of his antecedents, and ex- 
emplified the same in his life of fifty-six years devoted to the good of his 
fellow men. 

The domestic life of Doctor Fisher began in 1870, when he entered the 
marriage relation with Mary Field, who presided over his home with the 
grace and dignity becoming a true wife and helpmeet, and nobly seconded all 
of his endeavors professionally and otherwise. She bore him children as fol- 
lows : William, Mabel and Nadine, all members of the home circle and, with 
their mother, belonging- to the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Fisher was born 
in Saline county and is a daughter of Joseph and Susan (Brown) Field, both 
natives of Virginia and representatives of the old aristocracy of that state. 
Her maternal grandparents, Edmund and Theodosia (Michie) Brown, moved 
to Saline county, Missouri, about 1835, and settled at Arrow Rock, where 
Mr. Brown purchased a large tract of land which, with the assistance of 
slaves brought from Virginia, he improved and in due time became one of 
the most extensive farmers and stock raisers in his part of the country. A 
man among men, he made his influence felt in the politics of the county, filled 
a large place in public esteem and will long be remembered as one of the 
founders of Saline county as well as one of its leading citizens. 

Joseph Field became a resident of Saline county about 1835, and after 
his marriage engaged in agriculture and stock raising, which proved so suc- 
cessful that he. too, in the course of a few years, rose to a prominent position 
among the substantial and well-to-do men of the community in which he lived. 
He was a sympathizer with the South during the Civil war and as a result 
sufifered much from the self-constituted authorities of the countr}-. A Dem- 
ocrat of the old school, he was fearless in the expression of his opinions and 
upheld the soundness of his convictions, regardless of those who might differ 



826 P-'^'^T AND PRESENT 

iroin him. I hough never an ortice seeker, he served two terms as sheriff of 
Saline county and proved an able and conscientious public servant. He and 
his o-,x)d wife were faithful members of the Episcopal church and always 
lived so as to honor their Christian profession, their characters having always 
been above reproach and their names synonymous for all that was noble and 
ui>rioht in manhood and womanhood. The death of Mrs. Field occurred in 
1900. her husband having been called to his eternal reward in 1890. Their 
children, seven in number, are as follows: Mrs. Margaret Fisher; Edmund; 
William; Mrs. Eva Hawley; Joseph; Marshall; Claude E., all except Joseph 
living and filling honorable stations in life. 



REV. M. F. X. JEXXIXGS. 

The subject of this sketch, the well known and popular pastor of the 
church of the Immaculate Conce])ti()n at Shackelford, Missouri, was born in 
December, 1874, in countv Longford, Ireland, and spent his earlv life on a 
farm in hi.s native land, receiving his preliminary education in the common 
schools. Having decided to devote his life to the church, he began while still 
young to study for the priesthood and after passing through certain colleges 
and oilier institutions of learning in the old countr}-, he came to America and 
finished his theological course in St. Bonaventure. at Allegany, X^ew York, 
where he was graduated in 1902. The ensuing year he took a ])ost-graduate 
course in the Catholic University, at Washington, D. C, and in 1903 was 
assigned his first work in Kansas City, where he laljored with great accept- 
ance until transferred in 1905 to a larger and more responsible charge at 
Boonville, this state. After six months in the latter place, he came in March 
of the year 1906 to his ])resent field of labor, taking charge of the church of 
the Immaculate Conception, at Shackelford, with about seventy families l)e- 
longing. the majority prosperous farmers and among the most intelligent and 
enterprising citizens of the county. 

In addition to the congregation at Shackelford, Father Jennings has 
charge of the mission at Mt. Leonard, about five miles distant, which has a 
total memliership of about sixty communicants, who, like those worshipping at 
tlie fonner place, are people of standing and consecjuence in the community 
aufl derive their livelihood principally from the soil. 

1 he church at Shackelford had its origin among a few Irish families that 
settled in the village and vicinity in an early day and took an active part in 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 827 

the development of the country. Although pioneers and suhject to all the 
A'icissitudes experienced b}" the early settlers in a new country, they were loyal 
to the faith in which the>- were reared and amid the mg-ged duties of locating 
homes and developing farms the}- did not neglect those higher duties which 
the\- owed to their God and to the church. From time to time missionaries 
\isited the settlement and ministered to the spiritual needs of the people, the 
tirst services being conducted in private homes as early as the year 1847. 
Among the faithful priests who made periodical visits to the little congrega- 
tion was Rev. Fathers ^leister, Heilman, Cusack, Ward and Donnellw under 
whose judicious ministrations the church grew rapidly in numbers and in- 
fluence and became a power for good in the community. Father Heilman had 
an assistant. Father J. T. D. Murphy, whose labors proved very effective in 
unifying the church and adding to its strength l^y gathering in other families 
A\ho moved to the county at intervals. All the priests mentioned came from 
distant dioceses, some from St. Louis, others from St. Charles and Lexington. 

Father Hamil was also among the early missionaries whose duty it was 
to break the bread of life to the little band of worshippers, visiting the locality 
from time to time while in charge of the church at Marshall. When Father 
Alurphy was transferred from the latter place to Sedalia, Father Lillis became 
assistant to Father Hamil, and it was under the joint efforts of these two able 
and enterprising" servants of the church that the first house of worship was 
erected and formally dedicated to the purposes for which it was designed. 
The building, a small frame edifice, but well adapted to the wants of the con- 
gregation, was commenced in 185 1 and finished the following year; it stood 
about two miles northwest of Shackelford and answered the purpose for 
which intended until the growth of the congregation made necessary a build- 
ing of enlarged proportions; accordingly, in 188 1 a larger and more com- 
modious structure was erected which served the congregation until replaced 
by the present imposing temple of worship in 1893. 

Father Hamil continued in charge of the church until called to his reward 
in 1889 and was succeeded by Rev. Father Mulve}-, whose able and efficient 
labors ceased with his death in the year 1893. The next pastor was Rev. 
Father Hogan, who took charge some time in the latter year and it was 
during his pastorate that the organization was moved to Shackelford and a 
new building erected. He continued his labors verv acceptablv until 1902, 
when he was transferred to Kansas City, his successor being Rev. Father 
Scanlan, who in 1905 was followed by Father Keyes, and he one year later 
by the present incumbent, whose able and faithful ministration has tended 
greatly to the building up of the church and widening its influence. 



g28 PAST AND PRESENT 

I'^alhcr |c'iinint;s has iioi only endeared himself to his congregation, bnt 
l)v his eminent social qnalities and courteous manner has gained the confidence 
and esteem of the i)eople of the community irrespective of church or creed. 
He is a student and thinker, an eloquent preacher, a judicious administrator 
and, although hut a short time with his present charge, he has made his in- 
fluence felt as a leader and his friends are justified in predicting for him a 
large field and greater honors in the no distant future. His labors at Shackel- 
ford and elsewhere have been signally blessed and the coming years await him 
with great and abundant rewards. 

heather Jennings is a son of Myles and Jane (Fitzgerald) Jennings, both 
of county Longford, Ireland, and descendants of old and honored Catholic 
families of the Emerald Isle. The father a man of sterling worth and fervent 
pietv. died in 1902; the mother still lives on the family homestead and despite 
her sevent}- Aears retains to a marked degree the possession of her faculties. 
mental and physical. Six sons and four daughters were born to this estimable 
couple, two of the sons, Michael, and the subject of this sketch, and three 
of the daughters, Mrs. Mary Murphy, Mrs. Martha Peltier and Mrs. Rose 
Yates, being residents of the United States and all except the subject li\'ing 
in Xew York citv. 



JOSEPH FRANKLIN WHEELER, M. D. 

Few ph\sicians of central Missouri were as widely known as the late 
Dr. J. F. Wheeler, of Saline county, whose distinguished professional service 
gained for him a conspicuous place among the leading men of the state. He 
was a native of Loudoun county, Virginia, and the eldest of eight children 
born to Johnson and Susanna (Wright) Wheeler, the names of his brothers 
and sisters being as follows : Prof. C. J. Wheeler, of Marshall, Missouri ; Mrs. 
Anna McCarter, deceased; R. H., traveling representative of a commission 
house; Mrs. Amanda Triplett, of Beaumont, Texas, and assistant superin- 
tendent of the public schools of that state; Laura J., whose husband, T. J. 
Wheeler, is engaged in school work in Missouri; John P., deceased, and Mrs. 
Doctor Scruggs, deceased. 

Johnson Wheeler, the father, a farmer by occupation, for a number of 
years was overseer and manager of a large plantation in Virginia, but in 1858 
di.s])o.sed of his interests in that state and moved to Pettis county, Missouri, 
where he engaged in farming and acquired a handsome competency. Upon his 
retirement from active life he took up his residence in the city of La Monte, 
w here he s])ent the remainder of his days, dving in the fall of 1908 in Alarshall. 



I 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 829 

He was a man of considerable prominence, highly educated and took a leading" 
part in public matters, having been mayor of La Monte at one time. He and 
his good wife, wdio died at the above city, were worthy members of the 
Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches, respectively, and did much to pro- 
mote the intellectual and moral welfare of the community, where they were 
long held in such high esteem. 

Dr. J. F. Wheeler was born March i6, 1847, ^I'ld spent his early life 
on the family estate in Virginia, receiving his elementary education under 
the direction of competent instructors. In his young manhood he turned his 
attention to teaching and in this way earned sufficient means to enable him 
to complete his literary education, after which he entered the office of a prom- 
inent local physician and began the study of medicine. Later he added to his 
professional knowledge by taking a full course in the Medical College of St. 
Louis, where he was graduated in 1871, following wdiich, in 1874, he located 
at Herndon and in due time built up a large and lucrative practice. 

Doctor Wheeler began his professional career under verv^ modest cir- 
cumstances, his only earthly possession at the time he opened an office in 
Herndon consisting of a pony, saddle and bridle and the case in which he car- 
ried his stock of medicines, commonly called "pill bags." With everything to 
make and nothing to lose, he addressed himself earnestly to his chosen calling 
and it was not long until his abilities were recognized and appreciated, as is in- 
dicated by his growing patronage within a short time after hanging out his 
shingle. Without attempting a detailed account of his remarkable profes- 
sional life, suffice it to state that he soon forged to the front among the lead- 
ing phvsicians and surgeons of his county and not infrequently was he called 
to other and distant localities to attend cases requiring a high degree of med- 
ical skill or to perform operations wdiich the ordinary surgeon would not at- 
tempt. He early determined to excel in his profession and that he lived to 
realize this crowning ambition is abundantly attested by the fact that for a 
number of years he not only ranked with the most distinguished physicians 
and surgeons of his own and other counties of central Missouri, but occupied 
a commanding position among the eminent men of his calling throughout the 
state. Blessed with a strong physique and superb health, he was enabled to 
endure the great demands of his extensive practice, which frequently obliged 
him to be in the saddle both day and night for weeks at a time and to visit 
patients in nearly every part of the county. His financial success was in 
keeping with his professional advancement and by judiciously investing his 
earnings in land from time to' time he finally accumulated a handsome fortune, 
his estate at his death being conservatively estimated at considerably in excess 



S^O PAST AND PRESENT 

..i ..,,^ luiiulred thoiisancl dollars. The strain to which he was constantly 
subiected, however, eventually told upon his health and to preserve the same 
he nio\etl in 1900 to Marshall, where he devoted his attention principally to 
a large office practice, hut the dread disease which had fastened upon him 
and which neither his own nor the skill of the ablest of his compeers could 
check, finallv proved fatal, and on the 6th day of September, 1904, this emi- 
nent physician, distinguished citizen and broad-minded man of affairs ceased 
his labors and went to his reward. 

Doctor Wheeler was a leader of the Democratic party in his part of the 
stale and long an influential factor in public affairs. He belonged to the 
county, state and national medical societies, stood high in the Masonic fra- 
ternity and gave his aid and influence to all enterprises for the material prog- 
ress of the community and the intellectual and moral advancement of his fel- 
](^w men. 

In September of the year 1877, Doctor Wheeler was united in marriage 
with Bettie C. Wingfield, a native of Virginia, and the accomplished daugh- 
ter of James and Elizabeth (Duling) Wingfield, both members of old and 
respected families of that commonwealth, the father afterwards a prominent 
manufacturer of West Virginia. James Wingfield served in the Confederate 
army during the late Civil war and lost the greater part of his fortune ere the 
struggle closed. After the death of his wife he moved his little family to Sa- 
line county, Missouri, whither his mother and a brother had preceded him in 
1859. He purchased a mill which, being rebuilt and equipped wnth improved 
machinery, became the leading enterprise of the kind in the county and the 
means of recuperation of his fortune. He was a man of intelligence and his 
death, some years ago, removed from the county one of its most enterprising 
and praiseworthy citizens. His children, three in number, survive him, name- 
ly: Dr. U. B. Wingfield, a prominent physician of Shackelford; Mrs. Doctor 
Wheeler, and James Wingfield. who lives in the state of Washington. 

The marriage of Doctor and Mrs. \Mieeler was blessed with five off- 
spring, viz: Airs. Mary Virginia Glass; James B.. of Oklahoma; Mrs. Willie 
^^^ AlcCuUough. of Kansas City: Joseph F. and George O.. the two younger 
still with their mother. Mrs. Wheeler proved a worthy wife to her dis- 
tinguished husband, and not a little of his success was due to her judicious 
counsel and co-operation. She sympathized with him in all of his under- 
takings, encouraged him at all times and. in the most liberal meaning of the 
terms, was a faithful companion and true helpmeet. A lady of high character 
and beautiful life, she is esteemed l)y all who knew her and fills a large place 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 83 1 

in the hearts and affections of her associates. She is a consistent member of 
the ]\Iethodist Episcopal church South, and belongs to the Daughters of the 
Confederacy. 



HON. LEONIDAS HENRY TUCKER. 

The honored subject of this review is a native of Saline county, Missouri, 
and since early manhood has been actively identified with its development and 
progress. He was for many years prominently connected with the agricul- 
tural and live stock interests of this part of the state, besides inaugurating a 
number of enterprises which made for the advancement of the people along 
various lines and at dift'erent times has been called to positions of honor and 
trust. 

The Tucker family is of Scotch origin and figured prominently in the his- 
tory of various parts of Virginia in colonial times. Joshua G. Tucker, the 
Judge's father, was a native of NodaAvay county, that state, and a man of high 
character and wide influence in his day. He married, in 1836, Henrietta 
Harper, who was born in the same county and two years later migrated to Sa- 
line county, Missouri, and settled on the Pinnacles in Miami township, where 
he spent one winter, removing in the spring of 1839 to the ]Missouri river 
vallev in Cooper county, where he erected a cabin and addressed himself to 
the task of developing a farm. By reason of the great loss which he after- 
wards suffered from the floods, he disposed of his possessions in 1844 and 
returned to Saline county and entered land in ]\Iiami township, in addition 
to which he also purchased several tracts which had been previously surveyed 
for other parties. In the course of a few years he became one of the largest 
owners and most successful farmers and stock raisers in the county and to 
him as much as to any other man is due the credit of laying the foundation 
for the physical and moral development of a section of country which is now 
one of the finest and most progressive parts of the state. Joshua G. Tucker 
was a natural leader of men. and took the initiative in a number of important 
enter])ri?es. Possessing a strong individuality and mature judgment, he was 
frequently consulted on matters of business by his neighbors and by his judi- 
cious counsel in arbitrating difficulties and misunderstandings among the 
people he not infrequently prevented much useless and expensive litigation. 
His decisions in such disputes were invariably accepted as final and he made 
himself useful in many other ways, such as the division of properties, settle- 
ment of estates, etc., in all of which his efforts proved satisfactory to all con- 



8-^2 PAST AND PRESENT 

iiiiK.i. I le w.i- "lie of ihc pioiiiincnt Democrats of Saline county, also took 
an active part in public affairs and as a neighbor and citizen his integrity and 
high sense of honor were ever above reproach. He departed this life in 1879, 
his wife preceding him to the grave b)^ four years, both dying in the faith of 
the Metli'"l!<< Fniscon.-il chnrcli South, of which they had been worthy mem- 
bers. 

Toshua G. and Henrietta N. Tucker were the parents of five children, 
namelv: Leonidas H., of this review; Bettie, wife of John \V. Guthrie; Vir- 
ginia, who first married James Tucker, after whose death she became the 
wife of James Turner; Martha died unmarried, and Harvey S., who owns 
and farms the family homestead. All except the subject were bom and 
reared in Miami township, Saline county. 

Hon. Leonidas H. Tucker, whose birth occurred in Dinwiddle county, 
\'irginia, December 13, 1837, was about one year old when his parents moved 
to Missouri, since which time his life has been closely identified with the 
county of Saline. He spent his childhood and youth on the farm, received 
a good education in the common schools and Fairville Academy, and on at- 
taining his majority began life as a tiller of the soil, in which ^honorable call- 
ing he soon rose to a position of prominence and influence among his neigh- 
bors. In 1862 he enlisted in Captain Brown's company of the State Guards 
and went into camp at Jefferson City, where General Price, of the Southern 
army, was in command. After some service at that place and other points, 
he returned home, but soon rejoined the army in Captain Ruckston's company 
and took part in the battle of Lexington, wdiere Mulligan surrendered and 
the Confederate forces suffered defeat. By reason of sickness contracted in 
the field, he was again granted a leave of absence to return home and recu- 
perate, ascertaining which the Federals, who then held Saline county, caused 
him much trouble and annoyance. When sufficiently recovered he rejoined 
his command on the Black Water, where his company was soon afterwards 
captured and the men taken to St. Louis, thence to the Federal prison at Al- 
ton, Illinois, where after six months' confinement he took the required oath 
and was released. 

Upon his return home Mr. Tucker found that the Federals had stripped 
the farm of everything to which they could lay their hands, including his 
horses, cattle and other livestock, implements, which were either carried away 
or destroyed, and nearly all of his slaves. When the w^ar closed, he was 
under the necessity of making an entirely new start, but by industry and good 
management, his progress was rapid and in due time he found himself on the 
high road to prosperity. Locating on one hundred acres which his father 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 833 

gave him, he devoted his attention to agriculture and stock raising and it 
was not very long until he was enabled to add to his possessions, purchasing 
land from time to time until he had three fine farms in cultivation, besides 
capital invested in various other interests. Mr. Tucker continued farming 
and stock raising with marked success until 1898, when he divided the greater 
part of his real estate among- his children and moved to the county seat, where 
he proposes to spend the remainder of his days in retirement. His ample 
fortune enables him to do this with no concern for the future and, after a 
long, strenuous and remarkably successful career, he is now enjoying not 
onlv the peace and quietude to which he is entitled, but the many material 
blessings which he has so honorably earned. Mr. Tucker has always Ijeen 
interested in agriculture and as president of the county fair association and 
an influential worker for its success, he did much to promote the interests of 
the farming community and make the residents of the rural districts con- 
tented with their lot. He was a leading spirit in establishing the above enter- 
prise and also assisted in organizing the Miami Fair Association, of which he 
was made a director. Mr. Tucker's first attempt at farming was in raising 
hemp, but later he turned his attention very largely to live stock, which he 
found much more remunerative and satisfactory. In addition to feeding and 
marketing every year a large number of high grade cattle, he gave no small 
part of his time to the breeding and raising of fine horses, disposing of quite 
a number of excellent roadsters at fancy prices, besides influencing his neigh- 
bors to improve their various breeds of live stock. 

Mr. Tucker took part, actixely, in establishing the Old Settlers' Associa- 
tion of Saline County, and has manifested a lively interest in the same ever 
since the organization went into effect. He was also an influential factor in 
organizing the Farmers' Insurance Company, of Saline Count)-, which he 
served fourteen years as secretary, and the success of that institution is very 
largely attributable to his leadership and interest. In 1886 he was elected 
presiding county judge and he discharged the duties of the position in such 
an able and praiseworthy manner that he was chosen his own successor in 
i8go. filling the ofiice with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his con- 
stituents for a period of eight years, when he refused further to be a candidate. 

Politically Mr. Tucker is a Democrat of the old school and has frequent- 
ly enjoyed the distinction of representing his party in county and state con- 
ventions, besides rendering efficient service in its counsels and as a worker 
in the ranks. In his religious work he subscribes to the Methodist faith and 
for many vears has been a faithful and worthy member of the church and 
deeply interested in all work under the auspices of the same. 

53 



834 PAST AND PRESENT 

rersonallv. no man in the county is more highly esteemed, as his char- 
acter has ahvavs hcen ahove adverse criticism and his integrity, honor and 
good name are beyond reproach. He has acted well his part in life, lived tip 
to his high ideals of duty and citizenship, and is justly reg-arded as one of the 
noted men of his day and generation in the county of Saline. 

'Sir. Tucker, on June 7, 1862, vv^as united in marriage with Sarah B. 
Mercereau, a native of Broome county, New York, and a graduate of one of 
the noted musical conservatories of that state. She came south as a teacher 
of music and followed her profession in Saline county for several years prior 
to her marriage. She is a daughter of Job L. and Sarah (Wheeler) Mercereau. 
bt~ith natives of Broome county. New York, and of French and English descent 
respectively. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker are the parents of six children, of whom 
two died in infancy. The names of the sui*vivors are as follows : Gilliam, a 
prominent rice farmer in Texas ; Frank W., a farmer of Saline county, re- 
siding in Marshall; Hai-vey, a physician and surgeon of Miami township, this 
county, and Minnie, w'ho married H. T. Robertson, a druggist of Pleasant 
Hill, Missouri. 

Frank ^^^ Tucker, the second of the family, owns and operates a fine 
farm in Miami towaiship and has achieved much more than local repute as a 
successful stock raiser, devoting especial attention to mules, in which he deals 
quUe extensively. He also has a fine home in Marshall, consisting of a plat 
of ten acres which is tastefully laid out and improved and which represents 
many beautiful and attractive features. His wife w-as formerly Mrs. Maud 
Samuels, daughter of Michael Schreckler, one of the early settlers and prom- 
inent farmers of Saline county, also a leading citizen of the community in 
which he lived. By her former marriage Mrs. Tucker had three children. 
Her union with Mr. Tucker has been blessed with a son and a daughter, who 
are twins, their names being Harry E. and Sarah, their birth occurring in 
the year 1906. 



JAMES L. RUSSELL, D. D. S. 

When the tide of emigration to the West was at its height during the 
middle of the last century, Samuel Russell joined as a recruit from Greene 
county, Pennsylvania, of which he was a native. First settling in Ohio, he 
removed from there to Iowa in 1854. He secured a lot of the rich land of 
the young prairie state and became prosperous as a farmer and sheep raiser. 
At one time he owned thirteen hundred acres of land and owned the largest 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 835 

flock of sheep in the state. Born in 1836, he died February 16, 1893, after 
a career that was unusually busy and fruitful. He was a son of William 
Russell, a Pennsylvanian, who removed to Iowa in 1854 and died there in 
188 1. Samuel Russell married Virginia, daughter of Ira and Elizabeth 
(Leeper) Tucker, the former of whom reached the advanced age of ninety- 
seven before being claimed by death. His wife, who was born in Virginia 
of a fine Southern family, was accidentally burned to death in California, at 
the age of ninety-three years. The Tucker family removed to Iowa about 
1848. but left there for California in the following year, which witnessed 
the culmination of the gold excitement. Mr. Tucker remained in Iowa until 
the breaking out of the Civil war, when he located at Salinas. California, 
and there spent the remainder of his days. The five children of Samuel Rus- 
sell and wife are all living and have met Avith success in their respective lines. 
W. W., the oldest, resides at Grand Junction, Colorado; Mrs. Elizabeth 
Hayes, the eldest daughter, is a resident of Marshall; Mrs. E. T. Hubbard 
lives at Kansas City ; I. T. is the junior member of the mercantile firm of 
Hayes & Russell of Marshall. 

James L. Russell, youngest of the five children, was born at West 
Grove. Davis county, Iowa, February i, 1869. Fle grew up on the parental 
farm and remained there as a helper until the completion of his eighteenth 
year. Aleantime he had been attending the district schools and in 1886 en- 
tered the ^Missouri State Normal at Kirksville, where he remained until the 
close of the term in 1888. During the two following years he taught school 
near Kirksville, Missouri, and Monterey, Iowa. In 1890 he became a stu- 
dent of the Missouri Valley College at Marshall, remaining there until 1892, 
when he matriculated at the Missouri Dental College in St. Louis, for a 
year's study. The next two years were spent in the dental department of 
Northwestern University, in Chicago, from which institution he was grad- 
uated in 1895, as a Doctor of Dental Surgery. May 9th of the same year he 
opened an office at Marshall and since then has been one of the most popular 
members of the profession of that city. Doctor Russell is a member of the 
State Dental Association and fraternally is connected with the Masons, 
Modern Woodmen and Knights of Pythias. Aside from his regular profes- 
sion. Doctor Russell has made some judicious investments in local enter- 
prises. He is a part owner and director of the Marshall Ice Company, and 
for several years was one of the owners and directors of the Marshall Mill 
Elevator Company. 

J\Iay I, 1895, Doctor Russell married Rose Lee, daughter of Dr. J. E. 
Sharp, pastor of the local Cumberland Presbyterian church for eight years. 



,S.(, PAST AND PRESENT 

ilc was a native of Kentucky and married a Tennessee lady. Doctor and 
Mrs. Russell have two children: Samuel Sharp, born October 17, 189O, and 
Louise X'iroinia, born July 2, 1899. The Doctor and his wife are members of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church, of which the former is an elder and 
superintendent of the Sunday school. The family reside at No. 465 South 
o.irll ivcnnc in one of the hucst and most comfortable houses in Marshall. 



ANDREW J. FLYNN. 



This well-to-do farmer and public spirited citizen is a native of Saline 
county, Missouri, and an honorable representative of one of the early pioneer 
families of this part of the state. His parents, Thomas and Bridget (Holmes) 
Mynn, both of county Mayo, Ireland, came to America man}- years ago and in 
1847 mig-rated to Saline county and settled on a small tract of land near the 
site of Shackelford, which Mr. Flynn purchased of the government. After 
improving this he entered other land in the vicinity and by adding to his 
possessions from time to time finally became one of the largest land owners 
and extensive farmers in the community. About the time of his arrival. 
Catholic missionaries came into the settlement and it was not long- until a 
church was organized of which he became a consistent member. Thomas 
i'lynn was an earnest and devout Catholic all his life and labored zealously 
f<jr the faith of the Holy Mother Church and to him more than to any other 
layman was due the success of the little organization near the town of 
Shackelford, to which the early Catholics of the locality belonged. He was a 
])rime mover in the erection of the first house of worship in 185 1 and during 
the remainder of his life he used his efforts and influence not only for the 
religious advancement of the community but in l)ehalf of all measures and 
enterprises having for their object the good of his fellow men. He ahvays 
stood for good government and a strict enforcement of the law, did much to 
counteract the prevailing evil of the times and the early settlers were ac- 
customed to look to him as a leader and adviser in matters pertaining to their 
business affairs and general w^elfare. During the Civil war l)oth armies 
foraged on his place, but did him no bodily harm, and by keeping quietly at 
home and looking after his (wvn interests he passed through the troublous 
period without injury or serious loss. As a neighbor and citizen none stood 
higher in the esteem of the pul)lic and as a Christian he exemplified the teach- 
ings of his church b\ a life void of offense towvard God and man. He became 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 837 

widely and fa\orably known thronghont the county and his death, on the 1st 
of Jnne, 1880, at the age of sixt}--tive years, was a matter of profound regret 
in the community which he helped found and in which he li\'ed to such high 
and noble purposes. Mrs. Flynn survived her husljand about fifteen years, 
departing this life in March, 1905, at the age of seventy-six. This estimable 
couple reared a family of eight children, all of whom grew to maturit}', their 
names being as follows: Charles (deceased), James R., Catherine (wife of 
Johil McDonough), Thomas R. (died in 1906), Mary E., Andrew J. of this 
review, Nora and Sarah, the three unmarried daughters occupying the home- 
stead and attending to its cultivation. 

Andrew J. Flynn was born on the above farm March 24, 1863, and 
spent his early years in close touch with nature, learning while still a mere 
[ad the true meaning of hard work and the dishonor which attaches to a life 
of idleness. In the public schools of the neighborhood he acquired a fair 
education and after remaining on the famil}- homestead until 1895 he married 
and engaged in the pursuit of agriculture for himself. In 1903 he purchased 
the farm on which he now lives and which under his effective labors and 
excellent management has been greatly improved and brought to a high 
state of cultivation. His place is favorably located with church, school and 
market privileges near at hand and by the judicious expenditure of labor and 
money he now has one of the most beautiful and attractive homes in the 
communitv. 

Mr. Flynn's domestic life dates from the year 1895, at which time he 
was united in the holy bonds of wedlock with Susan M. Oser, who was born 
in Saline county in the year 1875, being a daughter of Conrad Oser, and a 
lady of intelligence and sterling worth. Conrad Oser was a native of In- 
diana, but grew to manhood in Kentucky. He was married in the latter state 
in 1870, moved to Saline county, Missouri, and worked for some time at the 
carpenter's trade, later being appointed superintendent of the county fami, 
which he managed for a period of twenty-seven years with credit to himself 
and to the satisfaction of the pul)lic. ^^'hile in charge of the above trust he 
was instrumental in bringing about a number of important improvements and 
he conducted affairs in such a way as to gain the reputation of' being the best 
superintendent the county has ever employed. Since resigning the position he 
has lived in Marshall, where he is now perfecting a power pump which he 
has ]3atented and the success of which is assured. Mrs. Flynn is the second 
pf six children born to Conrad and Dora (Louden) Oser, the names of the 
rest of the family being- as follows: Mrs. Emma Collier; Mattie (deceased), 
who married James F. Langan : William \\\, a farmer and trader, living in 



8:^8 PAST AND PRESENT 

Marshall; Lucy, wile of W. C. Wise, of Kansas City, and Mrs. Alberta 
Burgard, of Saline county. 

Mr. and Mrs. Flynn have an interesting family of three children, namely : 
William V., born February 7, 1896; Dora B., born July 24. 1899, and Harold, 
whose birth occurred on November 15, 1903. Politically Mr. Flynn wields a 
strong influence for the Democratic party and, like all good citizens, aims to 
keep informed on the questions of the da}- and in touch with the times on all 
matters of public import. He is a good farmer and an excellent neighbor, and 
bv well directed efforts has accumulated a sufiEiciency of this world's goods to 
make him independent and insure his future against care or anxiety. He is 
highlv esteemed by the people of the county and Saline can boast of no better 
citi;?eii or worthier man. 



JOHN JACOB WITT. 



Editing papers for minority parties in counties where the "enemy" is in 
large majority and w-ell entrenched, is not a bed of roses and seldom proves a 
gold mine, but occasionally a genius comes along who is able to make a suc- 
cess of the undertaking. Missouri has been famous for her heated political 
struggles, greatly intensified in bitterness by the passions inherited from the 
Civil war. For a long time after that bloody struggle, during which the 
people were divided in support of the two governments and two armies, the 
political contests partook largely of the characteristic business vendettas. It 
took nerve and plenty of it to act with the minority party, whether Democratic 
or Republican, and a courage amounting to heroism to run a paper for the 
party that was (jut. These are better days for old Missouri, and that great state 
is improving in liberality, as it grows in population and increases in wealth. 
The editor of the Marshall Republican, to tell something about w^hom it is 
the object of this biography, has proven himself equal to all emergencies as 
an upholder of Republican principles in a dyed-in-the-wool Democratic 
county. He comes of fighting as w^ell as sturdy stock, his parents being- 
Henry and Frederika (Klump) Witt, who emigrated from Germany to the 
United States in 1830. First settling at Peoria, Illinois, they removed in 
1866 to W'arrenton, Missouri, where the father still resides at the age of 
eighty-three. 

Mr. \\ itt sided strongly with the Union, joined the Federal army and 
served five years in defense of the national flag. His wife died in 1904, 
alter a long and useful life devoted to the welfare of her husband and 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 839 

children. Among the latter was John Jacob Witt, whose birth occurred at 
Warrenton, Missouri, April 7, 1870. Besides attendance in the public schools 
of his native town, he had the benefit of two years at Central Wesley College 
in the same place. In 1888 he entered the Banner office at Warrenton, and 
soon had learned the preliminary steps to becoming a printer and publisher. 
Three years in the office converted him into a journeyman with a fair mastery 
of the more practical details of the business. With this equipment he went 
to St. Louis, where he followed the printing business for fifteen years, during 
the seven years of which he worked on his own account. In 1902 Mr. Witt 
purchased the Marshall Republican, wdiich he has since conducted with re- 
markable success. He is a progressive newspaper man, active, able and enter- 
prising, and his triumph over difficulties has been well earned. His paper 
exercises a wholesome influence and he enjoys a liberal and growing patronage. 
October 25, 1900, ]\Ir. Witt married Lora. daughter of Charles Schnacht, 
president of the Union Roller ]\Iilling Company at Pocahontas, Illinois. 
Their only living child, Bethany Alma, was torn May 17, 1903. Mr. and 
Mrs. Witt are members of the First Presbyterian church and enjoy a welcome 
in the best circles of societv. 



JOHN KENNEDY. 



Among the successful farmers and representative citizens of Saline 
county who have finished their life work and gone to their reward, the late 
John Kennedy is entitled to a worthy place. A native of county Mayo, 
Ireland, where his birth occurred in 1841, he grew to maturity on the farm 
which his father had long cultivated and in 1867 severed home ties to seek his 
fortune in the great American republic beyond the sea. After spending more 
than a year in York state he came in 1868 to Saline county, ^Missouri, 
where he secured employment as a farm laborer, and he continued in this 
capacity until 1874, saving his earnings the meanwhile with the object in view 
of ultimately becoming something more than a tiller of the soil for others. 
In the latter year he rented land on which he raised one crop, after which he 
married and in 1875 set up his domestic establishment in Vernon county, 
where he spent the ensuing seven years and a half as a renter, devoting his 
attention principally to the raising of cattle, in which his success was such 
as to enable him to obtain a good start and purchase land of his own. Re- 
turning to Saline county at the expiration of the period indicated, he invested 



840 



PAST AND PRESENT 



his savings in a four-h unci red-acre farm and again embarked in the hve stock 
busiiiess. which in c<ninccti()n with agriculture proved eminently successful 
and within a few years made him one of the substantial and well-to-do men 
of the communitx . 

Mr. Kennedy bought cattle which he fed and sold at handsome figures 
and dealt (juite extensively in hogs, which also proved the source of a liberal 
income. He understood the live stock business thoroughly and b}- purchasing 
judiciously and .selling at the proper time he added to his possessions at in- 
tervals and was long considered one of the ablest financiers in his part of the 
conntrv. Possessing great energy as well as sound judgment and wise fore- 
sight, his progress was something remarkable and from the humble position 
i)i a renter he rose within a coniparatively short time to a conspicuous place 
among the broadminded, wide-awake farmers and enterprising citizens of the 
county which he elected to be his permanent home. 

Mr. Kcnnedv was a man of fine business abilit}', eminently honoraljle in 
all his dealings and his integrity and sterling worth, which were ever above 
repr(;ach. gained for him a prominent place in the esteem and confidence of his 
neighbors and friends. In the year 1875 was solemnized his marriage with 
Margaret Kellett, who was born in 1849 in the Emerald Isle, being a native of 
the same county in which her husband first saw the light of day. Her parents, 
Michael and Bridget Kellett, spent their lives on their native soil, the father 
bein.g among the better class of farmers of the count}- of Wayne and a man 
of intelligence and high standing in the community. The family of this ex- 
cellent cou])le consisted of eight children. namel\- : Michael, Margaret, John, 
Thomas, Philip. Mrs. Mary ]\b)nigan, William and Patrick, all of whom came 
to the I'nited States except Thomas, who remained on the homestead in 
Ireland, where his death recently occurred. William died some years ago at 
Mt. Leonard. Missouri, and Patrick is now a gold miner in the faraway 
country of the Klondike. 

Margaret Kellett came to this country in 1866, and since that time has 
lived in Missouri. She proved a loyal helpmeet to her husband, assisted him 
to obtain his fir.st substantial start in the world, and to her keen intelligence, 
well-balanced judgment and judicious advice he attributed much of the suc- 
cess which he subsequently achieved. After his lamented death she looked 
after his large and important interests and in connection with this duty 
actually increased the estate by the purchase of an additional tract of one 
hundred and sixty acres of land, a fact wdiich speaks well for her ability and 
judgment. 

M"!- K'f'nnedy was born and reared in the Catholic faith and to the end 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 84I 

of his days continued a true son of the church. contril)uting- to its material 
support and by his daily life exemplifying- the beauty and worth of its teach- 
nigs and influence. He was. in all the terms imply, a good man, a kind 
and affectionate husband and father and a considerate and obliging neighbor 
and steadfast friend, who stood high in the esteem of all who knew him. 
Enterprising- and public spirited, he did much in a quiet and unostentatious 
way to promote the material progress of the community and his death, which 
occurred on April 20, 1909. removed from the county of Saline one of its 
most estimable and praiseworhty citizens. Since his death the original estate 
has been divided among the children. Mrs. Kennedy retaining a comfortable 
home and being in circumstances which insure her future from the possi- 
bility of want. She is loyal in her allegiance to the mother church, and has 
spared no pains in rearing her children in the same, to the end that thev 
might become reputable men and women and fill honorable stations in life. 
She bore her husband four children, whose names are as follows : Mai*y, who 
married Dr. J. T. Phelan, of Marshall, Missouri ; Frank, a merchant of 
Kansas City; Ellen, wife of E. Keenan, and John, who lives with his mother 
and attends to the cultivation of the farm. 



MERRILL J. BARBER. D. D. S. 

The family of this name is of Canadian origin, though the ancestrv is 
Irish. David Barl)er. who was born at Dublin, migrated to Canada early in 
the last century, took up land near Alontreal and spent his life in farming 
He was passionately fond of fine horses and met with some success as a 
breeder of these fine animals. His son, John M. Barber, inherited his tastes 
and inclinations and as soon as he was of age branched out for himself as 
an agriculturist. He has devoted much time to stock raising and still resides 
on his farm near Montreal. He married Laura Benham, also a native of 
Canada and still living, by which union there were two children: Mrs. Eunice 
Flaws Cookshire, of Quebec, and the subject of this sketch. 

Merrill J. Barber, his father's only son. was born in ^Montreal. Canada, 
in 1877. He grew up on the farm, learning the routine of work, picking up 
some general knowledge of the business and acquiring a strong constitution 
by outdoor life. At intervals he attended school, most of his primarv educa- 
tion being- received at the • Knowlton (Quebec) Academy. When sixteen 
years old he entered the dental office of Dr. E. A. Cleveland, of Knowlton. 



842 



PAST AND PRESENT 



,111(1 under liis al)le pvcceptorship applied himself industriously to the study 
(.t dentistry, in 1900 he entered the dental department of the University 
(.f Maryland at Baltimore, from which he was graduated with the honors of 
his class at the commencement held in 1903. In May of that year he came 
to Marshall and has since remained as a growing candidate for popular pat- 
ronage. That he has "made good" is evidenced by the fact that he has one 
of the finest offices in the city, which is frequently visited on professional 
business by many of the best people of the community. 

In September, 1905. Doctor Barber married Lelia E.. daughter of T. 
R. Bell, of Marshall. Doctor Barber was ((uite popular at college and was 
regarded as the brightest and most i)romising member of his class. During 
his term, he was vice-president of the senior class and a member of the Chi 
I'si Phi. one of the conspicuous fraternities at Baltimore University. He and 
his wife are members of the Christian church at Marshall. In politics he 
affiliates with the Democratic party, though he takes no active part and is not 
a seeker for offi'ce. He is a man of fine personal appearance and enjoys a pop- 
ularity that grows with his acquaintance. Few young men have started life 
under more promising auspices and Doctor Barber is practicall}- assured of 
high rank as a dentist with the prosperity that awaits on talent, close appli- 
cation to business and good character. 



JAMES LEWIS LYNCH. 

It was not until after weary miles of travel, abounding in pitfalls and 
disappointments, something like those that beset the Christian in "Pilgrim's 
Progress," that J. L. Lynch found himself at the -summit of his ambition as 
superintendent of public schools for Saline county. His trouble began at the 
beginning, due to the curse of poverty, which long prevented him from ob- 
taining an education. Even after he had a chance to go to school there were 
long and provoking delays of various kinds which retarded his efforts to get 
to ihe front in the educational world. Finally, after much struggle and not 
a little heartache, he succeeded in his life's endeavor and added to his repu- 
tation by election to the highest office given teachers in Missouri counties. 
Mr. Lynch was born in Fayette, Howard county, Missouri, November 19, 
i8.|8, of old Virginia parentage. He came with his parents to Saline county 
in 1855 and grew up on a farm with the usual experiences of country boys 
of that period. He had earnestly longed for a good education and was 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 843 

eventually enabled to gratify this desire. In the fall of 1865 Carr W. . 
Pritchett, celebrated as a minister and mathematician, opened a school for 
bovs and girls as well as young men and young women at Fayette and young 
Lynch was admitted as a pupil. He made the best of his opportunities by 
studying hard and paying strict attention to duty, so that in due time he 
was qualified to take a college course. Selecting Haverford, in Philadelphia, 
he entered that institution and by due diligence succeeded in taking the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1880. Meantime he had been 
teaching country schools to obtain means for his higher education, his first 
venture in the field of pedagogics being in 1869. He applied for a certificate 
to Professor Bierbauer, at that time county school commissioner of Saline 
countv, and after examination his request was granted. He obtained a 
school in what was known as the "Dick Thorp district," and made good 
in his first efforts to superintend and instruct children. Afterwards he taught 
in the southern part of the county, chiefly at Fair Play and Prairie Lawn and 
at four different times he was called from the country to positions in city 
schools, first, in 1874, when he was elected assistant principal of the Marshall 
public schools, next in 1882, when he was again called to Marshall, and 
served for three years as principal of the high school under T. E. Spencer. 
He was next called to the public schools of Fayette, his native town, where 
he served three years as principal of the high school under N. F. Frazier, 
whom he subsequently succeeded as superintendent. During his sojourn at 
Fayette Mr. Lynch was elected county school commissioner of Howard county 
and served two terms. He then entered the University of Missouri as a stu- 
dent and at the close of his term of school he returned to the home of his 
childhood in southern vSaline county and to the teaching of the same country 
schools that had been his care and delight years before. In these two country 
schools, after his return, he taught for five consecutive years, at the end of 
which time he was summoned to take charge as principal of the Slater high 
school, under W. C. Sebring as superintendent. This was in 1907 and about 
that time he had conceived the idea and ambition to become superintendent 
of Saline county schools. As this is an elective ofiice it was necessary for 
him to submit his name to the nominating primary convention. This he did 
and when the vote was taken he was given the nomination for the ot^ce of 
superintendent and in due course he was elected at the ballot box. He has 
given entire satisfaction by his management of the office, which was to be 
expected from his large and varied experience as an education. Professor 
Lynch was made a Mason in .1893, being affiliated with the lodge at Marshall. 
He is also a member of the Southern Presbvterian church of the same citv. 



3i , PAST AND PRESENT 

llAKin C. I'RANCTSCO. ■ 

In iS()i when an inhirmed professor by the name of Thomas Jonathan 
lacks, in was a teacher in the Mihtary Institute at Lexington. Virginia, one 
of the puijils was a youth named George M. Francisco. He was a native of 
Missouri and enioved the reputation of being the first male child born in the 
now prospennis city of Marshall. When the Civil war broke out he was a 
cailet and graduate of the Lexington school and enlisted for the war in a com- 
pan\- which became a part of the army commanded by the above mentioned 
professor, who soon rose from obscurit\' and ol)tained immortal renown as 
"Slonewall" Jackson. Young h'rancisco got all the experience his ambition 
had craved while operating with the "foot cavalry" in the valley of Shen- 
andoah, the western slopes of the Blue Ridge, the banks of the historic James 
and later across the Potomac. He escaped but few of the important engage- 
ments participated in by the celebrated First Corps, being at Gettysburg, the 
seven days fighting, Cedar Mountain. Manassas and others. He went clear 
through from start to finish, his service covering the four years of the war 
and after it was over he returned to Missouri to face the responsibilities of 
life with but a poor financial ec]uipment for the purpose. However, he was 
courageous and hopeful, had all of life before him and determined to make 
a man of himself. Embarking in the mercantile business at Marshall, he 
continued to sell goods for eight or ten years, when he was elected public ad- 
ministrator of Saline county, which office he held at the time of his death, 
Octoljer 3, 1903. For twenty-five years he was an elder in the Presbyterian 
church at Marshall. In 1865 he married Mollie. daughter of Dr. G. W. 
Hereford, of near \\'a\erly. Missouri. By this union there were four chil- 
dren : Harry C. Roberta Lee, of ^Marshall ; Martha, now Mrs. J. F. Houx. 
of Marshall, and b^rances, wife of J. T. Hereford, of Marshall. 

Harry C. iM-ancisco, eldest of the familv, was born in the western part 
of Saline county, near W'averly, Missouri. April 8. 1869. His parents re- 
moved to AL'u'shall when he was a boy and he obtained a good education in 
the graded and high schools of that city. After leaving his books he was 
connected for two years with the Marshall Gas Company. In 1890 he be- 
came identified with the Bank of Saline, as assistant cashier and has since 
hel(! this position continuously. Besides his executive position, he also holds 
a directorship in the l)ank and is one of its responsible officers. He is inter- 
ested in agriculture and owns two farms in Saline county. l)esides a stock 
ranch in Morgan county, Missouri. He ranks high in the business world, 
bein.e; regarded as one of the shrewdest financiers of his aee in the countv. 






SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 845 

After his father's death- he was appointed to hll out his term as pnl)hc admin- 
istrator and gave a good account of himself in the management of this im- 
portant trust. Mr. Francisco has long been a member of the First Presby- 
terian church, in which he holds the offices of deacon and superintendent of 
the Sunday school. His politics are Democratic, and his only fraternal con- 
nection is with the Alasons. 

The Francisco family is of Virginia nati\ity but sent out branches to 
other states through emigrating descendants. Mr. Francisco's father, though 
born in Missouri, was reared in the Old Dominion and his grandfather. Dr. 
Charles Francisco, spent his whole life in the same historic commonwealth. 
Mr. Francisco's maternal grandfather was also a native of Virginia, though 
the maternal grandmother was a Kentuckian. The great-grandfather on 
the mother's side was an aide-de-camp on the stafT of General Lafayette. 



\\ ILLIAAI HARRISON, M. D. 

This name recalls much of interest in United States history and carries 
the memorv back to the stirring days of the Revolution. As Doctor Harri- 
son is a lineal descendant of those worthies and thus related to two Presi- 
dents, a few remarks of a geneological character will prove of interest. His 
great-grandfather was Capt. Benjamin Harrison, who held a commission in 
the Continental army, but had previously gained distinction under Gen. An- 
drew Lewis at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. He served on the right 
wing aligned along Crooked creek, and it was the stubljorn fighting of this 
force that won the day for the American troops. The records show that this 
gallant officer removed from Wheeling to Kentucky in 1790. He located at 
Cynthiana, where he built a mill and became so conspicuous that a county 
(Harrison) was named after him. He was the first member of the Legis- 
lature from Bourbon county wdien Harrison county was formed from Bour- 
bon and Scott. He married a Miss Newell in Virginia, by whom seven 
children were born, as follows : Batteal. William, Aristides, Catherine, wh(~) 
married Andrew Miller, Jane, who married William Hinkson, ]Mary and 
Julian. Two sons. William and Batteal, had noted careers. William settled 
in Crawford county, Missouri, about 18 17, entered the first land that was 
taken up after Missouri became organized as a state. He had twelve sons 
and two daughters. Batteal Harrison, who was born in Virginia in 1788. was 
three years of age when his parents removed to Kentticky and was left at 



^_^ty PAST AND PRESENT 

W lu-eliiis' ^vith his uncle. W illiam Vance, on account -of Indian troubles then 
prcvaihnii- on tlie lower Ohio. In i8ii Batteal Harrison located in Belmont 
countv. Ohio, and on July C). iSt2, he received from President Madison a 
commission as 'ensign in the Nineteenth Regiment Infantry, United States 
.\rm\-. On February i, 1815, he was promoted to the captaincy of the 
Second Company of Riflemen, in ^yhich capacity he served until the conclu- 
si(^n of hostilities. After the war he was appointed adjutant-general of 
Ohio, was subsequently made brigadier-general, and while sen-ing in that 
ofhce in 1835 refused to muster "corn stalk" militia for the government. In 
18 1 7 he was elected the associate judge of the court of common pleas for 
Fa\-ette countv, and also served in the Ohio Legislature. He married Eliza- 
beth SctUt. of Lexington, Kentucky, daughter of Col. Mathew^ T. Scott, who 
received his title during the w-ar of the Revolution. Capt. Scott Harrison, 
son of Gen. Batteal Harrison, was born February 22, 18 17, and gained dis- 
tinction during the Civil war. In 1862 he organized Company D, One Hun- 
dred and Fourteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he was 
elected captain, and served until the fall of Vicksburg, when he was dis- 
charged by reason of disability, occasioned by illness. When the colonel of 
his regiment fell, he \yas promoted to command, but his personal regard for 
the oflicer ranking ahead of him caused him to refuse to accept. Subse- 
quently he also declined the office of major, to which he had been elected. 
After the surrender of Vicksburg, he entered the Ohio militia and com- 
manded his regiment at Chillicothe, during Morgan's raid. He married 
Frances Young, of Pickaway county, Ohio, and the children by this union were 
Annetta, Batteal, \'ance, Job V., Elizabeth, William, Belle, John and Jim 
Cook. He came to Missouri and located in Cooper county in 1865, but the 
next year removed to Marshall, where he died October 5, 1875. William 
Harrison, fifth in the above list of children, was born in Madison township, 
Fayetlc county, Ohio, July 8, 1850, and consequently ivas fifteen years old 
when his father came to Missouri. He attended school in Fayette county, 
Ohio, and Saline county, Missouri, and Professor Newton's Academy at 
Marshall, after which preparation he entered the St. Louis Medical College, 
from which he was graduated in 1874. For thirty years he has practiced 
continuously at Marshall, part of the time with Dr. B. St. George Tucker, 
and for twelve years as a partner of Dr. John B. Wood. During Cleveland's 
second administration he served as pension examiner and for a time as local 
surgeon for the Chicago & Alton railroad. He served as county physician, 
was organizer of and chief medical examiner of the Home Protective Asso- 
ciation, founded in Marshall in 1897, and for many years has been local 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 84/ 

examiner for leading- insurance companies. He is a member of the Saline 
County, Missouri Valley, district and American Medical associations, and has 
been president of the society first named. In Masonry he has reached the 
rank of Knight Templar, and in politics he has always been a staunch Demo- 
crat, but never sought or cared for office. 

October 4, 1881. Doctor Harrison married Sallie Akin Marmaduke and 
their only child died in infancy. Mrs. Harrison is a daug-hter of the late 
Col. Vincent Marmaduke, a native of Saline county, who was o.ie of her 
most substantial citizens and largest landowners. He was a '^on of Hon. 
M. M. Marmaduke, former governor of Missouri, and a brother of John S. 
Marmaduke, another governor of the state. Henry Marmaduke, another 
brother, was a colonel in the Confederate army and a lientenant on the ship 
"Merrimac" at the time of its famous battle with the "Monitor." Vincent 
Marmaduke was born in Saline county, Missouri, April 14, 183 1. He re- 
ceived a district school education, then became a student in the Masonic 
College, at Lexington, Missouri, where he graduated. He then entered the 
law course at Yale University, where he was graduated in 1852, being the 
valedictorian of his class. After leaving Yale he returned to Saline county, 
but did not practice his profession, engaging extensively in agricultural oper- 
ations two miles southwest from Marshall. He was a colonel in the Con- 
federate army and was with Highman's brigade. He was a member of the 
Missouri Legislature at the outbreak of the secession agitation and voted to 
keep his state in the union, but after the passage of the ordinance he joined 
the Confederate forces. He was commissioned by President Davis to go to 
England and France to purchase arms for the Confederacy and conceived 
the plan of supplying arms to the forty thousand Confederate prisoners at 
Chicago. For events growing out of this scheme he was himself arrested 
and confined in prison until the war was over. He was an intimate friend 
of the late Senator Vest and a decidedly picturesque character. After the 
war he engaged in the commission business at St. Louis, but soon afterward 
he and his brother, ex-Governor Mamiaduke, published an agricultural paper 
in the Missouri metropolis. Subsequently he resided for a wdiile at Sweet 
Springs, but afterwards came to ]\Iarshall. where he died at the home of 
Doctor Harrison, his son-in-law. His first wife was formerly Julia Eakin, of 
Shelbvville, Tennessee, to whom he was married in July, 1853, and by whom 
he had two sons and two daughters : Mrs. R. W. Carey, of Kansas City, and 
Mrs. Dr. A\'illiam Harrison, the sons, Vincent, Jr., and John Eakin, being 
deceased. IMrs. Harrison's uncle, Claiborne Jackson, was governor of ]\Iis- 
souri during the war. Mrs. Harrison died on September 18, 1861, at the age 



848 



PAST AND PRESENT 



Hi ihinv years, and 111 1S73 \ incciU ilarrison married Mrs. Katharine Ames, 
widow of tlenr\ Ames, who, at the time of his death, was the largest pork 
iiacker in Missouri. Mrs. Harrison's maiden, name was Scndder. She died 
on Se])temher ]8, 1893. 

Doctor Harrison is hrmly convinced that his great-grandfather was the 
real signer of the Declaration of Indepeendence instead of the Benjamin Har- 
rison to whom the honor is usually awarded. The Doctor has made an exten- 
sive investigation of the facts, going over all the available records at Wash- 
ington and elsewhere. The main points of his contention when summed up 
certainly look formidable. This Benjamin Harrison became a captain in the 
Revolutionary war, and was an ardent supporter and friend of Patrick Henry, 
through whose efforts he was elected first revolutionary governor of Vir- 
ginia. He resigned in favor of Governor l>ee and formed a military com- 
pany, with which he captured Governor Dunsmore's outfit and brought the 
supplies to Williamsburg, w'here they were distributed to the state militia. 
This proceeding really formed the nucleus for rallying the revolutionary 
forces in Virginia and as such l)ecomes an historic fact of the first importance. 
Benjamin Harrison was a x'oung radical and an enthusiastic friend of Patrick 
Henry, while the other Benjamin Harrison was governor under King George. 
It seems quite logical that such a fiery young patriot should hasten to sign 
the immortal document of liberty, when more conservative men were holding 
back to watch the trend of events. In after years his heirs secured from the 
government a grant of six thousand and fourteen acres of land in Madison 
township, Fayette county, Ohio, for services rendered the government. The 
original deeds for this land are still in possession of his descendants and bear 
the signatures of Presidents Madison, Adams. Monroe and Jackson. 



ROBERT H. NUCKLES, D. O. 

though young in years as well as practice, the firm of Nuckles Brothers 
has alrearly so popularized osteopathy at Marshall and in the surrounding 
country that they enjoy a good patronage. Thoroughly educated in their 
profession, attentive to business, of genial address and courteous to all, their 
fine offices in the city are the goal of many callers, and the enterprising 
young physicians begin to enjcn' the prosperity that comes from a nu- 
merous clientele. The father of the members of this firm came to Mis- 
souri al>)ut 1870. being a native of Virginia. He engaged in farming in 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 849 

Pike county after coming to this state, and in 1892 moved to a place near Mar- 
shall where he still resides. He married Ella Robinson, of Pike county, ^^lis- 
souri, by whom he has two sons. George T. and Robert H., who are associated 
together in the practice of osteopathy. R. H. Nuckles, the elder, was Ijorn in 
Pike county, Missouri, December 17, 1874, and was reared on a farm, obtain- 
ing his education in the country schools. In 1893 he entered Missouri Valley 
College, took four years' work and came out well equipped in those depart- 
ments of learning taught at such institutions. His next step was matricu- 
lation in the American School of Osteopathy at Ivirksville, Missouri. He 
obtained a degree from that fine school in the fall of 1899 and immediately 
set about his entrance into a profession for a lifetime career. Selecting Mar- 
shall as a live city and a suitable location for a live man, he decided to "hang 
out his shingle" there and seek no further. All the signs indicate that he 
chose well, as there is every indication of prosperity about the premises of 
Doctor Nuckles. 

In' 1900 Doctor Nuckles married Bessie B.. daughter of Jerry Baker, 
now a resident of Fresno, California. Mrs. Nuckles was born in Monroe 
countv, Missouri. The Doctor and wife have two children, Ella Frances and 
Florence Marie. Dr. Nuckles belongs to the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of the Maccabees, and is also a member 
of the National and State Osteopathic Associations. He and his wife are 
members of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. 



ROBERT S. SANDIDGE. 



The subject of this sketch is a pioneer of Saline county, both in the 
newspaper line and as a citizen. For nearly half a century Robert S. San- 
didge has wielded an editorial influence as a moulder and reflector of public 
opinion in this section of Missouri, and his influence has permeated other 
parts of the state. To serve well a clientele, embracing the intelligence and 
worth of one of the richest and best counties in the great state of Missouri, 
is a task of no slight responsibility, whose faithful permanence entitles the one 
who does it to a high place in the county's history. Since 1865 the Progress 
has made its weekly visits to the homes of practically all the most substantial 
people of the county, conveying its message of current news of the town 
and country-side. It has always been on the right side of every question in- 
volving the public morals and general welfare. Its influence has been used 

54 



g^Q PAST AND PRESENT 

for the iii)litt of the community, its o;ro\vth, development and progress along 
ri«dit lines. Mr. Sandidge is a versatile and comprehensive writer, with a 
line sense of discrimination and a just appreciation of his responsibihty to 
the communit\. Possessing a warm and generous nature and genial per- 
sonality, his heartv friendship and interested sympathy appeal at once to all 
who share his acfjuaintance. This veteran editor was bom near Greensburg. 
Kentuckv. in 1838. his parents being Aaron and Polly (Thompson) San- 
didge. the father a native of Albermarle county. Virginia, and the mother a 
Kentuckian. Grandfather John Sandidge was a planter in Virginia, who 
served in the Revolutionar\- war as a captain under General Washington, 
lie joined the early emigration to Kentucky, when it was acquiring the 
name of the "Dark and Bloody Ground," secured some wild land and farmed 
on an extensive scale until his death. His son Aaron followed in his foot- 
steps as a farmer and devoted his entire life to agricultural pursuits. His 
wife was a daughter of John Thompson, representative of a prominent Vir- 
ginia family, who at a later period located in Kentucky and reared his chil- 
dren while farming on an extensive scale. Robert S. was one of the youngest 
of a large familv and had the misfortune of l)eing orphaned in his fourteenth 
year. He had the invaluable, though hard, training which comes to a boy on 
a pioneer farm. It w'as mostly work, amusements being few and far between, 
and opportunities for education were limited, owing to the poor quality of 
the schools and their scarcity. After his father's death, he decided to try his 
fortunes in the new state of Missouri, wisely selecting Saline county as a 
base of operations, and arrived at Marshall in March. 1855. Jo^i" ^V. San- 
didge. one of his uncles, had preceded him and he found a temporary home 
under his hospitable roof. Vov three }ears he was in the employment of Col. 
George W. Allen, after which he became a student at Miami Institute, from 
which he was graduated in due course. Leaving college, he secured a school 
in Saline county, and followed the occupation of teaching until i860, when 
his real life's work l:>egan. From an early age he had had the "ink on his 
fingers" and longed to be an editor, with that enthusiasm which is half the 
])rice of success. His first investment was the Saline County Standard, 
which he edited until the opening of the Civil war and then suspended to 
exchange the pen for the sword. In July. 1862. he enlisted in the United 
States Missouri Cavalry, was assigned to Compan}- E. and was mustered 
into the service at Lexington. Two of his brothers were in the Confederate 
army, jnit Mr. Sandidge stood firmly by the I'nion cause and risked his 
life for It on many a well-fought field. Among the more important battles in 
which he bore a part were those at Prairie Grove and Little Rock. Durinsr 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 85 1 

General Steele's expedition to Shreveport. Louisiana, Mr. Sandidge was ap- 
pointed sergeant under the commanding officer and has very lively recollec- 
tions of that march, as the fighting was going on every day and night. In 
1864 and the spring of 1865 he served at department headquarters, during 
which time his advancement to the rank of captain was recommended, but he 
did not receive his commission until the close of the war. In June, 1865, he 
was mustered out of the service at Little Rock and returned home the fol- 
lowing month. His old ambition had not left him and he lost no time in 
starting The Jl'cckly Progress, which he has continuously edited since and 
made a household word all over Saline county. He has been in the midst of 
every political fight that has occurred since the surrender, his caustic pen 
being especially effective during the reconstruction period. He has a well 
equipped job ofifice in C(^nnection with his ])aper and enjoys a lucrative 
business. 

In 1874 Mr. Sandidge married Alice Chastain. a native of Christian 
county, Kentucky. Although the}- have had no children of their own, Mr. 
and Mrs. Sandidge have proven veritable good Samaritans in their assistance 
to others. Thev adopted two homeless unfortunates as their own, whom 
they have reared to maturity with tender affection, giving them every care 
that could be suggested by paternal regard. The names of these children are 
Robert and Alice Dunn, who looked upon Mr. and Mrs. Sandige with the 
affection of real children. Alice Dunn died at the age of twenty-four years 
in 1901. She was a young lady of rare attainments, a graduate of the Mar- 
shall high school and the Missouri Valley College, and her untimely death 
was a source of genuine regret to the entire community. For many years 
Mr. Sandidge has served as secretary of the Democratic county central com- 
mittee and was honored by election to the mayoralty of Marshall. He be- 
longs to the Odd Fellows lodge and, with his wife, is a member of the Chris- 
tian church. 



I 



EDMUND L. BROWN. 



The family of this name were Virginians. \\ho came to Missouri in 
1837 and settled near Arrow Rock, when tlie county was but sparsely settled, 
and ranked among the earliest pioneers of that section. Edmund Brown, 
head of the house, had l>een a planter in his native Virginia, and after 
reaching the west continued in agricultural pursuits. He brought with him 
a son. named Marshall A., who was born in Virginia in 1833. but grew up 



3^2 PAST AND PRESENT 

in Missouri, Avhere he studied medicine and became prominent and successful 
as a practicing physician. He served in the Confederate army as a surgeon 
and practiced medicine about ten years after the war, when he engaged in 
the drug business at Miami. In 1883 he removed to Marshall, where he 
re-entered the drug business and followed it with more or less attention 
until his death, in 1906, at the age of seventy-three. During the latter years 
of his life, though retaining his interests, he gave little attention to the 
active conduct of the store, which he left to younger hands. He was edu- 
cated at the University of Virginia and Jefferson Medical College, of Phila- 
delphia, belonged to the Episcopal church, and had all the characteristics of 
the Virginia gentleman of the old school. As one of the pioneers of Saline 
county and a prominent physician and druggist in this section during the last 
fifty vears. few men were better known than Dr. Marshall A. Brown. He 
married ]\Iattie \\'aters, a native of ^Missouri, whose parents came to Boone 
county from Virginia some half century ago and were identified prominently 
with the affairs of their community. Doctor Brown's wife died in 1876, after 
becoming the mother of two children, the younger of whom is Gertrude W., 
of Marshall. 

Edmund L. Brown, the only son, was born at Miami, Saline county, 
Missouri, March 26, 1872. He was educated in the public schools of his 
native place and Marshall. Entering the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 
he was graduated from that institution in 1893, '^^^ i^ January of the same 
year was taken in by his father as a partner in the drug business at Marshall. 
He retained this interest and acted as the managing partner most of the 
time until January i, 1907, when he assumed full charge as sole proprietor. 
His store has become noted as "The Red Cross Pharmacy," and has long 
occupied the enviable position of being the leading store in town. Mr. Brown 
is a stockholder in the Mose H. Land Milling Company of Marshall. He is a 
Mason and an Elk, being the first exalted ruler of Marshall Lodge, No. 1096, 
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 

October 26, 1888, Mr. Brown married Elizabeth, daughter of Clifton 
E. Denny, a prominent old settler of Howard county, Missouri. They have 
two children, Edmund M. and Elizabeth D. Mr. Brown belongs to the 
Episcopal church, while his wife is a Presbyterian. His father served under 
General Price during the Civil war. He joined immediately after grad- 
uating from the medical college in 1861, and was placed on the medical staff 
as soon as it was known that he was a physician. He was very fond of fishing 
and hunting as well as every other out-of-doors sport. He was also a student 
of botany for his own pleasure and knew the names of all the native plants. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 853 

A lover of music, he was an accomplished violinist, and his son has two old 
and very rare and valuable violins that used to be owned by this fine old 
gentleman. 

Such men make good company and those who knew Doctor Brown inti- 
mately greatly valued his friendship. With a well trained mind, much in- 
formation concerning the older times and ability to play on the king of 
musical instruments, he was a man to be sought after for information, enter- 
lainment and instruction concerning many useful subjects. 



CHARLES DANA NEWTON. 

All the older citizens of Saline county cherish pleasant recollections of 
the late George B. Newton, whose calling as an educator brought him in 
close touch with the children of the last generation. Many boys and girls 
from this county were pupils under Professor Newton at his college in Pettis 
county, which he made locally famous by its good instruction and popu- 
larity, his kindness and care to all under his charge. Born in Massachusetts, 
Professor Newton was a natural-born teacher, seeming to have breathed in 
the spirit of education with the crisp air of his New England home. The 
"Yankee Pedagogue" has long been famous and the South and West have 
in the past been much indebted to New^ England for masters she sent out 
to instruct the youth in a section sadly in need of schools during its formative 
period. Professor Newton was reared in Kentucky, and before coming to 
Missouri had charge of a college in Louisville. He also taught school a 
number of vears in Marshall, where he died about seventeen years ago at 
the age of seventy-two. He married Louise Haven, a native of Vermont, 
who died after becoming the mother of seven children, all of whom are living 
in Marshall ; the eldest is the wife of Judge Samuel Davis, and the others 
in order of birth are Mary G., Mrs. A\'. R. Redmand, G. W.. Sue. Leslie 
M. and Charles Dana. 

Charles Dana Newton, youngest of this family, was bom in Pettis 
county, Missouri. February 12, 1865. He was instructed in private by his 
father, and as the latter was one of the best teachers in the state, it is needless 
to say that the son was well taught. His sister, who was also a teacher, 
gave him valuable lessons in the line of primary education. When eighteen 
years old he entered tlie Progress office as a printer's "devil." but soon rose 
from that lowly estate until he became business manager, in which capacity 



S34 



PAST AND PRESENT 



he worked until 1^04. In iliai _\car he purchased the Citizen , and has since 
successfully conducted that paper, advocating Democratic principles, but 
meantiuK' nc^t forgetting- to solicit advertising and job work, of which he has 
received a liberal share. Mr. Xewton is an energetic, ])rogressive and in- 
genuous newspaper man, with original ideas and up-to-date methods. He is 
<(uite popular as a citizen, stands high as a business man and enjoys a hue 
patronage in his mechanical dc])artment. 

In i8gi. Mr. Xewton married Nora C, daughter of E. R. Page, a well 
known citizen of Marshall. The two children by this union are named Nelle 
and Louise \\. The parents are members of the old-school Presbyterian 
churcli ruid .Mr. Xewton is connected with the Elks and other fraternal orders. 



\\'TTTJAM S. BOOKER. 



William S. Booker, retired farmer and a descendant of a prominent old 
\'irginia family of Revolutionary fame, is a native of Virginia and a son of 
V'\nk D. and Martha A. ( I'owell) Booker, both parents being from the Old 
Dominion state. John Booker, the subject's grandfather, also a V^irginian 
by birth, served throughout the Revolutionary war and afterwards became 
a well-to-do planter and large slave holder. He reared a large family and 
died in his native state many years ago. Pink Booker being the younger 
of his children. 

I'ink D. Booker was born in 1798 and when a young man married 
Ahirtha Powell and engaged in agricultural pursuits near the place of his 
birth, where he remained until 1837, wdien he migrated to Missouri and 
located in Saline county. He brought with him to his new home a large 
number of slaves whcMn he utilized in developing and cultivating the thou- 
sand-acre tract of land which he purchased, and which in due time he con- 
verted into one of the finest and most productive farms in the county. During 
the late Civil war he sympathized with the South, and the freeing of his sixty 
bondsmen by the Emancipation Proclamation caused him considerable pecu- 
niary loss. Renting his lands about the close of the struggle he retired to the 
town of Miami, and afterwards disposed of his farm and lived on the pro- 
ceeds until his death in the year 1872. Pink D. Booker at the age of fifteen 
enlisted in a X'irginia regiment and served in the war of 181 2. taking part 
in a number of battles and earning an honorable record as a soldier. He was 
a true tyj)e of the Virginia gentleman of the old school, intelligent, liberal to 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 855 

a fault and enterprising in tlie fullest acceptance of the term. He was an 
earnest member of the Baptist church, a \Mng- until 1856, when he joinefl the 
Democratic party, whose principles he continued to support during the re- 
mainder of his life. Airs. Booker survixed her husband until April 15. 1896. 
when she was called to her reward at the remarkable age of more than ninety- 
five years. Her grandfather. Anderson Powell, was a Virginian, highly es- 
teemed by all who knew him and a man of much more than ordinary intelli- 
gence and influence. To IMnk D. and Alartha .\. Booker nine children were 
born, viz: Elizabeth, deceased; Mrs. Mary P. Wooldridge ; Mrs. Mariah J. 
Scott; Pattie. who died unmarried; William S.. the subject of this sketch; 
Edward P.. deceased; Thomas H.; Airs. Emma Kitchen and Airs. Addie A. 
Lattimer. 

\Mlliam S. Booker was born in Virginia. November 25. 1829. and at 
the age of eight vears was brought by his parents to Missouri, where he has 
since li\ed. He received a fair education in his youth, grew to maturity on his 
father's farm and when he began life for himself chose agriculture for his 
vocation, which calling he followed until his retirement from active labor a 
few years ago. 

In 1862 Mr. Booker entered the Confederate army, joining Polk's di- 
vision and taking- part in a number of engagements in Missouri and else- 
where, being first under fire at the battle of Boonville, shortly after which 
his six-months term of enlistment expired, when he returned home. Later, 
when General Price made his raid through Missouri, he again entered the 
service and accompanied that commander's force into Arkansas, where he 
took part in a number of hotly contested battles and experienced in full meas- 
ure all the hardships and vicissitudes of a soldier's life. He was at Eort Ar- 
Inickle when the war closed and. making his wa}- home as soon as possible, 
resumed his farming operations, but without the help of all his slaves, al- 
though most of them remained with him for some time on account ()f his 
kind treatment, a few. however, leaving the old home and going to other 
parts of the country. 

Air. Booker continued farming and stock raising, with gratifying re- 
sults, until 1907. when he turned his farm over to other hands and moved to 
Alarshall. where, surrounded b}- many material comforts and blessings, he is 
passing the evening of a long, strenuous and useful life in quiet and content. 
He cast his first vote in 1852 for Gen. Zachary Taylor, the Wh\g candidate 
for President, but four years later tarnsferred his allegiance to the Demo- 
cratic party, with which he has since acted and for which he has wielded a 
strong influence, but never in the direction of public or official honors for 



8q5 PAST AND PRESENT 

liiniself. A number of years ago he united with the Baptist church and began 
the Christian Hfe, being at this time a member of the local congregation in 
Marshall. 

On January 13, 1852, Mr. Booker and Octavia White, of Madison 
county, Virginia, were united in the holy bonds of wedlock, their union being 
blessed with the following children: Thomas S., a traveling salesman for a 
St. Louis wholesale house ; Dunlap L., who is engaged in mining in Arizona ; 
Ernest F., of Cape Nome, Alaska; William P., a farmer of Saline county; 
Charles H.. also of this county and a teacher by profession, and Kate. Mrs. 
Booker's parents, Thomas and Catherine (Fry) White, came to Missouri, in 
[837 and located at Glasgow, where he built the second house, helped to lay 
nut the town, and where he engaged in the mercantile business. He was 
quite successful as a merchant and became one of the influential citizens of 
that town, but was cut off in the prime of life and usefulness at the early age 
of thirtv-two years. His wife subsequently married Jesse Hastings, of Glas- 
gow. 



REUBEN BLAKEY EUBANK. 

Though now retired, the venerable pioneer above named has for more 
than fifty- four years been one of the most progressive and prosperous 
farmers of Saline county. He comes of an old and highly honorable family 
whose origin is traceable to England and whose representatives have figured 
prominently in many different states. His great-grandsire emigrated tn this 
country as far back as 1727, being one of four brothers who settled in Vir- 
ginia. A little account book kept by this old colonial and which is still in 
the possession of his grandson shows by its accuracy that he was a man of- 
, education and business ability. He married Margaret Lewis in Virginia 
and one of the children by this union was a son named Joseph, who was born 
]\Iay 9, 1763. He was a farmer and dealer in merchandise, besides owning 
and operating a fiouring mill. One of his sons, also named Joseph, was a 
mechanical genius, and though he never patented it he claimed the honor of 
discovering the principle of a self-feeder for a cotton gin. He also invented 
the steam governor for engines and in other ways exhibited marked talents. 
He was a watchmaker by trade and surpassed all competitors by the skill and 
originality of his work. November 27, 1794. Joseph Eubank married Eliza- 
beth ^^'hite. who was born in Virginia, November 8. 1774. They had ten 
children, all of whom lived to maturity, and among the number was Henry 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 857 

Eubank, who was born in Virg-inia. September 14. 1795. In early manhood 
he migrated to Kentucky, where he became prominent as a merchant and 
trader and in other ways. Until 1829 he was engaged in business at Glas- 
gow, but in that year retired to his farm and spent the closing years of his 
life in rural pursuits. Having considerable knowledge of military tactics, he 
held the offices of captain and major in the state militia. He was quite 
prominent in Barren county and was identified with many public interests. 
He married Maria Garnett, who was born in Barren county, Kentucky, 
May 19, 1807, and of this union seven children were born : America, born at 
Glasgow, Kentucky, May 11, 1827, now resides in Jackson, Tennessee; Mar- 
garet D., bom September 15, 1829, married Robert T. Grady, and both are 
residents of Saline county; James, born April 27. 1833. married Martha 
Thomas, and is at present a farmer and money lender in Texas; Richard Gar- 
nett, born October i, 1835. married Catherine Wolf skill and is engaged in 
farming and grape culture in California ; Elizabeth Frances, born Septem- 
ber 9, 1838, married H. C. Irby and resides in Tennessee, where her hus- 
band is one of the faculty of a Baptist school ; Henry, born March 28, 1844, 
married Nancy Fishback, and makes his home in Barren county, Kentucky. 
Reuben B. Eubank, eldest of the seven children, was born at Glasgow, 
Kentucky, February 9, 1824. He left school at the age of eighteen to en- 
gage as clerk for David R. Young, a storekeeper of the town, receiving only 
his board and clothing as pay. After a year he entered the employment of 
Joseph Glazebrook, in consideration of one hundred dollars per annum, with 
board and washing-. He retained this position for three years and then went to 
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, but returned in a few months to his former em- 
ployer. He was thus variously engaged until his marriage, when he went to 
farming, his wife having been presented by her father with a tract of two 
hundred acres of land. This, however, was afterwards traded for a money 
consideration and he embarked in the business of tobacco culture, to which 
five years were devoted, but becoming- dissatisfied with the narrow scope of 
his life and opportunities, he sold his little farm for ten dollars an acre and 
in 1855 crossed the Mississippi river into Missouri. Having picked out 
Saline county as a desirable place of abode, he rented a farm for two years 
and then purchased a tract of practically unimproved land, three miles north- 
west of Slater, to the clearing of which he bent all his energies for some 
years. From time to time he added to his original purchase until at one 
period he owned over four thousand five hundred acres of land in Saline 
and adjoining counties. Mr. Eubank has every tax receipt that he received, 
the first dated 1846, showing that he paid thirty-one cents for county levy 



S:;.S PAST AND PRESENT 

and >i.uL iiNLiiuc. In after years the taxes amounted to five hundred dollars 
annually, lie has heen a very industrious man, of remarkably fine busi- 
ness judi^-nient. and one of the best practical farmers that ever turned the sod 
in the state of Missouri. He is now a resident of Marshall, living- there in 
di,i;nified ea.se and restful enjoyment, hale and hearty, at the advanced age 
of eight\-si.\. lie has heen a memher of the Christian church since i<S58. 
and has been conspicuous for his liberality in religious causes, as well as for 
his charital)le deeds in the community. Among his numerous gifts was one 
of one hundred and si.xty acres of land and h\e hundred cash to the Bible 
School of Columbia. .Missouri: two thousand h\e hundred dollars to the 
Christian Church University, at Canton. Missouri, and a three thousand 
dollar parsonag-e to the Christian church at Marshall. Impecimious young- 
men of ambition and talent have found in him a read)", sympathizing friend 
and helper. He has gi\en lo his children over nineteen hundred acres of land 
and several thousand dollars in cash. Originally a Whig, he became a 
Democrat when the old ])arty went to pieces and has always taken an active 
interest in reform work. 

(\-tol)er 30, 1848, Mr. Eubank married Martha, daughter of Robert S. 
Thom])son. member of an old and representative family of Hart county, 
Kentucky. By this union there were three children: Robert, deceased. Henry 
;uid iveuben. The eldest was born in Barren county, Kentucky, in 1849, 
married Mar\- Bumbarger and resided near Slater, where he engaged in 
farming until his death, which occurred December 24, 1875. His only son 
is a resident of Bourbon county. Kentucky. Henry, who was born in Hart 
county. Kentucky, in 1852, married Jane Jenkins, of Slater, and now lives 
in Chariton county. Missouri, where he farms and preaches. Reuben, who 
was born in Saline county, married Mary Campbell, and is engaged in busi- 
ness at Lexington. Missouri. After the death of his first wife, January 25. 
i86f, Mr. Eubank was married to Elizabeth Whitaker, on June 22, 1861. 
She was born in Boone county, Kentucky, May 18, 1834, and died February 
28, 1873, after becoming the mother of four children, the eldest of whom 
died in infancy. Those living are John, who was born in Saline county. April 
12. 1863. married Lucy Smith and is engaged in farming. Ernest was born 
in Saline county. July 6, 1864, married Lillie (iaines. and has been farming 
for some years. Jerome, born October 3, 1865, married Zudie l\u-dom, 
and is engaged in stock-lniying at the Kansas City stock yards. The third 
marriage of Mr. Eubank occurred July 30, 1873, to Annie Eliza Keeper, who 
was born January 13, 1838, at Monticello, Lewis county, Missouri. She is 
die mother of three children, the eldest of whom, Charles, died in infancv. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 859 

Those li\"ing' are Preston Leeper. born March 3. 1877: married Okie Dver 
and resides at Slater; Katharine Alariah. born February 20, 1881. married 
Eugene Wesley Collier and resides with her parents in Marshall. 



WILLIAM JAMES HERXDOX. 

Piolding worthy prestige among the representative men of Saline county 
is William J. Herndon, a retired farmer who was born July 16. 1829, in 
Ken.tuck}-. being a son of Benjamin and Susan ( Fox) Herndon. natives of 
Virginia and Kentucky respectively, (ieorge Herndon. the subject's grand- 
father, was a \"irginian by birth and of Scotch <lescent. his ancestors having 
been among the early colonists who settled in the Old Dominion state. He 
went to Kentuck}- when that country was on the frontier, took an active part 
in de\'eloping the locality in which he settled and in the course of time became a 
prominent planter and large slave holder. While the war of 18 12 was in 
progress he volunteered for ser\'ice. Imt hostilities having ceased before his 
command reached the scene of action, his military career was of short dura- 
tion. He was one of the leading Democrats in his part of the country, a 
member of the Primiti\e Baptist church and a man of strict integrity and high 
sense of humor. He reared a family of eleven children and died man^• vears 
ago in the localit}- which he helped redeem from the wilderness. 

Benjamin Herndon grew up and married in his native state and in 
1830 mo^•ed to Cooper county, Missouri, where he settled and later purchased 
a farm upon which he resided until his death. He was widely known and 
greatly esteemed, having lived to a good old age in Cooper countv. His wife 
survived him ten years, during which time she lived on the family homestead 
and managed the affairs with ability and skill. 

Benjamin and Susan Herndon were the parents of seven children, the 
subject of the sketch being the oldest of the family: the others were John 
(who died in young manhood), George (also deceased). Mrs. Martha Fray. 
Mrs. Mary Higgerson, Thomas (deceased), and Henr}-. who was killed 
during the Civil war, while at home. 

William J. Herndon was a little over a year old when his parents moved 
to Missouri, and he remained with them until 1853. when he married and 
changed his residence to Saline county, with the interests of which his life 
has since l)een identified. He first purchased a small farm, giving a horse and 
five dollars on the deal, but by industry and oood manasfeiuent succeeded in 



86o PAST AND PRESENT 

iiRTiuig ilie other payments as they became due and it was not long until his 
place was free from encumbrance. The country at that time was new and the 
period duriui,'- the Civil war was troublesome. As soon as able he added to his 
original eight\-acrc tract and by making purchases from time to time finally 
became the possessor of seven hundred and eighty acres of fine land, the 
greater part of which he stocked with superior breeds of cattle and in this 
wav realized a handsome competency and a position of financial independence. 
^Ir. Herndon remained on his farm until 1895, when he turned it over to 
other hands and moved to Marshall where he erected a commodious residence, 
in which he has since lived a retired life. Since becoming a resident of the 
city, he has divided his lands among his children, giving each an equal share, 
only requiring of them during his life a low rate of interest on a moderate 
valuation of the estate. During the Civil war Mr. Herndon, like the majority 
of his fellow citizens, favored the Southern cause, but refused to take any 
part in the struggle, though suffering much from the depredations of guerillas 
on both sides. At one time he was conscripted by the Confederates and held 
for several hours on account of his refusing to take oath and enter the ranks, 
but he finally succeeded in making his escape. After the war he prospered in 
all of his undertakings until his retirement in the year indicated and by his 
manly conduct and honorable life won the confidence and esteem of his neigh- 
bors and fellow citizens. 

In his political views Mr. Herndon has always been an uncompromising 
Democrat, and as such has rendered valuable service to his party, though not 
as a partisan or office seeker. In religion he was originally a Missionary 
Baptist, but finding the Christian church more in accord with his ideas, he 
subsequently united with the latter and is now one of the influential workers 
in the society which worships in Marshall. As stated in a preceding para- 
graph, he was married in 1853, choosing for his wife Mary E. Mc]\Iahan, 
of Cooper county, and a daughter of Samuel W. and Harriet (Riddle) Mc- 
Mahan, natives of Kentucky and early settlers of Cooper county, where the 
father of Samuel W. was killed by the Indians. Mrs. Herndon was the 
oldest of a family of thirteen children and a woman of high social standing 
and sterling worth. She bore her husband thirteen children, whose names are 
as follows: Susan M.. who married James Hudson, after whose death she 
became the wife of R. P. Matthews; John; Elizabeth, now Mrs. James Clark; 
Martha E.. wife of T. M. Eisher; Mrs. Lucy Eenwick; Henry \\'. died in 
childhood; William L. ; Ella died young; Levert, deceased wife of Floyd 
I'leshman; Ann died in infancy: Benjamin; Maud married Finis Boatright, 
and Ella, whose death occurred in earlv life. The mother of these children 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 86 1 

dying October 7, 1877, Mr. Herndon, in the year 188 1, was united in mar- 
riage with Mrs. Adelia M. Harris, widow of WilHam J. Harris and a daugh- 
ter of Stephen and Ehzabeth (Jones) Turley, w^ho has proven a faithful wife 
and devoted stepmother to the younger children left in her care. 

Air. and Mrs. Turley were natives of Kentucky and pioneers of Missouri 
territory, to which they moved as early as the year 18 11. He often had to 
stand guard against the Indians and at one time was attacked in the woods by 
a savage, whom he shot and killed. He went to California in 1850 and died 
in that state. His widow survived him until her ninetieth year and departed 
this life in Cooper county. They reared a large family, Mrs. Herndon being 
one of the younger children and among the few left in the state of Missouri, 
her marriage being without issue. 



GEORGE YOUNG. 



Prominent among the leading farmers and influential citizens of Saline 
cou.nty is the well known and highly esteemed gentleman whose name intro- 
duces this sketch and who is now rounding out a long and useful career 1)y a 
life of honorable retirement in the city of Marshall, where he has made his 
home since the year 189 1. George Young was bom December 2. 1833, in 
Maryland, and is the son of Henry and Margaret (Chiswell) Young, both 
natives of that state. By occupation Henry Young was a tiller of the soil. 
He was a plain, practical man of sound intelligence and well balanced judg- 
ment, stood high in the esteem of his neighbors and friends and was long 
noted for his strict integrity and high sense of honor. He spent all of his life 
in his native state and died near the place of his birth in 1858, his wife sur- 
viving him until 1865. She belonged to an old and prominent Maryland 
family, and bore her husband children as follows: Mrs. Catherine Hughes; 
Joseph, who died while enroute to California in 1849; Henry lives in the old 
Maryland homestead; Margaret, wife of Isaac Young; John, of Marshall, 
Missouri; George, of this review; Elizabeth, who married Doctor Shaefer, 
and Sallie, now Mrs. Getzendiner. 

George Young spent his early life at the family home and remained 
under the parental roof until twenty years of age, when he went to Spring- 
field, Illinois. After spending the summer in that state, he came to Missouri 
and in the spring of 1854 to Saline county, where he decided to locate per- 
manently. Here he turned his hand to any kind of honorable labor he could 



j<5j past and present 

liiul and saved his eaniinss with the object in view of investino- in real estate 
and securino- a home of his own. Receiving some assistance from home, he 
afterwards purchased land and in due time improved a good farm. wJiich he 
cultivated with gratifying results until the breaking out of the Civil war 
caused the county to be overrun by bands of lawless Imsh whackers, to the 
great annoyance and dread of the law^ abiding and peacefully inclined citizens. 

in the fall of 1864 Mr. ^■oung. with three or four other men. joined the 
command of General Price and while enroute to Arkansas, where they ex- 
pected to secure arms, his horse received an injury which rendered it unfit 
for active ser\-ice. A young man having been wounded in the meantime, it 
was decided to lea\e him in the care of the subject and his comrades, who, 
as soon as practical)le shcnild acc(^mpany him to his home. When the injured 
man was able to travel the party started on what proved to be a very hazard- 
ous jouri^ev. the country .being infested with wild and lawless men who did 
not hesitate at anv kind of crime or commit upon the inofifensive all sorts of 
cruelt\-. On this account Mr. Young and his companions were obliged to 
travel bv night, and it was not until after a long and trying experience, lying 
in the woods, eluding the vigilance of the bushw-hackers and enduring hunger 
and much other suffering, that they finally arrived at their destination and 
rejjorted to the proper authorities. Mr. Young was told to go home and re- 
main there until further orders, but a few weeks later he was arrested and 
taken to Warrensburg, thence to McDcnvell's College in St. Louis, where he 
was kept under surveillance for six weeks. At the e\]:)iration of that time 
he was transferred to the military prison at Alton. Illinois, where he remained 
in confinement until the close of the war, when he returned home. His farm 
ha\ ing been rented in the meantime. Mr. Young and wife seized uix)n the 
opportunity to pay a visit to his old home in Maryland, which being ended 
he returned to Saline county and resumed farming, which he follow^ed with 
most encouraging success until the fall of 1891, when he discontinued man- 
ual labor and moved to Marshall, where he has since lived a retired life. 

By diligence and good management Mr. Young so conducted his agri- 
cultural and live stock interests as to accumulate a handsome c(^mpetence. 
and he is now in independent circumstances and one of the financially solid 
and reliable men of his city and countv. Tn addition to the fine farms which 
he still owns and which are operated bv his son, he has a commodious mod- 
ern residence in Marshrdl. besides other propertx' in the citw to say nothing 
of capital invested in various ways, which returns him a liberal income. 

Mr. Young is a Democrat in all the term implies and, wdtile wielding a 
strong influence for his party, he has never sought nor desired official prefer- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 863 

ment at the hands of his fellow citizens. Both himself and wife are worthy 
and consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and in all that 
constitutes upright manhood and intelligent, conscientious citizenship his name 
and character are above reproach. 

Mr. Young's marriage was solemnized January 8, 1862. with Virginia 
Gilliam, a native of Saline county and a daughter of F. H. and Ann Eliza- 
beth f Ayers) Gilliam, both parents of Virginia birth. They came to Saline 
county, Missouri, in 1835. locating originally at Old Cambridge, where Mr. 
Gilliam engaged in merchandising and near which place he erected the first 
flouring mill to meet the wants of the settlers. This was a very primitive 
afTair. operated by oxen on a tread-wheel, but as population increased he 
built a larger and better equipped mill, which received its motive power from 
water and which he operated with success for a number of years. He also 
ran a saw mill, which was highly prized by the people of the community, and 
conducted a farm which he purchased shortly after his arrival. Mr. Gilliam 
was long one of the leading citizens of the county, was public spirited and 
in favor of all worthy enterprises for the improvement of the country and 
development of its resources. His first wife dying in 1876. he afterwards 
married a second companion, but in 1904 he was again left a widower, since 
which time he has lived in retirement in the city of Marshall, making his 
home with a daughter and enjoying- life at the remarkable age of ninetv-five 
years. 

Like most reputable and peaceably inclined men, Mr. (iilliam was sub- 
jected to no little trouble and annoyance during the war, but took no part in 
the struggle, although his sympathies were with the South. He was arrested 
by the so-called Union men of Marshall, but after a short time was given his 
liberty, nothing sufificiently serious being charged against him to warrant his 
being- held as a prisoner. While under arrest his house was burned and to 
escape further trouble he went to Illinois, where he remained until conditions 
in Saline county had improved, when he returned and resumed his usual vo- 
cations. In early life he was quite successful as an auctioneer, in which ca- 
pacity his services were in wide demand throughout a large area of territory. 
A Methodist in belief, he has demonstrated the beauty and value of a live 
Christian faith by his daily life and all with whom he comes into contact bear 
testimony to his worth as a man and citizen. He reared a family of seven 
children, namely: ^^'il1iam. deceased: Mrs. Virginia Young, ^Madison. INFrs. 
Elizabeth Parrish. Mrs. Marcella Hughes. Mrs. Eva I'^ranklin. and Luther, 
who died leaving a widow and one son. 

Mr. and Mrs. Youno- have been blessed with ten children, whose names 



364 PAST AND PRESENT 

are as follows: lleiin l., ncceased ; George M., Celsus C, Cora, wife of Y. 
N. Edwards; Mclviii M., deceased; Lulu E., deceased; Fayette G. ; Mary 
Eva, wife of Dr. ' . A Wherry; Philander H., and Virginia, who married 
A. D. Martin. Melvin M. Young, the fifth in order of birth, read medicine 
and built up a lucrative practice in St. Louis, where he was looked upon as 
(.ne of the rising physicians of the city. Owing to overwork and exposure 
while attending his patients, he contracted the dread disease consumption, 
from which he died in Pueblo, Colorado. 



JOHN R. BUCK. 



The well known and highly esteemed gentleman under whose name this 
article is written, is one of Saline county's honored sons and dates his birth 
from the 8th day of January, 1854. Like many of the substantial citizens 
of central Missouri, his family is from the South, and in tracing his gene- 
alogy it is learned that his ancestors settled many years ago in Virginia, and 
that his grandfather, James Buck, who was a native of that state, early mi- 
grated to Kentucky, where he married, reared a large family and became a 
successful tiller of the soil. After the death of his wife he moved to Saline 
county, Missouri, and entered quite an extensive body of land, a part of 
which he improved and turned his attention to agriculture and stock raising. 
A Democrat of the old school, he manifested a lively interest in public affairs, 
and as a worthy member of the Methodist church he was active in all re- 
ligious and moral movements and stood ever for the right as he saw and 
understood it. He lived a life of great usefulness, enjoyed the confidence of 
his fellow men and died at a ripe old age, lamented by all who knew him. 

John Buck, son of James and father of the subject, was bom in Ken- 
tucky, grew to maturity in Saline county, Missouri, and in young manhood 
married Mariah Burke, who bore him the following children: William D., 
James T., John R., Lulu J., wife of John Ballentine, and Mary K., who 
married a gentleman by the name of Collie White. Mr. Buck entered land 
in 1848 five miles southwest of Marshall, improved a fine farm and in due 
time became one of the leading agriculturists and stock raisers in his part 
of the county. He was a public spirited man, an influential Democrat and 
kept in touch with the leading questions and issues of the times, but never 
sought nor desired official preferment. In early life, when the county was 
new and wild game of all kinds plentiful, he achieved quite a reputation as a 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 865 

hunter and it was largely through the efforts of himself and others of sim- 
ilar tastes that wild animals which once infested this section of the state were 
either killed or driven to other parts. Like his father, he. too, was a leader in 
a moral and religious way, having been a charter member of the Mt. Olive 
Cumberland Presbyterian church, and for a number of years an elder of the 
society. He was a good man, just in his dealings, and his death, in October, 
i860, at the early age of thirty-six years, removed from Saline countv one 
of its most worth\- and ])romising citizens. 

Mariah Burke, who became the wife of John Buck, was a daughter of 
\\'illiam Burke, a native of Virginia and an early emigrant to Tennessee, 
where he lived until his removal to Howard county, Missouri, in the year 
1 8 19. Subsequently he changed his place of abode to the county of Saline, 
where he entered land and engaged in farming and stock raising and rose to 
prominence as a leader in every good work among his neighbors and fellow 
citizens. Of his ten children, Mrs. Mariah Buck, the second in order of birth, 
and her brother. J. T. Burke, and sister, Airs. Ella Colvin, are the only ones 
living. Mrs. Buck is the onl}- sur\iving charter mem1)er of the Mt. Olive Cum- 
berland Presbyterian church, to which so many of the earlv settlers of the 
count}' Ijelonged. Airs. Ikick has reached the ripe old age of eightv ^"ears, ha\'- 
ing been forty-nine \ears a widow and since childhood an earnest and devout 
Christian, whose life has e\"er been in accordance with her religious profession. 
After the death of her husband she managed the farm, kept her children until 
able to care for themselves and had the satisfaction of seeing them all grow to 
honorable manhood and womanhood and become settled in life. 

John R. Buck spent his early years on the family homestead and after 
the death of his father assisted his mother in the management of the farm 
until 1 88 1, on June 30th of which year he was united in marriage w^ith Mollie 
Hill, a native of Alabama, and engaged in agriculture for himself. For some 
years he rented the home farm, but afterwards he and his two brothers 
bought the place and had it ecjually divided, each receiving sufficient land 
for a large farm, the share falling to him containing the residence, which 
he has since remodeled and converted into one of the most commodious and 
attractive dwellings in the neighborhood. By well directed industry and the 
adoption of modern methods his farm has been made to yield bountifully, 
this with the income from the sale of live stock resulting in a handsome com- 
petency and making him not only independent but one of the solid and well- 
to-do farmers of the county. Although interested in all kinds of live stock, 
he devotes especial attention to horses and mules, which he breeds and raises 
quite extensively for both local markets and shipment, and at the present 

55 



866 PAST AND PRESENT 

time he has a large number of these animals, some of a superior grade and 
commanding high prices. 

Mr. Ruck is a friend of all movements for the moral and intellectual 
progress of the community and is greatly interested in the cause of educa- 
tion, especially the higher grades, for which his children are now being pre- 
pared. Like all enterprising citizens, he takes an active part in politics and, 
believing in the principles of the Democratic party, which he thinks are the 
best for the interests of the people, he has been one of its influential sup- 
porters in Saline county for a number of years, though not an aspirant for 
office nor any kind of public recognition. In his religious belief the Presby- 
terian church represents his creed and as an humble and devout member of 
the same he has lived an upright life and influenced not a few of his fellow 
men to imitate his example in this important respect. 

Mr. Buck's first wife, to whom reference has been made in a preceding 
paragraph, died February 5, 1882, the marriage being without issue. She 
came from an old and respected Southern family and was a lady of intelli- 
gence and worth, a zealous Christian and, although reared in the Baptist 
faith, subsequently united with the Presbyterian church, to which she con- 
tinued faithful until called from the church militant to the church triumphant. 
On November i, 1892, Mr. Buck entered the marriage relation a second 
time, choosing for a wife Maggie Mahard, who was bom in Illinois and 
came to Missouri when quite young with her parents, W. K. and Susan 
(Lansdon) Mahard, both of whom spent the remainder of their days in Sa- 
line county. - John ]\Iahard, Mrs. Buck's grandfather, was a native of Ire- 
land. He came to America in an early day and for a number of years lived 
in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he did a thriving business in packing pork and 
shipping it to the Southern markets. He moved from that city to Sangamon 
county. Illinois, thence subsequently to Saline county, Missouri, where he 
finished his labors and was called to his reward. William K. Mahard, father 
of Mrs. Buck, was a successful farmer in early life, but later engaged in the 
implement business at Marshall, which he carried on for some years with 
encouraging success. He finally closed out his establishment, since which 
time he has been living a life of honorable retirement in the above city. 

Mr. Mahard is a leading member of the Presbyterian church and an in- 
fluential worker in the Masonic order, and as a man and citizen is widely 
known and greatly esteemed for his high sense of honor and sterling worth. 
His family originally consisted of the following children: Mollie, who mar- 
ried R. E. Rae, both deceased; Maggie, wife of Mr. Buck; Lizzie, who be- 
came the wife of J. K. King; John S., a business man of Marshall, and Wil- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 86/ 

liam K., who died when a youth of seventeen. The marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Buck has been blessed with five children, four of whom are living, 
namely : Harry, J. Roy, Lansdon and William T., all at home and pursuing 
their studies preparatory to the higher intellectual training which they and 
their parents have in view. Paul, the third of the family, died at the early 
age of two years. 



WILLIAM D. BUCK. 



This representative citizen and member of one of the honored families of 
central Missouri is a native of Saline county and dates his birth from ]Mav i8, 
1849. Paternally he is a descendant from sturdy Virginia ancestry and on 
the maternal side traces his family history to a very early period in the annals 
of the state of his birth. James Buck, his grandfather, migrated from Vir- 
ginia to Kentucky in pioneer times, married in the latter state and there con- 
tinued to reside until after the death of his wife, when he moved to Saline 
county, Missouri, where he entered land, improved a fine farm and became a 
successful man and enterprising, public spirited citizen. A slaveholder and a 
Democrat, he became the leader of his party in the community where he re- 
sided and also took an active part in religious matters, having been an earnest 
and devoted Methodist and an influential member of the church to which he 
belonged. He lived a useful life, reared a large family and died a numl^er of 
years ago at a ripe old age. 

John Buck, son of James and long a prominent resident of Saline county, 
was reared to agricultural pursuits and in 1848 married and settled on a tract 
of land which he purchased that year from the government. He too became a 
public spirited citizen and few men took a more active part in the improve- 
ment of the country and development of its resources. A zealous Christian, 
he was a charter member of the Mount Olive Cumberland Presbyterian church 
and assisted to build the old house of worship in which the congregation met 
for so many years, besides serving the society as an elder. He always stood 
for law and order, did much to curb the prevailing evils of the times and to 
him with others is the locality in which he lived indebted for the high moral 
standing of its citizenship. He died in October, i860, at the early age of 
thirty-six years, and left to his descendants the memory of an honored name 
and a spotless character, which they cherish as a priceless heritage. His wife. 
Mariah Jane Burke, a native of Saline county, is still living, having reached 
the advanced age of eighty years, esteemed and honored by all who know her. 



^58 P'^^T ^^^'D PRESENT 

She is a dauiililcr of William I5nrkc\ who emigrated from Virginia to 
'I'ennessee in a vcr\- early da), and in 1819 moved from the latter state to 
Missonri. locating in Howard connty, where he married and hecame asso- 
ciated with Doctor Sappington. of i)ioneer fame. Later he settled in Saline 
county, where he entered land and in due time improved a good farm and 
hecame (|uile successful as a tiller of the soil and stock raiser. He too was a 
Democrat of the old school and a slave holder and early threw his intluence 
on the part of law and good government and did much for the cause of 
morality and religion in the community in which he lived. His was indeed an 
active and useful life, tilled to re])leti(Mi with good to his neighbors and 
friends, and at its close he calml\ entered the X'alley of Shadows assured of a 
welcome and a crown of \ictory on the other side. Like the majority of 
earlv settlers, he became the father of a large famih-, ten children in all, Mrs. 
h)hn Ikick being the second in order of 1)irth. 

h)hn and Martha J. Ihick were the parents of hve children, the subject of 
this sketch being the oldest of the family: the others are James T., John R., 
Lulu T-. deceased, who was the wife of John Ballantine, and Mary K., wdio 
married E. C. White. 

William D. Buck was reared in his native county and since childhood 
his life has been closely identihed with its interests. He spent his early life 
on the family homestead, which he afterwards assisted to cultivate and until 
his thirtieth vear remained with his mother and ministei"ed to her comfort and 
interest. In the meantime he engaged in the pursuit of agriculture for him- 
self and in addition to managing the old home place bought and sold two 
farms in the same locality, later purchasing a still larger tract of land where 
he has since carried on farming and stock raising on a large scale and with 
encouraging success. In his )'ounger days he taught school and also assisted 
in the establishment of a college at Marshall, purchasing some of the lots set 
aside by the college syndicate to raise a fund for the erection of the necessary 
buildings for the institution. 

Mr. Buck is a representati\e Democrat of the old school and as such 
wields a strong influence for his party, being a judicious adviser in its councils 
and active worker with the rank and file. He has long manifested a lively in- 
terest in public matters, but has never been an office seeker nor aspirant for 
leadership, being a plain, practical man whose greatest delight is in his home 
and the duties of the farm. Religiously he subscribes to the Cumberland 
Presbyterian creed and for many years has l)een a faithful and consistent 
member of the church, to the material progress of which he is a liberal con- 
irilmtr.r both ni linmc nnd i"n lands beyond the sea. 



SALINE COUNTY. MISSOURI 869 

The domestic life of Mr. Buck dates from the year 1880, at which time 
he was united in the bonds of wedlock with Fannie Gaines, a native of SaHne 
county and a daughter of Thomas W. and Mary Catherine (Fackler) Gaines, 
the father Ijorn in Kentucky and the motlier in AHrginia. The parents were 
married in Missouri, of which state their respecti\'e famiHes were prominent 
pioneers, and in due time Mr. Gaines became one of the large land owners 
and representative farmers of the county of Saline. He and his faithful wife 
died a number of years ago in their adopted county and are now sleeping 
beneath its soil the sleep that knows no awakening. Their children, eight in 
number, are as follows: Richard F., Mrs. Ella Goggin, Maggie, wife of C. 
Graves; Thomas \V., William H.. Fannie, wife of Mr. Buck; Carrie, now 
Mrs. W. H. Martin, and U'ylie L. Mr. and Mrs. Buck have five children, 
namelv : Jennie ]\lay, F. Darwin, John Gaines, Carrie Lou, and Lillian, all 
except the eldest at home with their parents, constituting a domestic circle 
in which happiness and a mutual interest in each other's welfare are dominant 
characteristics. Mr. Buck has been quite successful financially and is now 
one of the wealthy and reliable men of his county, as well as one of its leading- 
citizens and influential men of affairs. 



JESSE AL\RR. 



The subject of this sketch, who is president of the Saline Bank of ^,h\v- 
shall and a successful farmer and representative citizen, is a native of 
Lafayette county, Missouri, and a worthy descendant of one of the oldest and 
best known pioneer families in the central part of the state. His grandfather. 
Daniel Marr, a Virginian by birth, migrated to Tennessee in an early day and 
from there moved in 181 5 to Missouri, stopping for a while at St. Louis to 
complete his arrangements for entering land in what is now Saline county, 
where he located the following year. After remaining two years where he 
originally settled, he changed his place of abode to Lafayette county, where he 
purchased a small tract of land only partly improved and a little later entered 
land about three miles from Lexington, at that time a small frontier village, 
although a good landing place for boats and the trading point for a large area 
of sparsely settled territory. The country was new and infested with Indians 
and wild beasts. The pioneers encountered many hardships and privations, 
not the least of which was the trouble caused by the red men. wIk^ on a 
number of occasions became so hostile in their demonstrations that the set- 
tlers were obliged to flee to a fort for refuge. Later Mr. Marr took an active 



t 



870 PAST AND PRESENT 

interest in helping civilize certain tribes of savages and was also largely in- 
strumental in ridding the country of the wild animals, which had long been 
destructive to stock and when driven to desperation by hunger did not hesitate 
tu attack man himself. Mr. Marr was a recognized leader in all lines of 
material improvements, did much to intnxluce schools among the si)arse 
settlements and. being an earnest and consistent member of the old-school 
Baptist church, was instrumental in im[)ro\-ing the moral and sijiritual con- 
dition of the community in which he spent so many years of his long and 
useful life. Mr. Marr served with distinction in the Revolutionary war and 
his patriotism and love of country became proverbial. His struggle for 
American libertv. his sufferings and hardships while in the army and while 
leading the hosts of civilization into what afterwards became one of the 
great states of the union, gained for him the confidence and esteem of the 
people with whom he mingled and for many years he was honored as were 
few of his compeers. A Democrat in politics and a leader of his party, he 
wiekled a strong influence in public affairs but never aspired to office, having 
always been content with the plain, practical life of a farmer and satisfied with 
the simple title of citizen. To him perhaps more than to any other man is 
northwestern Missouri indebted for the law, order and good government 
which characterized its early settlement and in the history of this part of the 
state his name will always occupy a conspicuous and honorable place. 

Daniel Marr reared a family of six children, among whom was a son 
by the name of Thomas, whose birth occurred in Virginia and who was cjuite 
young when the family settled in Missouri. Thomas Marr grew to maturity 
in Saline county, and there married Mary Jeffries, of Tennessee, whose 
parents moved to Missouri in an early day and experienced the various 
hardships and vicissitudes of life on the frontier. After his marriage Mr. 
j\Iarr purchased a small farm in Lafayette county and turned his attention to 
agricultural pursuits, in which he was cfuite successful, as he sul;)sequently 
added considerably to his real estate and became a stock farmer and slave 
holder. Like his father, he was a worthy member of the Baptist church, and 
in politics he supported the Democratic party, but never held office nor asked 
public honors at the hands of his fellow citizens. He was a man of sterling 
integrity, highly esteemed by a large circle of friends, and his death in 1840, 
at the early age of forty years, was felt as a personal loss by the people among 
whom he lived. Mrs. Marr, who survived her husband and reared their chil- 
dren, was called to her reward in the year of 1870 at a ripe old age. She was 
a woman of excellent character and beautiful life, a pious member of the 
Baptist church, and, ns already stated, belonged to one of the substantial 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 8/1 

pioneer families of the county of Lafayette. Her father, who moved from 
Virginia many years ago, in due time Ijecame one of the leading stock farmers 
of the county in which he located, as well as one of its enterprising and pro- 
g'ressive men of affairs. He too was a Revolutionary veteran, a leader of 
the Democratic party in his community and an influential member of the 
Baptist church. He died in Lafayette county at the age of sixty and, with 
his faithful wife, has long been sleeping the sleep of the just. 

To Thomas and Mary Marr seven children were born, namely; Alary, 
who married George Anderson and settled in Pettis county, Missouri ; Re- 
becca died in young womanhood; John, who died in Marshall, this state, at 
the age of seventy-one years; William, wlio went to California in an early day 
and died there some years ago; Sarah A., who departed this life in young 
womanhood; James, who never married and spent the latter years of his life 
with the sul)ject, dying at Eldorado Springs after reaching mature age; 
Jesse, whose name introduces this sketch, being the youngest of the family. 

Jesse Marr was born September 4, 1836, in Lafayette count}-, Missouri, 
and spent his earh' life on the family homestead, receix'ing his education in 
the schools of the neighborhood. He was reared to agricultural ])ursuits and 
assisted in cultivating the farm until the breaking out of the late Civil war, 
when he exchanged the implements of husbandry for the death dealing- 
weapons of battle, enlisting in 186 1 in Colonel Bledsaw's regiment. Con- 
federate service. Mr. Marr accompanied his command to the scene of action, 
wdiich was mostly in Missouri- and Arkansas, and shared with his comrades 
the fortunes and vicissitudes of war in a number of battles, including Lex- 
ington and Pea Ridge, besides much skirmishing and a number of minor en- 
gagements. At the expiration of six months, while on his wav to visit his 
mother, he was taken prisoner and detained in Bates county until taking the 
oath of allegiance to the Federal government, after which he returned home 
where he remained until the year 1864, when he went to Colorado. 

Returning to his family at the close of the war, \h'. ]\Larr began dealing 
in li\-e stock, a business which proved very successful and which he continued 
with gratifying results until 1892, when he sold out and jjurchased a small 
farm near Marshall, where he has since resided. He was one of the original 
stockholders of the Saline Bank at Marshall, and in 1007 was made president 
of the institution, which responsible position he now acceptably holds. 

The Saline Bank, which~ has a capital of fifty thousand dollars and a 
surplus of twenty-three thousand dollars, is doing a very safe and satisfactory 
Imsiness and is one of the solid and popular institutions of the kind in the 
northwestern part of the state. 



S72 



PAST AND PRESENT 



Mrs. Man-, who prior to lier marriage Ijorc ihc name of Louisa Harvey, 
\\a> l)orn in r.oonxille, Missouri, in 1841, being a daughter of Henry and 
Martha llarvev. natives of Virginia, and Washington, D. C, respectively. 
Ijv occn])ation Mr. Harvey was a carpenter. He came to Saline county in 
an early day and worked at his trade in Marshall, erecting many of the 
pioneer Imildings in the city. He a.ssisted in the construction of the hrst 
court house for Saline county. He was a plain, practical, hard working 
mechanic, and worthv citizen. He died at the early age of twenty-nine years 
in iS4<). Of his four children. Mrs. Marr is the oldest. 



WILLIAM HAMILTON LETCHER. 

In the death of William Hamilton Letcher, which occurred on Novem- 
ber J4. 1S07. there passed away one of the most intellectual, learned and 
accomplished men who have ever honored Missouri by their citizenship. 
Cautious, discerning, discriminating, logical, safe, he was a lawyer who hon- 
ored his profession, while in ])rivate life, as a faithful husband, true friend 
and public spirited citizen, he enjoyed high regard not only in the community 
where he resided, but throug'hout the state. 

The Letcher family in America sprang from the tribes of Giles and 
Letcher, originally of Wales, which emigrated to the north of Ireland about 
the middle of the seventeenth century. Giles Letcher, a merchant of Dublin, 
was the first representative to sail to the Western continent bearing the 
names of the united families. He settled in Maryland early in the eighteenth 
ceniur\-. there married Hannah Hughes and removed to Richmond, Henrico 
count}'. Virginia, later to Petersburg, Dinwiddie county, and finally to Gooch- 
land county. Their descendants were four sons and one daughter. 

The third son. John Letcher, married Mary Houston, of the Scotch- 
Irish family of that name, a granddaughter of John Houston, who migrated 
from the north of Ireland in 1735, locating first in Pennsylvania, and after- 
wards in Virginia. — and daughter of Robert Houston and Margaret David- 
son Dunlap. d'hey made their home at Timber Ridge, near Lexington, in 
Rockbridge county, lived to an advanced age and left as descendants five 
sons and four daughters. The youngest son, Isaac Addison Letcher, was 
born July 18. 1793. and after a brief schooling at the "Old Field Academy." 
was apprenticed to the carpenter's trade with his elder brother. William 
Houston Letcher, of Lexington. Before attaining his majority he saw ser- 
vice in the war of 1812, and in 1816 came west on foot and along by way 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 8/3 

of Green Brier, Gauley Mountain and the Kanawha to the Ohio, taking- keel 
boat from Point Pleasant to Louisville, Kentucky, whence, after a short 
year's work, in company with eight others, he continued his journey on foot. 
by way of Shawneetown to St. Louis. Arriving there in 1817, he at once 
resumed work at his trade, in which he soon attained both success and promi- 
nence, building many of the best residences in the city, among others, one 
on North Broadway, for Governor McNair, and also aiding in the construc- 
tion of the historic Planters House, on Fourth and Chestnut streets. On 
January 3. 1822, he was married to Julia Bobb. daughter of John and Mary 
(Sprenkle) Bobb, and granddaughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Moloch) 
Bobb, an old Dutch family which migrated from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, 
and thence to Missouri in the early days of the century. In addition to the 
carpenter work, he engaged in the manufacture of leather, near Hannibal, 
and also established a large brick-making plant in St. Louis, in connection 
with his father-in-law. In 1826 he paid a visit to his old Virginia home, and 
again, as in first setting out, made the entire journey on foot and alone. 
He was active both in business and political circles and continued to reside 
m St. Louis until his death, May i, 1865; his wife died November 26, 1884. 
Of a family of ten children, five sons and one daughter survived him. 

Of the children of Isaac and Julia Letcher, the second son, William 
Hamilton Letcher, was born in the first log cabin home of his parents on 
the northeast corner of Seventh and Walnut streets. St. Louis, September 
4, 1824. His first school days were spent under the direction of Elihu Shep- 
herd, the great pioneer teacher. "A man severe he was and stern to view." 
in whose curriculum the birchen rod held equal prominence with the spelling 
book, and of whom an authentic tradition relates that on one bright spring 
morning he administered corporal punishment to forty-two tardy boys, who 
had failed to obey the summons, "To books." 

At an early age he served his term as "off-bearer." and was accounted a 
full hand in his father's brick-yard, the routine work including a swim in 
Chouteau's pond, with an occasional diversion in search of fish, game or 
nuts, all of which were a1)undant in the Illinois bottoms. The boy's usual 
mishap befell him in the form of a tumble from a horse, resulting in a broken 
leg, which was finally knit only after a second break made by a surgeon to 
correct mistakes in the first adjustment. 

The desire for an advanced course at school caused the selection of 
A\'ashington College (now Washington and Lee L^niversity). of which Dr. 
Henrv RufTner was then president, and George E. Dabney, Philo Calhoun 
and F. D. Armstrong members of the faculty, as an educational center, and. 



<^74 



PAST AND PRESENT 



in ccinpaiiv with his elder brother, he spent several years at Lexino-t,,n, Vir- 
q-inia, making" his home with an uncle. At college he ranked high in mathe- 
matics, the languages and the sciences, and took first place in belles-lettres 
and oratory. Notwithstanding his boyhood mishap he was the swiftest run- 
ner in the institution. Vacations were spent in the Blue Ridge and he be- 
came familiar with every spur, valley, spring, water course and natural ob- 
ject of interest in the regions roundabout. His spare moments w^ere devoted 
to a course in music, becoming proficient upon the flute and violin, under 
the tutorship of one of the elder McCormicks of the family of inventors, who 
had their first workshop near Lexington. 

Owing to a misunderstanding with the faculty relative to the completion 
of the full course in Greek, he decided not to await the uncertainties of grad- 
uation and closed his college days early in 1845, returning to St. Louis, 
where he at once entered upon the study of history and law with William 
M. Campbell and Edward Bates, two of the ablest members of the Western 
bar. On January 21, 1848, he was admitted to practice by Ezra Hunt, judge 
of the St. Louis circuit court, and immediately sought out a location in the 
interior of the state, final choice being made in favor of Marshall, Saline 
countv. where, with the exception of short intervals, he resided a full half 
century. 

On the 27th of March, 1848, Mr. Letcher married Evalina Hurt Ran- 
son, a daughter of Ambrose and Elizabeth (Barnes) Ranson, of Union, 
Franklin county, and made his first home in a log cabin in the old Walnut 
Grove in the northeastern suburbs of the village of Marshall. Later his one- 
room law- office was erected on the north side of the public square, wdiere 
for many years it w^as conspicuous as being the only building on that side 
and sen-ed for many public as well as private uses, in one crisis being con- 
verted into a temporan' hospital, with the owner as a nurse, for a stranger 
patient, under quarantine for cholera. 

In 1849 Mr. Letcher acted as postmaster and served as justice of the 
peace. In 1850 he took the United States census for Sahne, which afiforded 
him the opportunity of knowing every person in the county, and for many 
years after he could recall each elector by name. In 185 1 he met with his 
first great bereavement in the death of both his wife and his eldest son, and 
the home in the old grove was abandoned, never to be re-occupied. From 
1852 to 1856 he sensed as. county commissioner of common schools, and 
was largely instrumental in elevating the standard of education and placing 
the system upon an enduring foundation. On the 25th of October, 1853, 
he was married to Ann Bracket Ranson, a sister of his former wnfe, and for 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 875 

several years they made their home at Sulphur Springs, a few miles north-, 
east of Marshall. In 1856 he was elected on the Whig-American ticket as a 
member of the General Assembly, his opponent on the Democratic side being 
T. R. E. Harvey, both of whom were just coming into prominence as leaders 
in their respective parties. In 1858 Mr. Letcher was again chosen to repre- 
sent Saline in that body, after an exciting contest in which he was opposed 
by Reuben E. McDaniel. During his term in the Assembly he served on all 
leading committees, acted as chairman of the committee on education and 
took a prominent part in the discussions on banks, railroads, state indebted- 
ness and sumptuary legislation. His speeches, the replies to Col. Chris Krib- 
ben on the Cape Girardeau Sunday bill, and in opposition to the sale of the 
state's interest in the railroads, placed him among the most able debaters. 
During this period he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession 
in all the courts of the state and had as a partner T. W. B. Crews, for a long 
time an influential citizen of Saline. 

In i860 Mr. Letcher was unanimuosly nominated on the "Constitution- 
al-Union" ticket for the state Senate from the district composed of Lafayette, 
Pettis and Saline counties. Later he withdrew on account on a contemplated 
removal to the Pacific coast, but during the canvass made several speeches 
in support of that cause, one at the great state ratification meeting in St. 
Louis, which was pronounced by no less an authority than Uriel Wright, to 
have been the ablest delivered in the entire course of that most memorable 
campaign. At a mass meeting of the people of Saline, held in December, of 
the same year, to consider the condition of the county, presided over by ex- 
Governor Meredith M. Marmaduke, he again delivered a powerful address 
in vindication of the Federal Constitution and for the maintenance of the 
integrity of the Union. 

Early in the following year he located in California, taking up his resi- 
dence in the beautiful Napa valley, and engaging in the practice of his pro- 
fession at San Francisco in partnership with Gen. John Wilson (a former 
Missourian), brother of Col. William A. Wilson, of Saline county. Here he 
soon took high rank at the bar and was repeatedly urged to accept a place 
on the state judiciary. Upon the main issues in which the country was then 
involved he had strong convictions and took a firm stand in favor of the 
preservation of the Union. His efforts in that behalf, so ably begun in Mis- 
souri, were continued with telling effect in California and he soon became 
a recognized force in the politics of the coast. 

In 1864 Mr. Letcher was recalled to Missouri and the greater part of 
the three succeeding years were spent in aiding to adjust the disturbed con- 



Syi) PAST AND PRESENT 

ditions in liis native city as well as throughout the central regions of the 
state. When the reconstruction policy of President Johnson was announced, 
in c<)mi)any with such men as A. W. Alexander, Willard A. Hall, Samuel 
T. Glover, R. C. W'uighan, William F. Switzler, James O. Broadhead, Rus- 
sell Hicks, R. A. Camphell and others, he espoused the Conservative cause, 
and during the memorable contest of 1866 made an extended canvass, ac- 
companving the indomitable Frances P. Blair through the central portion of 
the state. He returned to California in 1867 and the following year moved 
his family back to his native state, locating in St. Louis on account of its 
educational advantages, renewing the practice of the law' (in partnership with 
T. W. B. Crews and Joseph S. Laurie, both formerly of Saline), and taking 
an active part in the state and national contests of 1868. In 1873 he again 
established himself at Marshall, improving his home at "Edgewood" and 
continuing his profession, in ccmipany with John P. Strother, who was later 
promoted to the judgeship of his circuit. In 1874 he was urged to become a 
candidate for member of the low-er house of Congress, but feeling a deeper 
interest in the question of the making of a new^ constitution for the state, he 
devoted much time to the advocacy of that measure and was rewarded by 
having the call for a convention adopted, though by a close vote. At an 
election held early in 1875 he w^as chosen as an independent candidate for 
one of the delegates from the district composed of Lafayette. Pettis and Sa- 
line counties, by a pronounced majority and after a most memorable contest. 
In that l)ody he sensed upon the more important committees, being chairman 
of the one on revenue and taxation, taking a leading part in the construc- 
tion of the entire instrument, and in the debates, especially on the judiciar}% 
educational and revenue measures, he w^as without a peer in that assemblage 
of Missouri's ablest men. 

In 1876 a call was made upon Mr. Letcher to become a candidate for 
attorney-general, which, under the new constitution, had become one of the 
most important of state offices, and during the canvass of that year he was 
also prominently mentioned in connection with the gubernatorial nomination. 
but he did nothing towards securing either of these positions. He was ever 
the advocate of good government, local and national, and was occasionally 
heard and read after in the joUmals of the day. Pending the great struggle 
ni Congress over the question of national finances in 1878, he delivered a 
most comprehensive address at Marshall on that subject. The annual gather- 
nig of the old settlers of his section, as also on the occasion of memorial ser- 
vices, and particularly in honor of General Grant and Vice-President Hen- 
dricks, called forth his best efforts as a public speaker. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 8/7 

In later years he participated but little in the activities of public life and 
only once did he even acquiesce in the use of his name for a nomination, to 
the position of judge of the circuit court, but this was promptly withdrawn 
when his own county failed to respond to this sug^gestion. His wife died in 
1888, three children having preceded her. 

In 1889 a request was made by almost the entire bench and leading 
members of the bar of the state for Mr. Letcher's appointment as dean of 
the University Law School, to succeed the late Philemon Bliss, but the posi- 
tion was tilled by the selection of a younger man. 

In 1893 his health became impaired from a partial stroke of paralysis. 
Several }'ears later his enfeebled condition necessitated a change of climate, 
and while enroute to the Arkansas Hot Springs, he died at Kansas Citv, 
November 24, 1897, and was buried in the family plot at Ridge Park ceme- 
tery, near Marshall. Two sons, one by each marriage, and his youngest 
brother and an only sister survived him. 

In the profession of the law he rose by slow but certain steps ; qnick 
to grasp the vital points in a case, he was ever ready to apply the legal prin- 
ciples that settled them. He delighted in its theorv and practice, but he pre- 
ferred the patient labor of the office to the more showy duties of the forum : 
he would rather make out a case than argue it in court. Exhaustive in re- 
search, any knowledge less than of the whole subject failed to satisfv him, 
and his habit of condensing "points" into a clear and concise summarv fitted 
liim for great work. His character as a jurist-consult was well rounded: as a 
counsellor he w'as cautious, discerning and safe : in criminal law, in the con- 
duct of difficult land cases, in the intricacies of commercial law, he had an 
accurate ac(|uaintance both with the prhiciples and the rulings of the courts, 
but he surpassed all in the discussion of equity and constitutional questions. 
His logic, his discrimination, his calm judgment and unwearied industry, 
made him a master in this department. His great resources in the handling 
(if all cases were the fruits of exhaustive examination and study. A master 
of his native tongue, he ne^•er strove for mere rhetorical embellishment, and 
always preferred to make the opening rather than the closing argument. He 
was not pedantic, was averse to display and his demeanor, especially toward 
the young members of the profession, was marked by the utmost courtesy. 
His character and temperament were such as to make him at ease in the com- 
pany of his elders, by whom his advice was most frequently sought ; but he 
likewise understood and loved young men. He was in the forefront of all 
movements looking to the advancement of schools, railroads and internal im- 
provements, being among the very first to advocate good roads and to out- 



878 PAST AND PRESENT 

line suitable leg-islation tliereh)r. He was generous in every call made for 
puhlic or private need and. though a member of the Methodist church and 
of the Masonic fraternity, he was neither sectarian nor exclusive in his daily 
life. The people of his state and particularly of Saline county were always 
taken into his confidence and no move was made without considering- them. 

Mr. Letcher's library of both law and miscellaneous works was never 
large, but was acquired with care and judgment. Some known as "Ye Olde 
Books" and verv rare, came to him by inheritance from several generations 
back, are still held and prized as family heirlooms and many volumes have 
found tlieir ^va^■ into the hands of friends, who now doubly value them. As 
a close student he became a constant reader and kept this up all through life; 
his books show they have been used and annotated, but never abused. Of 
general historical, literary, critical and miscellaneous standard w'orks of ref- 
erence ; others bearing on political and governmental questions ; on travel 
and exploration and some of local historic value ; on nature and biographic 
and personal reviews ; also in the field of science, geology, astronomy, and 
even medicine and theology: English and American constitutional law. and 
choice government reports, such as Smithsonian, his collection was \-ery 
complete. Philosophy and the higher mathematics engaged his attention, and 
to these he would often turn for thorough preparation upon any great legal 
proposition he might hs-ve under consideration. 

In estimating the great men of this state, a distinguished jurist said 
some tinie ago "The two most intellectual men Missouri ever had were David 
Barton and William H. Letcher — both now seldom referred to. Barton was 
witty, kindly and courteous; Letcher was just, but not severe. No man who 
ever heard either of them speak will fail to write them down as of the age 
<'f eiants." 



JOHN W. ROBERTSON, 



Saline county obtained a valuable recruit in her ])ioneer citizenship when 
Nathaniel S. Robertson came here in 1850. He was born in Virginia, but 
came to Kentucky with his parents when a child. ITis start in life was as an 
humble worker in the tobacco factory of an uncle, from which he gradually 
rose to tlie Imsiness of a merchant. Missouri was still quite wild and un- 
developed when he rode across country on horseback to look for an eligible 
site for settlement. He picked out a farm near Miami and subsequent events 
show that he used good judgment, as the place under his energetic manage- 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 879 

meiit developed into one of the finest estates in the county. In two years he 
went back to Kentucky, loaded his family and household goods into wagons 
and drove with his teams to his new-found Missouri home. He prospered 
greatly, by farming and raising stock, and at the time of his death, in August, 
1863, owned over thirteen hundred acres of land. Few of the new settlers 
prospered so rapidly or to such an extent and he stood at the end not onlv 
as a successful but quite prosperous pioneer citizen. He married Emily 
Thompson, who was born in Barren county, Kentucky, in 1826, and still 
living with a daughter in Kansas City. The}- had six children, of whom 
four survive; John W.,, Mrs. Mattie F. Bernard, R. S. and D. H., all residents 
of Kansas City, except the first named. 

John A\\ Robertson, eldest of this family, was born in Barren county, 
Kentucky, in 1850, and was consequently but two years old when brought to 
Missouri by his parents. He remained under the parental roof until the 
completion of his twenty-third year, meantime making a full hand in all the 
important work and rendering valuable assistance to his busy father. His 
education consisted of what he learned by irregular attendance at the country 
schools, and one term at the Lexington ( Kentucky) Uni\ersity. In 1874 he 
engaged in the livery business at Miami and did well during the seven years 
of his stay in that place. A feature of his work was the running of a mail and 
passenger coach between ]\Iiami and Marshall, prior to the building of the 
Chicago & Alton railroad, his contract being to carry mail and passengers to 
connect with the Wabash line at Miami. In 1880 he disposed of his interests 
at ]\Iiami and went to St. Louis, when he spent one year as junior partner in 
the well known firm of Crosswhite, Patten & Robertson, dealers on commis- 
sion in horses and mules. From the Missouri metropolis he came to Marshall 
and opened up in the livery business, which has engaged his attention ever 
since. Beginning in 1881, he has operated a mail and passenger coach to 
the Chicago & Alton and the Missouri Pacific depots, and has for over twenty- 
eight years carried every mail pouch to and from these stations. Many years 
ago he served as alderman of Marshall, having been elected as the combined 
nominee of both parties. He has long been regarded as a worthy successor 
of his honored father, whose place in Imsiness as well as the esteem of the 
people his son has largely inherited. 

In 1872 Mr. Robertson married Mary E., daughter of John and Lucy 
(McClanahan) Sheridan, who were pioneer residents of Saline county and 
highly respected people. They lived in Black Water township, about ten 
miles south of Marshall, and were prominently identified with the county's 
development from the pioneer period up to the present day of its great ex- 



,SSo PAST AND PRESENT 

l)ansi()n and in<liisinal t^rowili. jolin Sheridan was i)roniinent in other ways 
th;m as an a.iiricuhurisl and at ime time lield an imiwrtant county office. 
Mis \\il\' faniiharK known as (Ir.andnia Sheridan, was hnrn in Kcntncky. 
She inimimraled t"t Missouri while young" and died when seventy-tive years old. 
.Mr. and Mrs. Rohert.son have had five children, of whom Umr snrvi\-e. Miss 
Dean, the eldest, is now in the millinery husiness at Slater. Xora is the wife 
of Kev. 1). -M. Clagell. pastor of the Tnited Presbyterian clinrch at Sedalia. 
J). W. is associated with his father in the livery husiness. and Emily is 
the wife of the Rev. J. C. Todd, the prominent pastor of the iMrst Christian 
church at Bloomingiton. Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Robertson and all of their 
children, except Mrs. C'lagett, who is a Presbyterian, are members of the 
Christian church. Mr. Robertson belong-s to the Masonic order and ranks 
as a Knight Templar. 



PE^'TOX A. BROWN. 



A worthy descendant of a sterling pioneer family of Saline county, and 
he himself a ])rogressive citizen of the same is Peyton A. Brown, who was 
born in Cumberland county, Virginia, May 8. 1836, but the major part of 
his long". acti\e and useful career has been spent in Missouri. He was reared 
in the home in P)uckingham county, near Buckingham Institute, and he re- 
ceived his education in the common schools of Saline county, Missouri, later 
attended the common schools in Virginia, also the Randolph-Macon College 
in \'irginia. He is the son of Hem"y J. and Susan A. ( Hobson) Brown, both 
natives of Virginia, where they grew to maturity and where they w^ere mar- 
ried. Henry J. Browm was the son of Daniel and Nancy (Walton) Browai. 
both natives of Virginia: Daniel Brown's paternal grandfather was Buck- 
ingham Brown, and his father was Clement Brown, a native of London, 
England, where he spent his life. Buckingham Brown was an early pioneer 
in the .American colonies, settling in Essex county. Virginia, wdiither he 
brought his English coat-of-arms which was handed dowm to succeeding gen- 
erati()ns and is yet in Virginia. Thus from Buckingham Brown the large 
family of Browns in America today descended. 

The Hobsons, the family of the subject's mother, also lived in Virginia 
in the early days. Susan A. Hobson being the daughter of Benjamin Hobson. 
of that state, where he farmed and owned a large number of slaves and whei-e 
he spent his life. He was a Whig, a plain, quiet, honest farmer. He and 
his wife reared a family of nine children, Susan A., mother of Peyton A. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI OOl 

Brown, being the second child in order of birth. The Hobsons were all 
Methodists. 

Daniel Brown was a planter and slave owner and spent his life in Vir- 
ginia. He was a Democrat and there were five sons and three daughters, 
namely: Heniy J., father of Peyton A., of this review; Robert came to Sa- 
line county, Missouri, but returned to Virginia, where he died ; Thomas died 
in Virginia; Edward S. was an attorney at law and died in 1907; Elizabeth 
married William Hobson; Mar\^ A. married H. Jones; Martha married Z. 
G. Morgman ; Daniel H. was a soldier in the Civil war and is now living in 
Virg'inia. 

Henry J. Brown, father of PcA^ton A. Brown, was reared in Virginia 
and educated there; he studied art and became a talented and noted artist, 
doing a great deal of painting, both portraits and landscape, one of his best 
works being a portrait of Jack Randolph, of Virginia, a widely known man 
of that state ; he also painted other eminent men of the Old Dominion. He 
painted many pictures of home folks, and it is a treat to visit his son's home, 
that of Peyton A., and note the many fine works of his genius, the walls of 
this home being hterally covered with the art work of the elder Brown. Henry 
J. Brown also won considerable praise as a local Methodist minister, serving 
in that capacity for many years. After his marriage he first began farming 
in Virginia ; he owned slaves and was successful as a planter, remaining in 
his home country until three of his children were born. In 1838 he came to 
Missouri and settled in Miami township. Saline county, where he entered a 
large tract of prairie land and opened to cultivation an excellent farm, carr\^- 
ing on very successfully general fanning and stock raising, raised hemp for 
a "money crop." and continued here very successfully for a period of ten 
years, but in order to give his children a better education he returned to Vir- 
ginia, leaving a manager on his Saline county farm. He occasionally re- 
turned to look after his interests here. When he first came to Saline county 
he was active in organizing churches and schools and assisted in every way 
possible in starting the moral and general civic development of the county, 
laving the foundation for good government, and no man is more worthy of 
an honored place in Saline county history than Henry J. Brown. He was a 
Democrat and he kept well advised on all public questions and issues of the 
day : however, he never aspired to offices of public trust. He was well known 
and highly respected in every community in which he lived, his integrity and 
honor being above reproach. He spent his last years in Virginia and was 
called to his reward on April 9, 1854. His widow survived until 1873. dy- 
ing in Virginia on May nth of that year. She worshiped with her hus- 

56 



882 PAST AND PRESENT 

b;iii(l in the Methodist Episcopal diiirch. Eight children wei'e born to them, 
namely: Adlina Walton died at the age of six years; Peyton A., of this re- 
view: \'irginia A. married C. V. Winfree ; Mary E. married W. B. Hatcher; 
Benjamin Hobson died in 1843 ; Charles E. died in 1846; Sallie, who remained 
single, is deceased ; Salina married Joseph Worsham. 

I'exton A. Brown was two years old when his parents brought him to 
Saline conntv, Missouri, from Virginia. As already intimated, he returned 
to his native state to complete his education and he remained there until after 
the close of the Civil war, making occasional visits to Saline county, Missouri. 
He was married in 1858 and settled on a farm in Virginia, where he farmed 
until the breaking out of the war between the states, when he enlisted in 
Companv G, Third Virginia Cavalry, in May, 1861, and sen'ed in a very 
creditable manner for a period of one year. He was elected as first lieuten- 
ant of his company, which served under the distinguished Confederate cav- 
alrv leader. Gen. J. E. B. Stewart, commander of all the cavalry in Lee's 
army. He saw some hard service and took part in some hotly contested bat- 
tles. When the company was re-organized in 1862, Mr. Brown acted as 
scdut and during the performance of his duties in this connection he had a 
nunil)er of close calls, but he did his work well and during the last year of 
the war he was adjutant of the dismounted battalion, which capacity he filled 
until near the close of the struggle, when Gen. Fitzhugh Lee selecting him as 
acting aid and he was in active service up to Lee's surrender at Appomattox. 
He was never taken prisoner, w^as always on duty and always in the front 
ranks and he saw^ some hard service, undergoing many deprivations, hard- 
ships and exposures. After the surrender he started to his uncle's home, ar- 
riving there the day following the surrender; his uncle was also in the ser- 
vice. I^-ior to the w'ar he owned slaves and he kept one of them with him 
during the struggle. He met his wife at the home of his uncle. All his slaves 
were gone and everything was lost ; he was quick to realize that he w^as pov- 
ert)- stricken, and he sought such work as he could get to do, and later bor- 
rowed money from his grandmother, using part of it to establish a general 
merchandise business at which he was fairly successful ; he later sold out to 
his ])artner. His wife had come to St. Charles county, Missouri, to visit her 
father and here Mr. Brown joined her. and here he farmed on his father-in- 
law's place for one year and in 1868 he came to Saline county and took charge 
of his father's old farm. Later the place was divided and Mr. Brown bought 
l)art of the land belonging to two of his sisters and he still owns these shares. 
He began farming here, but owing to the prevalence of malaria he was com- 
l)elled to move, and he accordingly went to Lynchburg, Virginia, taking his 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 883 

family, and there he engaged in the manufacture of tobacco for a period of 
eleven years. Moving to another location in Virginia, he remained there 
three years, then in 1893 returned to his farm in Saline county, Missouri. 
Avhich he operated successfully until 1905, when he retired from active farm- 
ing and now resides at Faii-ville, still owning his farm, which his son man- 
ages. It is well improved and has been so skillfully tilled that the soil has 
retained its original fertility. 

Peyton A Brown is a strong Democrat and he has long taken consider- 
able interest in political affairs. Once his friends induced him to make the 
race for county clerk, but he was defeated by a few^ votes. He is a steward 
in the Methodist Episcopal church and has been superintendent of the Sun- 
day school for the long period of thirty-five years. He has long been a pillar 
in the local congregation and takes a great interest in all kinds of church 
work. He was formerly a member of the Masonic fraternity, but has dimitted. 

Mr. Brown was married on September 21. 1858, to Sally M. Hatcher, 
who was born in St. Charles county, Missouri, December i, 1839; she was 
the daughter of Henry and Susan M. (Spears) Hatcher, both natives of Vir- 
ginia, the father coming to St. Charles county, Missouri, in the early pioneer 
days where he lived until his death in January, 1879. He was a farmer and 
slave owner, a plain, honest man, with no public record. He belonged to the 
Presbyterian church and to the Masonic fraternity. His family consisted of 
eleven children, of which number Mrs. Peyton A. Brown was the sixth in 
order of birth. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Brown the following children have been born : Walter 
H. ; Edwin G. died leaving a wife but no children ; Charles B. is farming on 
the old homestead ; Susan died when eighteen years of age ; Elenore married 
A. L. Harmsbuyer; W. C. died in childhood; Peyton, Jr., also died when 
young. 



JAMES ALEXANDER RENNO. 

To a great extent the prosperity of the agricultural sections of our coun- 
trv^ is due to the honest industry, the sturdy persistence, the unswerving per- 
severance and the wise economy which so prominently characterize the farm- 
ing element in this section of the great commonwealth of ^Missouri. Among 
this class mav be mentioned James Alexander Renno. who. by reason of 
vears of indefatigable labor and honest effc^rt, has not only acquired a well 
merited material prosperity, but has also richly earned the respect of all with 



8,S4 PAST AND PRESENT 

whom he is associated, being one of the leading farmers of Black Water 
township. Saline county. He was born in Polk county, Missouri. March 3, 
1 8^8, the son of William G. and Catherine (Moore) Renno, both natives of 
Tennessee, from which state the family migrated to Missouri in a very early 
da}-, and lived in a number of different places before coming to Pettis county, 
in 1863; they settled there in Hess Creek township, buying a farm w^hich 
thcv improved and on which they spent the remaining years of their lives. 
Thev were married in Tennessee and while yet young drove overland from 
their native community to the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri, when 
the countiT was wnld and unimproved, bringing their meager household goods 
in old-fashioned wagons drawn by ox teams. William G. Renno was a Dem- 
ocrat and a member of the Masonic order, a good and successful man ; his 
death occurred in 1905, having been preceded to the silent land many years 
bv his wife, she having died in 1874. They w^ere the parents of nine children, 
namelv : Cordelia is the widows of James Carroll and lives in Pettis county, 
Missouri ; Margaret, the widow of Buck Snapp, lives in Polk county, this state ; 
Orleana, who married William J. Hall, is deceased; Nancy died in child- 
hood; Liza L., w^ho married John Ranerson, is deceased; William, who mar- 
ried Deborah Marren, is deceased ; Charles and John H. are also deceased ; 
James Alexander, of this review, is the youngest in order of birth. He was 
about si.x years old wdien the family came to Pettis county, Missouri. He 
was reared on the farm, assisting with the work during crop seasons and at- 
tending the district schools in winter time. He remained under the parental 
rooftree until his marriage, after which he started in life for himself, farming 
on the old home place in Hess Creek township, Pettis county, remaining there 
for some time, then moved to his present farm in Saline county in 1885, this 
place then consisting of one hundred acres, only twenty-five acres of which 
were under cultivation. He set to work with a will and soon had one of the 
best farms in the community, and he has erected a substantial and pleasant 
dwelling and other good buildings, and he has always taken a delight in 
keeping everything about the place in "ship shape." He is a very successful 
farmer along general lines, and he handles many hogs, feeds large numbers 
of live stock, raising hogs, cattle, mules, sheep, etc. Mr. Renno is also wide- 
ly known in this county as a thresher, having follow^ed the threshing business 
for a period of thirty-five years, during which time he has worn out thirteen 
different threshing-machines. He also operates a portable sawmill. He first 
began threshing in 1875, and he has been amply rew^arded in this line of work 
and has been very successful in raising stock for the market. 

Mr. Renno was married in 1875 to Elizabeth Howard, daughter of 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 885 

James and Elizabeth (Coohorn) Howard, natives of Kentucky, but very early 
settlers in Saline county, Missouri ; they are now both deceased. They were 
the parents of ten children, namely; Susan, who married Thomas Phillips, 
is deceased ; John is also deceased ; Mary is the wife of John Hood ; Benton 
is deceased; George lives in California; James, Benjamin and William are all 
deceased; Membra is the wife of John Moon; Elizabeth, wife of Mr. Renno, 
of this review. 

Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Renno, named as follows : 
Charles E. married Emma Rains ; Maud is the wife of John Reese and they 
are the parents of two children, J. H. and an infant, born in 1909; Dovie is 
the wife of O. B. Dix and they have one child named Mildred; Mabel and 
Birdie are the two youngest children. 

Mr. Renno is a member of Hope Lodge, No. 134, Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, at Ridge Prairie ; he has been an Odd Fellow for over thirty 
years, and he has passed through all the chairs of the same twice. He is also 
a member of the Modern Woodmen of America at Longwood, Missouri, and 
is a member of the American Brotherhood. He is a Democrat and takes con- 
siderable interest in politics, but he has never aspired to public offices. This 
is one of the leading" families of Blackwater township, according to all who 
know them. 



HENRY F. KRUMSIEK. 



Among the sturdy, progressive and reliable citizens of Elmwood town- 
ship. Saline county, Missouri, none is held in higher general esteem than is the 
gentleman whose name appears at the head of this article. Engaged in the 
dual occupations of tilling the soil and the manufacture of grain tile, Mr. 
Krumsiek is a busy man and his indefatigable and well directed efforts ha\'e 
been rewarded with a fair measure of success. 

Henry F. Krumsiek is descended from German ancestry, his parents, 
Henry F. and Louise (Olmsted) Krumsiek, having been natives of that 
countrv, the former born at Alverdisen, Lippedetmolt, Germany, and the 
latter in Hanover. These parents came to the LTnited States when young, 
and met and were married in Wisconsin. The father was a carpenter and 
was employed at his trade and also gave some attention to farming. He 
died in 1904. His wife, the snl)jecl's mother, died in March. tS/O. and he 
subsequently married Freda Krumsiek. the widow of his brother, who had 
died in the fall of 1869. Henrv F. and Louisa Krumsiek were devout mem- 



<^85 PAST AND PRESENT 

hers of the (icniiaii Methodist lipiscopal church, and in i)ohtics the father 
was a stanch l\ei)nl)hcan. 'J1iev were the parents of four chilch'en. namely: 
Henrv I*'., tlie snl)ject of this sketch; W'ihiam, a prominent i)hysician of this 
state; J-oiiisa. deceased; Lily, who li\es in the West. The subject's paternal 
g-r.'uid father was a "(ieheimrath." or counselman in the Fatherland, being- a 
blacksmith and a man of prc-minence in his comminiit}', and owned a small 
ppipert}'; he sold out. intending- to mo\-e to this countr)-, l;ut took sick 
and dieil. 

Henr\- !•'. Krumsiek. jr.. the immediate subject of this sketch, was 
born (.n the i st da\- of l)eceml)er. i<^57. at W'atertown. Wisconsin, and was 
reareil on the old farmstead, rented from his sister, receiving his education 
in the i)ublic schools of the locality. When he was ten years old the family 
removed to southern Illinois, where the father and his brother bought a farm 
of twent)- acres, residing for some }-ears at Nash\-ille, where the father fol- 
lowed carpentry. The subject remained with his parents and gave material 
assistance in caring for the family. Eventually he went into the business of 
manufacturing drain tile, and they were so engaged until 1886, in which 
year he and his l)rother mo\-ed to Corder, Missouri. • Here they ])uilt and 
operated a tile mill and subsecjuently Mr. Krumsiek was compelled to change 
his base of operations, and in 1897 he came to Saline county and bought the 
tile factory from a Mr. Allison. Vaughn & Smith had built the tile factory 
on sixteen acres (jf land near Shackelford, Elmwood township. Here he in- 
stalled a first-class and up-to-date mill, which he has operated continuously 
since. He uses improved machinery in this work and the mill has a daily ca- 
pacity of between five and six thousand tile, the product being pronounced by 
competent judges to be of a superior (|uahty. A number of hands are em- 
ployed in the mill and Mr. Krumsiek has acfjuired additional land, being now 
the owner of fifty-three acres. Lender the land there is a twelve-foot vein of 
excellent coal. Besides the manufacture of tile, he also gives some attention 
to the tilling of the soil, in which also he is successful. He also owns the 
old homestead at Nashville. Illinois, in partnership with his brother, and owns 
a forty-acre farm at Ulf. Phelps county, Missouri. Mr. Krumsiek is a hard- 
working man and is deserving of the success which has followed his efforts. 

On January 3, 1889, Mr. Krumsiek married Minnie E. Ridder, who was 
born at Hopewell, Warren county, Missouri. October 14, 1863, the daughter 
of Charles and Marie ( Sharkey) Ridder. Both of her parents were natives 
ot Ciermany who came to .America when young and niet and were married 
m Warren county, this .state, where they bought a farm of eighty acres. 
They, were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which the father 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 88/ 

was a local preacher. He died on August 6, 1905. and his widow is still re- 
siding- in Warren count}', on the old homestead with her youngest son, (iustav 
Kidder. '^he^■ were the parents of nine cliildren, as follows : Minnie E., 
Henry. Julia. Edward, William, Jolm (deceased). Amelia (deceased). 
( ieorge and (lustav. To Mr. and Mrs. Krumsiek have heen Ijorn nine chil- 
dren, whose names are as follows: Herbert, Edwin, Lawrence, Daniel, 
h'ranklin., \]l)ert, Carl. Emma and Erederick Henry. 

Religiously the subject and the members of his family are allied with 
the Methodist Episcopal church at Marshall, to which they give an earnest 
and liberal support. Mr. Krumsiek has been a teacher in the Sunda}- school 
for a number of }-ears and while lixing at Corder, this state, he was superin- 
tendent of the Sunday school there. In politics he is a stanch Republican and 
is deeply interested in the success of the party. In the social circles of the 
communit}- the members of his famil}- take a prominent place, their own home 
being the embodiment of hospitality and good cheer. Mr. Krumsiek is a 
man of hue personal qualities and is deser\-edh' well liked b\- all who 
know him. 

It is consistent that j^articular mention should be made of the stand Mr. 
Krumsiek takes in relation to the education of children. On this vital subject 
he holds positive and unalterable opinions, and he is endeavoring to carry 
out his ideas in the educational training of his own children. He decries the 
too common tendencies in parents to devote their time, energy and money to 
their own selfish social ends, while the training, culture and development of 
their children along right lines is neglected, or, at best, given but super- 
ficial attention. Mr. and Mrs. Krumsiek are endeavoring to rear their chil- 
dren so that they may be not only an honor to their parents in the later years, 
but a blessing t(_) the community in which they live. They are entitled to the 
highest commendation for the laudable stand they have thus taken on this 
most important subject. 



DANIEL H. lOHNSON. 



The family name of the subject of this sketch is familiar throughout 
Saline county and is highly respected ])\ all. In the largest and most liberal 
sense of the term, the career of Daniel H. Johnson, farmer, of Blackwater 
township, has been successful and fraught with good to his fellow men. He 
was born in Cooper county, Alissouri, April 22, 185J. the son of James H. 
and Julia Ann (Taylor) Johnson, the father, a native of Virginia, and the 



888 PAST AND PRESENT 

mother, of Kentucky. Robert Johnson, grandfather of the subject, was a 
native oi Virginia, where he spent his hfe. His son, James H., came to 
Missouri in 1845 and settled in Cooper county, where he farmed for many 
years, and tlien moved to Sahne county, where he remained until his death, 
in i8g8. at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a member of 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church and an old-time Democrat. He was an 
honoraljle. industrious man, admired by all who knew him. Julia Ann 
Tavlor. the mother of Daniel H. Johnson, was first married to Ignacious 
Adams. Seven children were born of that marriage. After the death of Mr. 
Adams she married James H. Johnson, this union resulting in the birth of 
three children: N. B.. Daniel H., of this review, and J. T.. who were bereft 
of their mother at a tender age. James H. Johnson later married Nancy 
Elliott, and this union resulted in the birth of five children : Virginia, J. B., 
Robert, Lee and Louise. 

Daniel H. Johnson was reared on a farm and has followed this line of 
work all his life. He was educated in the common schools, remaining at 
home until he reached man's estate, spending one year in Texas in the mean- 
time. He assisted his father with the work about the place and under his 
guitlance learned well the art of agriculture. He came to his present farm of 
two hundred acres in 1877. He has added many substantial improvements 
to the place from time to time, and it is now one of the best and most at- 
tractive farms in Blackwater township. It lies about five miles west of the 
village of Nelson, in one of the richest sections of the county. He has a 
modern and nicely furnished home and substantial outbuildings, a splendid 
orchard and garden — in fact, everything that goes to make life attractive 
in the country. His farm is well fenced and drained. He handles a good 
grade of stock of all kinds— about what the farm will take care of. He is 
particularly fond of good horses and some fine specimens are usually to be 
found on his place. 

^Ir. Johnson married Hallie Hancock, who was born on the farm on 
which ^Ir. Johnson now lives, the marriage being on April 24, 1877. She 
was the daughter of John R. and \'irginia (Finley) Llancock. of Kentucky, 
who migrated to Saline county. Missouri, and were earl}- settlers in Black- 
water townshi]). Airs. Johnson was called to her rest in Octolier. 1880. 
after becoming the mother of one child. Hallie. who married Warner Caton. 
They are the |>arents of one child, l^-ances. In 1884. Mr. Johnson was again 
married, to Virginia Reeder, a native of Blackwater township, tins county. 
She was the daughter of Enos M. and Romina (Hancock) Reeder, the father 
a native of Ohio and the mother, of Kentucky, from which states both had 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 889 

moved before their marriage to Saline county, Missouri, before the Civil 
war. Three children were born to Mr. Johnson by his second wife: Harry,' 
an alumnus of Missouri Valley College at Marshall, this county, and now 
connected with the Johns Hopkins University, at Baltimore, Maryland; 
Ethlyne, who is unmarried, and living at home, her father's housekeeper, and 
Aubrey, who is at home and attending school. The mother of these children, 
who was a devout member of the Methodist church, passed to her rest in 1903. 

Politically Mr. Johnson is a Democrat and takes more or less interest 
in political matters, but has never aspired to public office. He is a member 
of Hope Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Ridge Prairie ; and 
of the Masonic Lodge at Nelson, Missouri. He has been quite active in the 
work of the latter order, having passed all the chairs in the same and been 
a delegate to the grand lodge. 

Personalh' Mr. Johnson is popular with all who know him. and de- 
serves to be, for he is public-spirited, hospitable in his home, genial and jovial, 
straightforward and honorable at all times. Such is the testimony of all who 
know him best. 



ISAAC NEFF. 



Isaac Neff, a late prominent citizen of Saline county and for many years 
a leading farmer and stock raiser of Arrow Rock township, was a native 
of Tennessee, where his birth occurred in the year 1802. He was descended 
from German ancestry, spent his early life on a farm and in attaining the 
3'ears of manhood married Lucy Romine, who also was born in Tennessee. 
In the year 1836 Mr. and Mrs. Neff moved to Saline county, [Missouri, 
Avhither his brother had preceded, and located six miles west of the ^•illage of 
x\rrow Rock, in the township of the same name. Avhere he entered several 
hundred acres of land, which was afterwards increased by additional quarter 
sections adjoining until he had accumulated over two thousand acres. On this 
land he er^ted'-a goodly sized house which he opened for the accommodation 
of TfHef itraveling public and for a number of years his inn was well patronized 
and greatlv appreciated, many of Saline county's pioneers spending their first 
night beneath its hospitable roof. He kept a postoffice and stage stand for 
many years and at the outbreak of the war, when he resigned, the name 
of the postoffice was Bryan. 

Mr. Neff owned quite a number of slaves who tilled his land, and in 
due time he became one of the leading farmers of that part of the county. 



S(jO PAST AND PRESENT 

as well ;is an cnui pi i-^nii;, imhlic s])irite(l citizen. He took an active ])ai-t in 
the material dexelopment of the township in which he settled, nsed his in- 
fluence for the mural adxancement of the community and durin.i;- a resideuce 
of fortv-two years stood for progress and impro\ement and sustained the 
reputation of an upright and high minded citizen. A Democrat in ])olitics. 
he wielded a strong influence for his party and. Iieing of Southern hirth and 
tendencies, he verv naturally sympathized with the Confederacy during the 
late Civil war. though taking no active jjart in the struggle; notwithstanding 
his inacti\it\' he was at one time arrested hy the Union soldiers and held as 
a hostage for some months. As a farmer Air. Xeff had few e(|uals and no su- 
periors in the township of Arrow I-iock. He tilled the soil according to the 
most approved methods and having devoted much stud}- to the science of 
agriculture seldom failed to realize ahitndant returns from the time and labor 
expended on his lands. By diligence and judicious management he suc- 
ceeded in accumulating a comfortable fortune and placing himself in inde- 
pendent circumstances and at the time of his death, in 1878. he was one of 
the substantial and well-to-do men of the townsliip. which had long been 
honored li\- his citizenship. Mrs. Neff sur\i\-ed her husliand eight vears, 
departing this life in 1886. 

Mr. and Mrs. NefT were the parents of fi\'e children. \iz : James. Jolin. 
Susan. Isaac. Jr.. and .\])ram. of whom James, of Arrow Rock townshi]), and 
Abram are the only sur\i\ors. 

Dr. Abram Xeft", the youngest of the above family, was born December 
•'>• '839, in Arrow Rock township, received his education in the district 
schools and at Mc(iee College and grew to maturity (^n the family homestead. 
He was reared to agricultural pursuits and remained with his parents until 
1861, when he entered the Confederate army, but owing to circumstaiices over 
which he had no control, his period of militarv service was destined to be 
of brief duration. His brother, James, becoming \ery ill at the battle of 
Wilson's Creek, he was detailed to nurse and otherwise care for him. and 
when the invalid had sufficiently recovered he made an attempt to rejoin his 
command in the South, but was prevented from so doing by the Union forces. 
landing Missouri exceedingly unpleasant to one of Southern s\nipathies, he 
decided to seek safety in the North. Accordingly he made his w^ay to Illinois, 
thence to Canada, where he remained for a short time, wdien he returned 
hoiue and matured plans for his future. 

In the year 1866 .\bram Neff entered the Missouri Aledical College at 
St. Louis, where in due time he was graduated with a creditable record, and 
shortly thereafter took a post-graduate course in Bellevue Hospital Medical 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 89I 

College at New York City, receiving his degree imm that noted institution 
in 1873. Returning home that year, he opened an office in Saline City, where 
he soon built up a lucrative practice, but after three years at that place he re- 
moved his office to his father's farm, which from 1873 until 1885 he superin- 
tended in connection with the duties of his profession. In the latter year Dr. 
Neff discontinued the practice of his profession and retired from active life, 
moving to Marshall in 1892. where he resided until 1902, when he returned to 
the farm, to which he gave his personal attention during the four years ensu- 
ing. In 1906 he closed out his affairs in Saline county and moved to the town 
of La Luz, Otero county, New Mexico, where he is still living and with the 
various interests of which he is actively identified. 

Doctor Neff owns one of the finest farms in Saline county, consisting 
of three hundred and twenty-three acres in section 19, and two hundred 
and sixty in section 24, Arrow Rock township, all in one body, the greater 
part under a high state of cultivation and otherwise well improved. While 
giving his attention to agriculture he ranked among the foremost farmers ni 
the central part of the state, also attained enviable repute as a breeder and 
raiser of fine live stock, and as a physician and surgeon kept fully abreast 
of the time and earned an honorable standing among the representative 
men of his profession in the county of Saline. 

Doctor Neff early began taking a lively interest in public matters, and m 
due time became a local leader of the Democracy, besides exercising a wide in- 
fluence in county and state affairs. In recognition of his political ser\ices 
as well as by reason of his fitness for the position, he was elected in 1886 as 
county judge, the duties of which office he discharged in an able and impar- 
tial manner and to the entire satisfaction of the public for one term. In 
1888 he was further honored by being elected to the Legislature, in which 
body he served during the thirty-sixth General Assembly and in which he 
rendered valuable service to his constituency and to the state. 

Doctor Neff is a Mason of high standing, including among other degrees 
that of Sir Knight, and for a number of years he has been a faithful and con- 
sistent member of the Baptist church. In 1873 he married Louis J. Bing- 
ham, who was born in Arrow Rock. Missouri. April 11. 185 1, the only child 
of Henry V. and Lamenda (McMahan) Bingham, the father being a brother 
of the artist George C. Bingham, who is recognized as having been one of 
the most distinguished portrait ])ainters in the United States. To Doctor 
and Mrs. Neff have been born five children, two of whom are living, Jesse 
Bingham, the third in order of birth, and Nadine E., who was born March 
28, 188 1, and is living with her parents in New Mexico. 



gg2 PAST AND PRESENT 

Jesse Bingham Neff, the only representative of the family in Saline 
C(Uinty at the present time, is a native of Arrow Rock township, and dates 
his hirlh from April u, 1878. After acquiring a jjreliminary education in 
the public schools, he entered the Missouri Valley College at Marshall, where 
he si)ent three years, during which time he made commendable progress in 
the high branches of learning and earned an honorable record as a close and 
critical student. In 1898 he became bookkeeper for a milhng firm in Marshall, 
but three ^•ears later was obliged to resign the position on account of failing 
health and return to the farm. .Amid the bracing airs and wholesome in- 
fluence of rural life he soon regained his bodily powers and until 1906 he as- 
sisted to cultivate the family homestead and achieved distinctive success as a 
tiller of the soil. In the latter year he discontinued agricultural pursuits and 
accompanied his parents to New Mexico, where he remained about two years, 
retiu-ning to Saline county on January i, 1908, since which time he has made 
his home in the village of Arrow Rock. 

]\Ir. Neff is a gentleman of high social standing and enjoys the repu- 
tation of being one of the most intelligent and progressive citizens of the 
community in which he resides. A Democrat in politics, he keeps well in- 
formed on the leading questions and issues of the day. and in close touch with 
the general ti-end of current thought, being a man of scholarly tastes and high 
ideals, whose influence has ever been on the side of right and for the best in- 
terests of those with whom he mingles. Fraternally he belongs to the An- 
cient Free and Accepted Masons, and is an active worker in the blue lodge 
and commandery. Mr. Neff is a public spirited man in all the term implies 
and to the extent of his ability encourages eveiw laudable enterprise for the 
material development of his county and state and the general welfare of his 
fellow men. He has never assumed the duties and responsibilities of married 
life, is held in high esteem by the large number of friends among whom he 
moves and endeavors so to live as to add luster to the honorable family name 
which he Ijears. 



JUDGE ERSKINE S. McCORMICK. 

The gentleman whose name introduces this sketch is one of the honored 
patriarchs of this section of Missouri, a typical Southerner whom to know is 
to respect and admire, partly because of his useful, active and successful life 
and partly because of his genuine worth as a high-minded, whole-souled citi- 
zen. He was born in Buckingham county, Virginia, March 2. 1832, the son 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 893 

of Thomas and Nancy T. (Toney) McCormick, both natives of Buckingham, 
county, Virginia, where they Hved on a farm and became the parents of nine 
children, Erskine S. being the fourth in order of birth, besides whom only one 
other member of the family is living, the other child being Thomas McCor- 
mick, whose home is at New Frankfort, Saline county, Missouri. The 
mother of Judge McCormick died in Virginia about 1840, and Thomas Mc- 
Cormick came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1870, and made his home with 
his son, Thomas, until his death in 1883, at the advanced age of eighty-six 
years. He was a good man and a strong character, a type seldom seen at 
the present day. 

Erskine S. McCormick made his home with his father until 1851, when 
he came to Saline county, Missouri, and located in Cambridge township, mak- 
ing his home with his sister, Mrs. Mary J. Moss, for a short time. In 1852 
he farmed in partnership with his brother-in-law;. Mr. Moss. He saved his 
money and in 1854 he bought forty acres. In 1861 he joined the Confed- 
erate army under General Price and was in the battle of Boonville, Missouri, 
after which he returned home on account of the illness of his oldest child. 
While at home he was arrested by Union soldiers and held a prisoner at Glas- 
gow, Missouri, for three weeks, when he was released on bond. In 1865 he 
bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 17, township 52, range 19, 
where he made his home and farmed very successfully until after the death 
of his wife. 

Politically the Judge is a Democrat and he has taken considerable inter- 
est in local affairs, and as a rew^ard for his services and his ability to serve in 
a pubhc capacity, he was elected judge of the Saline county court for a term 
of four years, which important position he held to the satisfaction of all. ir- 
respective of party ties, owing to his fairness in the management of the aft'airs 
of this office and his keen analysis of all matters brought to his attention. 
He was road overseer for a period of twelve years, during which period the 
highways of the county were carefully looked after and improved. He is a 
faithful member of the Good Hope Baptist church, and a liberal supporter of 
the same. 

Judge McCormick was married on January 9. 1853, to Luttie A. Haw- 
kins, who was born in Cambridge township, this county. May 19. 1832, the 
accomplished daughter of George S. and Ruth A. (Baldridge) Hawkins, both 
natives of Orange county, Virginia, the former's birth occurring on Christ- 
mas day, 1808, and that of the latter on April i^th of the same year. It is 
the supposition that both came to Saline county, Missouri, in 1826 and were 
married in June, 183 1. Mrs. Hawkins died in 185 1, leaving nine children. 



,S(,_| PAST AND PRESENT 

of which nuniher laiiiio .\. was the oldest. Mr. Hawkins married a second 
lime, his last wcildino- occurring" on December 26, 1851. to Maria F. Gaiildin. 
the daughter of a fine old pioneer family, and this second union resulted in 
the birth of ten children. Mr. Hawkins died July 5, 1871, his second wife 
surviving him until December 27. 1^97, at the age of seventy years, having 
been born on August [6. 1827. 

Mr. and Mrs. McCormick became the parents of eleven children, eight 
of whom are living- at this writing, namely: William H., born July jy. 1855. 
lives in Mexico, Missouri: Mary F. is the wife of A. E. Brightwell. of Cam- 
bridge township, was born October 30. 1857: Ethlene M., wife of Edward 
Liglufoot, of Gilliam, Missouri, was born January 18, i860; Lorena A., wife 
of George Rhoades, of Cambridge township, was born May 7, 1864: Susan 
A., wife of John R. Rhoades. of Cambridge township, was born October 10, 
1866: Sarah [.. wife of Charles Sydenstricker, of Sacramento. California. 
was born b'ebruar}- 11, 1869: Daniel E.. residing in Cambridge township, 
was born December 30. 1870: John E.. of Livingston. Montana, was born 
September 16, 1875. 

The mother of these children passed to her rest on October 27,, 1895. 
Not long afterwards Judge McCormick sold his farm and has made his home 
among his children. 



CARDWELL WYAN SAPPINGTON. 

Though not old in \ears, the subject of this sketch has long enjoyed 
definite prestige in the county in which he li\es. A native of the county, he 
has had a hand in its recent prosperity and is numbered among the represen- 
tative men of the community. Tn the full vigor of his manhood, he is sturd- 
ily performing his full ])art in life and, because of his personal worth and the 
splendifl business (pialities which he jxissesses, he cnjo\s the unbounded con- 
fidence and regard of all who know him. 

(_. \\ yan Sap])ington. who operates a line farm in section 10, .\rrow 
Rock township, was born in this township on the 7th of May, 1876. He was 
reared by his i)arents and received his education in the public schools, finish- 
ing in the high school at Nelson. He was reared to the life of a farmer and 
has always followed that vocation. The i)lace on which he now- resides is a 
part of the old Sappington homestead and is generally considered one of the 
best estates in the county. .Mr. Sappington is practical and progressive in 
his ideas and has alreadv achieved a distinctive success alone the line of his 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 895 

chosen calling. Progressive in his attitude toward methods and means, he is 
not slow to adopt new ways of doing things when he is convinced of their 
practicability and value. He carries on a general line of farming, raising all 
the crops common to this section of the country, and in connection therewith 
he also gives some attention to the raising of livestock, in which also he has 
met with gratifying success. The homestead farm is splendidly improved 
and is maintained at a high standard of excellence, the general appearance 
of the place indicating that he who directs its operations is a man of excellent 
taste and sound judgment. 

Cardwell W. Sappington is a son of John C. and Pauline W. ( Xelson) 
Sappington, the former of whom was born February 4, 1849, in the house 
in which the subject now resides, and the latter born in Boonville, Cooper 
county. Missouri, on December 25, 1854, a daughter of Dr. George and Paul- 
ine (Wyan) Nelson. George Nelson was a native of Culpeper county, Vir- 
ginia, and his wife of Boonville. this state, the site of which her father at one 
time owned. John C. Sappington was a son of William B. and Mary (Brea- 
thitt) Sappington. William B. Sappington was born in Franklin. Tennessee, 
January 4, 1811, and was about six years of age when the family moved to 
Missouri, locating first on a farm near Glasgow, Howard county. In 18 19 
they located in Saline county, where he was reared on a farm, and secured 
his education in the subscription schools of the neighborhood. At the age 
of seventeen years he entered Cumberland College, a manual labor school, 
located at Princeton, Kentucky, where he remained four years. Returning 
home he took up the study of law, but failing eyesight compelled a change 
in his plans and. laying aside his legal studies, he took up agriculture as a 
vocation, which he continued, in connection with the banking business at 
Arrow Rock, until a short time before his death, which occurred on August 
16, 1888. He had inherited a large tract of land from his father and in 1846 
he completed the erection of the mansion where the subject now li\-es. It re- 
quired three years in building and is a large and commodious mansion, of a 
colonial stvle of architecture, built of lirick, trimmed with stone. Mr. Sap- 
pington was closely connected with a number of monetary enter])rises. having 
been a heavv stockholder in a bank in St. Louis and the l)ank at Arrow Rock, 
being the president of the latter institution. On September 3, 1844, he mar- 
ried Marv Mildred Breathitt, of Russellville, Kentucky, a daughter of Gov- 
ernor John Breathitt, of that state. She was liorn at Russellville, on August 
7, 1827, and her death occurred August 13, 1880. 1\) William and ]\Iary 
Sappington were born six children, namely: John Cardwell, father of the 
subject of this sketch; William !>., deceased; Mildred Jane, deceased; Eras- 



Sgb PAST AND PRESENT 

iiius 1).. wliwsc >kclch appears elsewhere in this work; Stella P., who mar- 
ried a Mr. Gephart and now resides at Missoula, Montana, and Price, de- 
ceased. Jt^hn C. Sappington was born in Saline county, Missouri, February 
4. 1849, and was reared at "Prairie Park," the paternal homestead, near 
Arrow Rock. Pie attended the schools of the neighborhood until seventeen 
vears of age, when he entered Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennes- 
see, and subsequently was a student in the State University. He remained 
with his father until the time of his marriage, when he went to live on a fann 
owned by his grandfather. Dr. John Sappington. The farm comprised three 
hundred and twenty acres and was eventually given hini by his father, who 
inherited it. He continued to operate this farm until about 1882, when he 
sold it to his father and moved to Arrow Rock, where he engaged in mer- 
cantile business. He remained thus engaged for four or five years, at the end 
of which time he sold out and moved to Nelson, this county, where he lived 
until 1900, being engaged successfully in the lumber business. In 1900 he 
bought his father's homestead and four hundred acres of adjoining land, and 
in April, 1905, he moved to Boonville, Cooper county, where he now makes 
his home. On October 22, 1873, he married Pauline W. Nelson, a daughter 
of Dr. George and Pauline (Wyan) Nelson, and to this union were born 
three children, namely: G. W., of Syracuse, Kansas, born August 15. 1874; 
C. \\\, the immediate subject of this sketch, and Lena M., born October 20, 
1879, who now lives with her father. John C. Sappington has been a mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal church South for many years. 

On the 27th of April, 1905, Mr. Sappington was married to Mary Hupp, 
who was born April 19, 1879, in Miami township. Saline county, a daugh- 
ter of Arthur and Martha (McAmis) Hupp, natives respectively of Indiana 
and Tennessee. Her parents were married in Saline county and lived on a 
fami in Miami township until 1893, when they moved to Marshall, where 
they now reside. To the subject and his wife two children have been born, 
namely: Pauline M., born August 5, 1906, and Arthur C, born January 5, 
1908. 

This sketch would be incomplete were there failure to make mention of 
the subject's great-grandfather. Dr. John Sappington, who lived in this coun- 
ty from 1 8 18 to 1856, during which time he stood foremost among his fel- 
low men in the work of developing this section of the state. Of exceptional 
ability as a physician, a practical business man, broad minded and public 
spirited in his attitude towards educational matters and possessing a heart 
that went out to all who were distressed — no man who has ever lived in Saline 
county has exerted a more beneficent influence or left a deeper impress on 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 897 

the community. For more detailed reference to the Hfe career of Dr. John 
Sappington, the reader is referred to the sketch of Erasmus D. Saj^pington, 
which appears elsewhere in this work. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON TAYLOR. 

In scanning- the list of Saline county's leading agriculturists, stock men 
and, representative citizens, one finds the name of Thomas Jefferson Tavlor 
well up toward the top of the list. However, he has not long honored this 
locality with his presence, having come to Grand Pass township, where his 
fine landed estate is located, about ten years ago. In Lafayette county, Mis- 
souri, his birth occurred, February 17, 1864. He is the son of Uriah and 
Eliza (Kirk) Taylor, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of 
Greene county, Missouri. The father came to Lafayette county. ^Missouri, 
in an early day and there married, by which union three children were born, 
namely: Columbus, who lives in Odessa, Missouri; Virginia is deceased; 
Hildra resides in Kansas City, Missouri. The parents of Thomas Jefferson 
Taylor married in Greene county, Missouri, and some time thereafter moved 
to Lafayette county, this state, and in 1866 moved to Johnson countv, Mis- 
souri, where they spent the remainder of their lives on a farm, the father dv- 
ing in 1888, and the mother passing away when he was quite young. They 
were highly respected and had hosts of friends wherever they were known. 
To them ten children were born, namely: Almeda is the wife of Edward 
Chrisman; William J. lives near Blackburn in Saline county; Joshua, who 
married Lizzie Quails, is deceased; Lydia is the wife of Lewis Wilson: Lucy, 
now deceased, was the wife of Addison Smoot; Thomas Jefferson, of this re- 
view ; Emma is the wife of Amos Webb ; Charles lives in Blackburn, Mis- 
souri, and he married Dora Quails ; John died in infancy, as did also James. 

LTriah Taylor, father of these children, married a third time, his last 
wife being Juda M. Taylor, who died without issue. The parents of the 
above named children were members of the Baptist church, and the father 
was a Democrat and at one time a member of the Grange lodge. 

Thomas J. Taylor, of this review, was only two years of age when his 
parents moved from Lafayette county, Missouri, to Johnson countv, this 
state. He remained at home working on the farm until he reached maturitv, 
and received a meager education in the common schools; however, he has 
since become well informed by general reading. In about 1886 he began 
57 



^^J^ PAST AND PRESENT 

workiii.i;- out l)v the month, later married and rented a farm and thereby got 
a uood start. l)ut he lost everything- in a cyclone in 1898. Nothing daunted, 
he hegan all over again and was soon on his feet. In 1899 l^e came with his 
faniilv to Saline county, Missouri. When he unloaded his effects at the sta- 
tion at Grand Pass, he had about seventeen dollars' worth of household goods 
and nine dollars in money. The future was dark, but he is not made of the 
material that bends easily and gives up under ill-starred circumstances, and 
he began working by the month on a farm, and the following summer he 
rented a small farm near Grand Pass, where he engaged in gardening for a 
period of two years, then moved to his present tine farm of three hundred 
and seventy acres, which is the old Palmer farm, which is a splendid, pic- 
turesque old estate, on which stands a commodious and attractive old brick 
and frame house, which was built before the Civil war, and w^as one of the 
tirst brick and frame houses built in this section of Missouri, the bricks used 
in its construction being burned on the farm and the timber in its frame work 
was seasoned thirty years before it w^as used. This is one of the finest farms 
in the county. Although it was first cultivated many years ago, it has been 
so well managed that the soil has retained its original fertility, and it is under 
a high state of cultivation and improvement. Mr. Taylor is an extensive 
cattle feeder, fattening several hundred head for the market annually, also 
raising large numbers of hogs which he prepares for market; he also buys 
large numbers of young mules and colts, which he raises for the market, be- 
ing an excellent judge of live stock and understanding all the "ins and outs" 
of feeding, and the proper care of them. He is deserving of a great deal of 
credit for the large success that has attended his efforts during the past ten 
years, for he has done it all himself, having received help from no one; he 
has made money fast and is now farming several hundred acres of land be- 
sides his own and he keeps at all times a large number of hands employed. 
He is a man of keen foresight and rarely makes a inistake in forecasting mar- 
kets and ascertaining the outcome of present transactions. 

Mr. Taylor was married in 1885 to Sallie Markham, who was born in 
Johnson county. Missouri, the daughter of Columbus and Elizabeth Markham, 
natives of Kentucky, but who caine in an early day to Missouri, making the 
trip overland in wagons ; they are now both deceased, but are remembered as 
excellent people. 

Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, namely : George, 
Frank. Hugh, Belle, Herbert, and one died unnamed. These children have 
received careful attention as to their education and general culture. 

Mr. Taylor and family are members of the Baptist church at Grand 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 899 

Pass, Mr. Taylor being the collector in the local congregation, and he is a 
liberal supporter of the church. He is a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, being chaplain and first conductor of the local lodge. Po- 
litically he is a Democrat. His oldest son, George, is also a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 



W. B. NAPTON. 

(An Autobiography.) 



In a large family Bible I found it recorded, in the handwriting- of my 
mother, that I was born January 5, 1839, and it is undoubtedly the best evi- 
dence of the fact. I have no reason to doubt its correctness for she would 
annually remind me of my birthday until her death, when I was twentv-two 
years old. My mother was a native of Knoxville. Tennessee, her father, 
Thomas L. Williams, being chancellor of east Tennessee, and also judge of 
the supreme court of that state. She was a woman of rare intelligence and 
unusual accomplishments. My father often said that she was better informed 
on historical subjects than any man he knew, himself included. 

I have a right to entertain a good opinion of my ancestors, particularly 
on my mother's side, who were the \Miites, McClungs and Williamses, of 
Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Gen. James AMiite 
was the founder of Knoxville, Tennessee. His title to the land on which the 
city is built was obtained under a grant to him by the state of North Caro- 
lina, for services in the Revolution. Here he located his Revolutionary ser- 
vice land grant in 1787. Here he built a fort, and must have had an eye for 
the beautiful and picturesque in its selection on the banks of the transparent 
Holston, amidst the beautiful and graceful forest-covered mountains. 

Here in this state of Tennessee and in North Carolina, Whites, Wil- 
liamses and McClungs were leaders in the latter part of the eighteenth and 
beginning of the nineteenth century, prominent men in both military and civil 
life. They were worth}' people and, although not rich, were comfortably 
well off, enough to properly educate their children, and a number of them 
became distinguished members of the communities where they lived. 

In 1790 Robert Williams led the bar at Raleigh and represented the 
people in Congress. A younger brother, Lewis \\'illiams (my grandfather's 
twin brother), went to Congress from North Carolina, when he was the 



900 



PAST AND PRESENT 



yonng-est man in the House, and remained there coiitimiously until he became 
the oldest member there. His brother. John Williams, was senator from 
I'enncssee. preceding Andrew Jackson, and his brother-in-law, Hugh L. 
While, succeeded fackson as senator and was offered any place he would ac- 
cept in his cabinet. The ancestor of these men, Williams, fought the British 
at King's Mountain and other battles of the Revolution. 

Mv limited schooling was obtair.ed mainly from private tutors at home, 
with one session (1855-56) at the University of Missouri, being forced to 
discontinue school afterward, by poor health, at the age of seventeen years. 
I made a trip out to New Mexico with a freight train of ox wagons in 1857. 
and up the Missouri river on a steamboat to Fort Benton, Montana, the fol- 
lowing year. After that I began studying law at home in a desultory way, 
the greater part of my time being devoted to deer hunting and kindred sports. 
The Civil war coming on. I joined the Confederate forces, serving until 
the fall of 1 86 1, when I was rendered unfit for duty by a severe spell of fever, 
and before recovering was captured by Federal troops and given the alter- 
native of going to prison or taking the oath of allegiance. I accepted the lat- 
ter and quit for good. 

T was licensed to practice law in the fall of 1862 and located at Boon- 
\il1c. I married my cousin, Mary P. Shelby, about the same time without 
the consent of anybody — but she and T. The Civil war progressed, making 
Boonville a very lively place. In this condition of things a returned miner 
from Montana persuaded me to join him in a mining venture in that distant 
region (in 1865), by Avhich I became involved in a debt, a burden which re- 
quired over twenty years to discharge, but was ultimately accomplished. We 
bought a quartz mill in St. Louis and I spent a year in quartz mining and 
milling in Montana Territory, without either great loss or success. 

Returning home in 1866. I located in Kansas City in November. 1867, 
opening a law office there in the spring of 1868. in connection with Gen. John 
W. Reid, a lawyer of experience. Afterwards I foiTned a partnership with 
B. J. Franklin, who was elected to Congress in 1875. In the course of ten 
years I had built up a very good practice, which I was compelled to abandon 
by ill health, again taking up my residence in this county, devoting myself 
to agriculture for about twenty years, during which time I paid off all of my 
old debts, without contracting any new ones and now own a farm of one 
thousand acres, which I have cultivated on shares, residing- myself in Mar- 
shall. 

W'e have three living children, Frances, now in St. Louis; John R., in 
Kansas City, and Roberta, at home; all grown, but unmarried. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 9OI 

GEORGE X. JACKSOX. 

Prominently identified with the lousiness and fanning- and stock interests 
of Sahne connty, and occupying the position of vice-president of the ?^'Iiami 
Savings Bank, the subject of this sketch has k^ng occupied a high standing 
in the community where he resides. He is a native of Henry county, Ken- 
tucky. A\here he was born on X'^ovember 13. 1856, and is a son of Thomas H. 
and Emma B. (Drane) Jackson, both of whom also were natives of the Blue 
Grass state, where they w^ere reared and married. The subject's paternal 
grandfather was James J. Jackson, a native of Virginia, and a distant relative 
of President Andrew Jackson. He was an early settler in Kentucky, where 
he became a prominent farmer and a large slave owner. He was an influen- 
tial politician in the Democratic party and was a consistent member of the 
Baptist church. His children were Richard, Thomas H., James J., B. F. and 
Jesse. Thomas H. Jackson, who died in his native state, on April 4, 1862, 
was also a successful farmer and was a deacon in the Baptist church, while 
in politics he was a Democrat. His widow, who survived him until 1886, 
was a daughter of Theodore Drane, a prominent and well known citizen of 
Kentucky, wdiere he follow^ed farming, owning- a number of slaves. He was 
a Baptist in religious belief. His children were Stephen, Dulcena (Mrs. 
Neal), B. F., and Emma B., the subject's mother. To Thomas H. and Emma 
B. Jackson were born the following children: Sallie B., Mrs. Ladd. of Wash- 
ington, D. C.; Stephen T., who died in infancy; Corker F., a farmer; Wil- 
liefred B., who died at the age of fourteen years; James T., a farmer, and 
George X'^., the immediate subject of this review. 

George X"^. Jackson was reared under the parental roof and received his 
elementary education in the common schools, later attending the public 
schools of the city of Louisville, and also attending a commercial school there. 
He remained with his parents until 1880. when he married and moved to Mis- 
souri. In 1 88 1 he came to Miami and purchased the mercantile interests of 
McDaniel Brothers, which he successfully conducted until 1900. During the 
intervening years he had bought some excellent land and was engaged in 
farming and in the feeding of cattle. When he closed out his mercantile busi- 
ness he at once invested in more land, being now able to give more attention 
to this line of investment. He has met with gratifying success in every busi- 
ness in w^hich he has engaged and is now the owner of four hundred acres of 
land, as well as other valuable property, being also a heavy stockholder in the 
Miami Savings Bank. For several years he assisted in the bank and is now 
the vice-president of the institution, which is now numbered among the best 



(^02 PAST AND PRESENT 

banks in this part of the state. For many years he has had an active part in 
the u])bnilding and development of the county and today he enjoys the un- 
bounded confidence and respect of the entire community. 

Pobtically Mr. Jackson has always supported the Democratic party, 
thoug^h never ambitious for public office. He was reared in the Baptist faith, 
but after cominj:^ to Miami he decided to worship with his wife and joined the 
Methodist church, of which he is now a trustee and steward. His fraternal 
relations arc with the Masonic order, in which he has taken the degrees up 
to and including- those of the Royal Arch. 

Mr. Jackson married Harrietta Parkhurst, who was born in Henry 
countv. Kentucky, January 13. 1859. a daughter of Charles L. and Elizabeth 
(Smith) Parkhurst, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of 
Kentucky, in which latter state they spent their married life and died. 
They were the parents of the following children: John W.\ Susan, Mrs. 
Smith; Isaac R., a farmer of this county; Sallie, Mrs. Gilbert; Bettie, Mrs. 
Browning; George A.; Marrietta, wife of the subject; Louisa, Mrs. Smith; 
]\Iary, who died at the age of fifteen years, and Anna, who died at 
the age of eighteen years. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have been born 
three children, briefly mentioned as follows: Charles T., who graduated 
in the course of civil engineering at the State University in 1903, started ac- 
tive work with the Montana railroad, now the Chicago & Milwaukee, and has 
remained with that road since, with the exception of about one year, when 
he did some work on his own account; George N., Jr., after completing the 
common school course, attended the State University two and one-half years, 
later spent two years in Alaska, and is now assisting his father in farming 
and the stock business; Emma E. died in infancy. 



JAMES J. BRISTOW. 



'I he gentleman whose name a|)])ears as the caption of this sketch is de- 
scended from an early settled family in Missouri and one which has been 
prominently identified with the agricultural interests of the state. Jle was 
born in Tennessee, March 26, 1842, and is a son of John B. and Sarah 
(Mathews) Bristow, both of whom were born and reared in Virginia. The 
former was the son of John B. Bristow, Sr., a native of England, who came 
to America in young manhood and settled in Virginia, where he married and 
followed the occupation of farming. He became a slave owner and was 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 9^3 

prominent and well known. He reared his family in Virginia and eventually . 
o-ave his slaves their freedom and moved to Tennessee with his son, the lather 
of the subject of this sketch. Subsequently his wife died, after which event 
he made his home with his children. He was an exhorter m the Methodist 
Episcopal church South and was a fluent speaker. He died at Warsaw. Ben- 
ton county, Missouri, in 1889. He was a Democrat in politics, though he 
never aspired to public office. He was the father of two children, Benjamin, 
who came to Missouri, and John B., father of the subject. 

John B. Bristow, Jr., was born in Virginia, in which state he was reared 
to manhood and there married. Later he moved to Tennessee, where for 
three years he successfully engaged in farming. About 1843 he moved to 
Missouri, settling in Hickory county, where he entered land and developed a 
good farm. After a few years he sold out and moved to Benton county, 
where he bought land, which, after improving, he also sold, and then took 
up the improvement of a second farm in that county. About 1863, when the 
Northern and Southern armies were passing back and forth over his land, 
taking from him practically everything worth taking, he sold out and came to 
Saline county. He rented land here a few years and then bought a farm four 
miles north of Marshall, which he improved. Subsequently he sold this and 
moved to Bates county, where he met with a bereavement in the death of his 
wife after which event he sold out and moved to Harrisonville, where he 
was 'engaged in the running of a hotel, his death occurring there m about 
1885 A man of strong social instincts, he enjoyed the companionship of a 
large circle of friends. He was a worthy and consistent member of the Meth- 
odi'^st Episcopal church South, as had been his wife. He was a strong Demo- 
crat in his political views and was an appreciative and worthy member of the 
Mc-sonic fraternity. He was widely known and highly respected in each com- 
munity in which he lived, his life being characterized by the highest ideals 
and the strictest integrity of word and deed. His children were as tollows : 
Benjamin, of Marshall; James J., the immediate subject of this sketch: ^lar- 
o-aret A the wife of A. L. Jones ; William T., a farmer of Lafayette county, 
diis state, who sensed under Gen. Sterling Price during the Civil war; F. G., 
who also served in Price's command, was wounded and died in a hospital at 
Fort Scott, Kansas; John O., a farmer; Sarah, Mrs. J. Wright; Mary V, 
Mrs. B. O'Connor; Martha, who has been married twice; Mmnie A., who 
first married H. Johns and, second, John Thomson. 

The subject of this sketch was about a year old when the family moved 
from Tennessee to Missouri, and he was thus reared in this state. He re- 
ceived his education in the common schools and remained under the parental 



Q04 PAST AND PRESENT 



i<>. .|' miiil May. 1862. when he married and then located on a rented farm, 
where he bes^-an life on his own account. In April, 1863, ^t Warsaw\ Mis- 
souri, ho enlisted in Company K, Eighth Regiment Missouri Mounted In- 
fantr\-. joining the Federal army under the immediate command of Colonel 
Gravel, afterwards governor of the state of Missouri. The command was 
assigned to Southern territoiy, with headquarters at Springfield, Missouri, 
whore they did much skirmishing and had many fights with bushwhackers. 
They marched [icross southern Missouri and into Arkansas, being largely 
employed in guard duty, accompanying- stage coaches, freight trains and pay- 
masters. With sixty comrades he was detailed to guard a stage stand at 
Tomahawk, Arkansas, and while performing this duty they were surrounded 
b}- four hundred Confederate troops, from whom, however, they escaped bv 
a narrow margin. The subject was never wounded nor made prisoner, 
though he experienced some very hard service and many deprivations. His 
valuable services have been recognized by the government, from wdiom he 
now receives a liberal pension. He was promoted to the rank of corporal of 
his company and received an honorable discharge at Springfield, this state. 
He then returned to his home in Benton county and resumed farming. In 
August, of the same year (1865), Mr. Bristow came to Saline county and 
rented a farm located three miles south of Miami, which he operated until 
1868, when he bought a small farm. To this place he has devoted his unre- 
mitting attention and has added to it from time to time until now he is the 
owner of one hundred and one acres of as fine land as can be found in the 
locality. In Mrn-ch. 1909, Mr. Bristow bought a residence property in Miami, 
mto which he has moved, having a number of substantial improvements on 
the house, besides building a good barn. The grounds are spacious and the 
fine two-story house commands a fine ^•iew of the river and surrounding 
country. He is also the owner of a number of vacant lots in Miami. He has 
always given his attention to agricultural pursuits and in this line he has been 
successful to a very gratifying degree. 

In political matters Mr. Bristow has always given his support to the 
Dem.Krratic ticket, though he has never aspired to public ofi^ce. He and his 
wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church South. t(^ which thev 
give an earnest and liberal support. 

Mr. I'.ristow married Sarah A. Hanes. a lady of intelligence and culture, 
born m 1843, in Posey county, Indiana, the daughter of A\^illiam G. and 
Keziah (Gaultiiey) Hanes, the former being a native of Kentucky and the 
latter of Indiana, though of Kentucky parentage. William G. Hanes was a 
farmer an.l blacksmith and lie remained in Indiana until all <,f his children 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 905 

but llie young-est were born. In 1859 he moved to Benton county, Missouri, 
where he bought a farm and estabHshed a blacksmith shop. Subsequently. 
he sold out and moved to Lincoln, Benton county, where he bought residence 
property and erected a shop, which he conducted until his death, which oc- 
curred on August 24, 1899. at the age of seventy-six vears. His first wife 
died in the fall of 1861. To this union had been born nine children, of which 
number the second in order of birth was Sarah Anna, who became Mrs. Bris- 
tow. Subsequently Mr. Hanes married Sarah F. Chastain, of a prominent 
Kentucky family, in which state she was born. Eleven children were born 
to this luiion. To Mr. and Mrs. Bristow have been born two daughters, 
namely: Emma J., the wife of Eloyd Dawdy, who is operating the subject's 
farm; Ada E., the wife of W. E. Henton, also a farmer. Both daughters 
are members of the church and Mr. Henton is a Mason. 

Among the interesting reminiscences related by Mr. Bristow is that while 
he resided in Bates county, Missouri, the grasshoppers completely destroyed 
all the crops, leaving the people in the greatest distress. In the emergency, 
the people of Saline county loaded a car with supplies and forwarded it to 
Mr. Bristow for distribution among the needy. He did not abuse -the trust 
thus reposed in him and treated the other needy ones in his community better 
than he did himself. He is a man of sterling qualities of character and enjoys 
the unbounded respect and confidence of all who know him. 



MARION PETERMAN. 

Marion Peterman, of Miami, Saline county. Missouri, who for many 
years was prominently identified with the development of the farming- inter- 
ests of this community, was born in Berkeley county, Virginia, January 26, 
1829, and is a son of John and Susan (Hamilton) Petennan. Both of these 
parents were natives of Virginia, where they were reared, married and both 
died. The father was the son of John Peterman. Sr., a native of Pennsyl- 
vania and of German descent. He settled in Virginia in an early day and 
there spent the remainder of his life. He reared a good family, though the 
names of all but John are forgotten. The subject's father, who was born in 
1797, was reared to the life of a farmer, which occupation engaged his main 
attention. During his active years he was a member of a company organ- 
ized for the manufacture of brick. He sensed his country through the war 
of 1812 and was ever afterwards a strong Jackson Democrat. He never as- 



<JO() 



I'AM AMJ TKESENT 



l)ire(l to public office or notoriety, being but a simple, honest farmer, though 
of strong social instincts and enjoying fully the companionships of many 
friends. He died in August. 1852. his wife having died in 1833. She was a 
rresl)yterian in her religious belief. She bore her husband seven children, 
namely: William, who became a resident of Ohio; John, w^ho married and 
died in \'irginia; George, after marrying and rearing a family, died in Mary- 
land : Emily. Mrs. Simpson ; Joseph came west and died near Warrensburg. 
Missouri, leaving a number of children; Marion is the immediate subject of 
this sketch; Susan, Mrs. Watson. 

Marion Petennap was reared on the home farm and secured a good 
practical education in the common schools. He remained with his parents 
until old enough to earn his own living, working at such employment as he 
could find and helping his father financially as he was able. At the age of 
eighteen years he was employed as an overseer in Virginia, and remained in 
this employment five years. In 1852 he contracted the "western fever" and, 
with two other families, he came to Saline county, Missouri, arriving here 
on October 12th. Soon after coming here he was engaged as overseer by 
John Eustis, with whom he remained two years, during which time he mar- 
ried. In 1854 he engaged in farming on his own account, renting land for 
several years, and in about 1859 he bought a tract of poorly improved land 
in Carroll county, to which he moved and which he began cultivating. Sub- 
sequently he traded this tract for a farm in Saline county, near Miami, where 
he made his permanent home. His farm at first comprised one hundred and 
sixty acres, but he later added by purchase two tracts of one hundred and 
sixty acres and twenty acres, respectively, making his total holding three hun- 
dred and forty acres. Here he devoted himself to the raising of general crops 
and also gave considerable attention to the handling of live stock, buying, 
feeding and selling, in all of which he was able to realize satisfactory profits. 
He was but fairly settled in his new home when he hearkened to the call of 
duty and in the winter of 1862 he enlisted under the command of General 
Shelby and saw much hard service in the Southland, remaining- in the army 
until the close of the conflict. He participated in a number of hotly contested 
battles and many skirmishes, but was not wounded nor taken prisoner. His 
command served in southern Missouri, Kansas. Indian Territoiy. Arkansas 
and Texas. At Shreveport, Louisiana, the command surrendered and were 
furnished transportation home by steamboat, the subject arriving at his home 
in the latter part of June. 1865. During his absence from home, his home 
had been robbed and ransacked and practically eveiwthing of value was taken 
by raiding parties. However, Mr. Peterman at once went to work and was 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 9O7 

soon busy g'etting the farm into shape again for operation. He was there- 
after successful and eventually was enabled to buy another farm, so that to- 
day he is considered one of the solid and substantial farmers of the county. 
About 1885 Mr. Peterman moved to Miami, where he bought a good resi- 
dence property. This he has improved in many respects and made of it a very 
desirable and attractive home. He continued to operate the fanns until about 
1901, when he retired from active labor and now rents the farms. Mr. Peter- 
man has been a witness to the wonderful transformation which has taken 
place in Saline county, and has himself had a large part in this wonderful de- 
velopment. AMien he came here the countiy was new and sparsely settled, 
but the early settlers were a steady and sturdy class of people, who considered 
the correct moral development of the community as important as its material 
growth, and thus laid the foundation for the splendid civilization which now 
characterizes this section of the country, in the lead of which stands Miami 
township, which stands second to none in regard to morals, churches, schools 
and the high class of its citizenship. When Mr. Peterman came here Miami 
was but a small village, though it enjoyed some prestige because of its steam- 
boat traffic, which stimulated its growth until it became one of the commer- 
cial centers of the county, a position it enjoyed until the railroads superseded 
the steamboats, when in some respects it lost importance, though today it is 
one of the good towns in the county. Mr. Peterman has long enjoyed a 
wide-spread reputation because of the old Virginia spirit of hospitality which 
has always characterized him. Friends and acquaintances have always found 
a cordial and hearty welcome in his home and wayfarers have never been 
turned from his door. 

Politically Mr. Peterman is a strong Democrat, though in no sense is he 
an office seeker. Religiously he has for many years been a devoted and 
worthy member of the Methodist church, to which he has given an earnest 
and liberal support. 

In December, 1853. ^^^- Peterman was married to Sophia Williamson, 
a native of Virginia and a daughter of Leonard and Margaret (Crosse) Wil- 
liamson, both natives also of that state, the father having been a prominent 
farmer and slave owner. In 1852 Mr. Williamson came to Missouri and 
located in Miami township, Saline county, where he bought a farm and con- 
tinued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1872. He was a member 
of the ]\Iethodist church and a Democrat in politics. He was the father of 
the following children : Elizabeth was twice married, first to Thomas Davis, 
and second to Isaac Kile; Sophia, wife of the subject; Jackson, deceased; 
Mary, who became the wife of Benjamin Davis. To Mr. and Mrs. Peter- 



9o8 



PAST AND PRESENT 



man were born four children, namely: Margaret, Mrs. A. J. Casebolt ; Jas- 
per ().. a farmer; Emily M., the wife of Rufus Hill, a farmer in Cooper 
county, this state; Price, a farmer in Miami township. The mother of these 
children died in 1871 and on April 28, 1881, Mr. Peterman married Virginia 
Rogers, who was born in Fauquier county, Virginia. July 21, 1833, the daugh- 
ter of Xotley and Nellie (Walker) Rogers, the former of Avhom was a mer- 
chant and slave owner in that state. He hired a substitute for the war of 
18 1 2. and his death occurred in April, 1864. He was a member of the ]\Ieth- 
odist church and stood high in his community. Notley and Nellie Rogers 
were the parents of the following children: Sarah C, Mrs. Short, of Mar- 
shall, this county; H. C, of California, this state; Robert R., deceased; Mary 
J., ]\Irs. Bradford, deceased; Warren, deceased; Rachael A., deceased; 
^riiomas N., deceased; Betty, deceased; Virginia, wife of the subject of this 
sketch : Henn-, of California. 

Mr. Peterman is a man of splendid personal qualities and enjoys an en- 
viable standing in the community where he lives. He gives a generous sup- 
port to all worthy objects and is numbered among the sturdy and substantial 
citizens of the township. 



A. H. W. SULLIVAN, M. D. 

The subject of this sketch, wdio is a successful and popular physician at 
Miami. Saline county, Missouri, is a native of the township in which he re- 
sides and was born on the 29th of May, 1841. He received his education in 
the common schools, supplementing this by attendance at the University of 
Towa. where he graduated in 1871. Having determined to adopt the medical 
l^rofession as his life work, he matriculated in the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, at St. Louis, where he was graduated in 1883. Li 1861, at the in- 
ception of the Civil war, he enlisted in the Federal army, joining the Ninth 
Missouri Cavalry Regiment. Prior to eidisting. the subject had been 
pursuing the study of medicine with Doctor Dunlap, of Miami, as preceptor, 
and after serving in the army a short time he was made hospital stew^ard, 
which position he held until the close of the w-ar. The regiment of Avhich he 
was a member performed most of its service in Missouri, Kansas and Ar- 
kansas and also served as body guard for Governor Gamble. They per- 
formed much arduous service, participating in several battles and a number 
of skirmishes. The subject was mustere<l out at St. Louis in 1865 and re- 
ceived an honorable discharoe. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 9^9 

Retnniino- home. Doctor Sullivan resumed his studies, which had been in- 
terrupted bv his military service. Before the war he had ridden much with his 
preceptor and had thus gained much valuable knowledge as to the diagnosing 
and treatment of diseases, and his service in the army hospitals had also been 
of much value to him, so that now he was in fact prepared to meet almost any 
emergency. He entered upon the practice of his profession in his home town, 
Miami, in which he was successful to a marked degree. Desiring to further 
perfect himself in technical knowledge, he attended, as before stated, the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons, at St. Louis, and during his two years there 
he was a special student under the professor of surgery. Later he took a 
three-years course in the Marion Sims College of Medicine at St. Louis, dur- 
ing which term he was also a special student under A. C. Bemays and A. H. 
Meisenbauch, both of whom were eminent physicians and surgeons. He 
graduated from the latter institution in 1897. In the first years of his pro 
fessional work his practice extended all over Saline county and over the river 
into Carroll county, most of his trips being made on horseback. A country 
practice in that early day implied many privations and sacrifices, as there 
were no roads nor bridges and all streams had to be forded or swam. How- 
ever, Doctor Sullivan never refused to make a call, however unfavorable the 
conditions, and poor and rich alike were given his best service at all times. 
For many years he has stood at the head of his profession in this community 
and is held in the highest personal esteem by his professional brethren. For 
many > ears he conducted a drug store at Miami, but of late years he has 
turned over to his two sons, both physicians, the greater part of the practice 
and the active management of the store. He has been prospered financially to 
a gratifying degree and has invested his surplus money in real estate, being 
now the owner of two thousand five hundred acres of fine land, all of which 
is under fence and devoted to pasture and cultivation. The greater part of 
this land is rented, but he has a fine home place adjoining the corporation of 
Miami, comprising four hundred acres, on which is a commodious and at- 
tractive residence, surrounded by well-kept grounds. For a number of years 
Doctor Sullivan has been interested in the warehouse business for the storage 
and handling of grain, and he handles most of the grain brought to this point. 
The Doctor has been successful in everything in which he has taken a per- 
sonal interest and is numbered among the enterprising and successful men of 

the community- 
Doctor Sullivan has been married three times. In 1866 he married 
Mary A. Cooper, a native of this county and descended from honored pioneer 
ancestry, her grandfather having erected Cooper's Fort, in Howard county, 



<^10 PAST AND PRESENT 

to which the earlv settlers frequently went for protection from the hostile In- 
dians. Her parents were Tobias and Mary Cooper, the former a native of 
Howard county, this state. He was a farmer and trader and was one of the 
early Santa Fe traders, having made a number of trips across the plains with 
ox-trains. He became a prominent farmer in Saline county and was highly 
respected because of his sterling integrity and high personal honor. He was 
a Presljvterian and his death occurred in this county in 1856. He reared a 
familv of eight children, of which number Mrs. Sullivan was the youngest. 
But a few weeks after her marriage to Doctor Sullivan she died, and in the 
fall of 1866 he married Mary Audsley, a native of Saline county and a daugh- 
ter of Joseph and Mary (Whitehead) Audsley. These parents were both 
natives of England, where the father was interested in the manufacture of 
silk. He came to Saline comity. Missouri, in 1844 and bought land, on which 
he conducted farming operations and stock raising, eventually becoming a 
large land owner. He died in 1884. Religiously he was a Methodist, and 
politically he was an active Republican and served as constable of Miami 
township for twelve years. He was married three times and had the follow- 
ing children : By his first wife, Frank and Edward ; by his second wife, Ellen, 
William. Joseph. Mary (wife of the subject), and Missouri ; by his third wife. 
Alice and Isabelle. To Doctor and Mary Sullix'an were born nine children, 
namely: One that died in infancy; Tempest J., a physician, who died in 1908, 
leaving a widow and two children; Amos W. W., a farmer; Frank F. H., a 
physician at Miami; Mary E.. Mrs. E. E. Jennings; Bertha I., Mrs. J. F. El- 
der: Algernon B. FT., a physician at Miami; Lewis A. B., a farmer; Ira L. 
W.. who remains at home and is a farmer and stockman. For his third wife 
Doctor Sullivan chose Frances C. Royer. who was born and reared at Miami, 
the daughter of August and Kresinda (Hurt) Royer, who were of French and 
German parentage. Both were born in Germany, where the father was em- 
ployed as a shoemaker. He married at Glasgow. Missouri, and later engaged 
in the mercantile business at Miami, continuing in business until 1905, when 
lie retired. In religious belief he is a Presbyterian and in politics a Repub- 
lican, having sensed twelve years as postmaster at Miami. He is now the 
oldest member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Miami, and is 
held in high regard by all who know him. He reared an interesting family 
of eight children. 

Politically Doctor Sullivan was reared a Democrat, but since the Civil 
war he has supported the Republican ticket in national elections. In local af- 
fairs he exerts his influence to get the best men into office. From 1888 to 
1896 he was president of the board of medical pensi(^n examiners. He has 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI QII 

also been the g-overnment local weather prognosticator for the past forty 
years. In his religious belief the subject is a Presbyterian, while fraternally 
he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows, and in the last-named organization he has filled 
all the chairs in the subordinate lodge and been a member of the grand lodge. 
The subject's parents were Samuel W. and Mary (Mayfield) Sullivan, 
both of whom were natives of Virginia. The latter died in 1896, at the age 
of sixty-six years. The father, who is yet living-, was born April 8, 1820. in 
Rocking-ham county, Virginia, and has spent his entire life on a farm. In his 
youth he received a good education and eventually became an iron master. 
It w^as he who demonstrated the high quality of the iron ore extracted from 
Iron Mountain. Missouri, having been at that time in the employ of the gov- 
ernment. In early life he was a Democrat, but later allied himself with the 
Republican party. For many years he filled the office of justice of the peace 
and stood high in the communities where he lived. In religion he and his 
wnfe were Presbyterians and he was an elder in the first Presbyterian society 
in Saline county, he having come here with his parents in 1826. In an early 
day he and W. S. Brown owned a small store at Doylestown, six miles east 
of Miami. This town has been extinct for many years, its site being now 
owned by Samuel W. Sullivan and his son, the subject of this sketch. In 
1836 Samuel \Y. Sullivan assisted in platting the town of Miami, after which 
^^^ S. Brown became one of the first merchants there. 



AUGUSTUS R. EDMONDS, M. D. 

Among the strong and rugged characters who impressed their individu- 
ality on Saline county and whose memory is held sacred by all who knew him 
was Dr. A. R. Edmonds, whose death occurred at his home in Miami, on July 
7. 1908. after a lingering illness of more than a year. His funeral, which 
was very largely attended, was conducted at the Methodist church and was 
under Masonic 'auspices. Doctor Edmonds was of Welsh descent, and was 
the son of Elias B. and Malana J. Edmonds, the father having been a prac- 
ticing phvsician of widelv recognized ability. He also occupied a prominent 
place" in politics, having represented the counties of Lancaster and Northum- 
berland. Virginia, in the General Assembly. The subject of this sketch was 
reared in the village of Kilmarnock, on the Chesapeake bay. Virginia, and 
at the ao-e of sixteen he entered college, having no higher ambition than to 



(,l_> PAST AND PRESENT 

till llic jxisilion so ably occupied by his father. He prosecuted his medical 
studies until the tocsin of war was sounded, when he promptly offered his 
services and. though exempt from military duty because of his youth, he en- 
listed in Company D. Ninth Virginia Cavalry, with which command he served 
under Gens. J. K. B. Stuart and Hampton until the close of the war. Re- 
turning to the scene of his boyhood he found that ruthless war had obliterated 
his old home and a few years later, at the age of twenty-one. he sought a new 
home in the West, coming in 1867 to Missouri on horseback, arriving at 
ATiami in the fall of that year. Liking the appearance of the country, he de- 
cided to make it his future home, and for some time he lived with Col. John 
Ih-i'Wii si.\ miles south of Miami, where he divided his time l)etween work on 
the farm and hunting, game being at that time very plentiful here. Tn 1869 
he came to ]Miami and obtained employment as a clerk in the drug" store 
owned by Dr. M. A. Brown and Dr. J. N. Dunlap. Subsequently he became 
a business partner with Doctor Dunlap. this association continuing- several 
years, when the subject bought his partner's interest, later becoming asso- 
ciated with Dr. H. D. Grady in the drug- business and in the practice of med- 
icine for about twenty-five years. On February 2, 1871, Doctor Edmonds 
married Ann Jane Saufley who, with two of their five children, survives him. 
lie is also survived by a brother. L. B. Edmonds, of this county, and a sister, 
Mrs. Maria P. \\'illiams, and a brother, Tazewell Edmonds, of Virginia. 
Doctor Edmonds took a prominent and acti\e part in everything- which en- 
gaged his attention. He was one of the organizers of the Missouri State 
Pharmaceutical Association, and was the second president of the organiza- 
tion. He was a member of the state board of pharmacy during the admin- 
istrations of Governors Francis, Stephens and Stone, and was a member of 
the committee which drafted the present state pharmacy laws. He instructed 
many young men in his profession, notwithstanding the fact that he was a 
very busy man in his own practice. In the public affairs of his city he took 
a deep interest and in politics, education, journalism, the city government, 
lodges and charity, his influence was of a definite and beneficent character. 
He was prominent in the councils of the Democratic party and a zealous ad- 
vocate of the political principles which he espoused. For twelve years he was 
a memljer of the Democratic county central committee, and at the time of his 
death was a valued member of the state committee of his party. He was a 
delegate from the seventh Missouri district to the Democratic national con- 
vention at Chicago which nominated Grover Cleveland for the Presidency. 
He never sought nor held any remunerative public position, but was gener- 
ous in giving his time to worthy movements and objects, particularly the pub- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 913 

lie schools, of which he was an earnest champion, having rendered invaluable 
ser\ice as a member of the Miami school board for more than thirty years. 
Doctor Edmonds had read much and was a writer of fluent and pleasing style. 
From I goo to 1905 he owned and edited the Miami Nczvs, and many of his 
editorial utterances were widely quoted. He was a member of the city coun- 
cil a number of terms and he did much to advance the best interests of the 
city. He built a number of attractive residences and, in association wnth 
others, he built the first telephone line from Miami to Marshall, and also to 
Miami Station, in Carroll county. Although a man of moderate means, he 
contributed liberally as he was able to all public enterprises. He was an en- 
thusiastic member of the Masonic order and was twice worshipful master of 
Miami Lodge, No. 85. He was also a member of the chapter of Royal Arch 
Masons up to the time the local charter was surrendered. He tried to exem- 
plify in his life the immortal principles on which that beneficent order is 
founded, and was an honor to the fraternity. Doctor Edmonds made no pub- 
lic profession of religion until late in life, wdien he became a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church South and his heart responded warmly to the 
teachings of Christianity and he passed into the unseen life with the serene 
confidence of one who, though w'ell aware of his infirmities, was conscious 
of a well-spent life. 

Mrs. Edmonds was born in Miami township, this county, and is a daugh- 
ter of Jonas A. and Martha J. (Brown) Saufley, the former born in Rocking- 
ham county, Virginia, December 20, 18 18, and the latter born in Cumberland 
county, Virginia, August 13, 1823. Mr. Saufley and James Lynn came to this 
county in the fall of that year and at once determined to make this county his 
permanent home. For some years he lived with Col. John Brown, six miles 
south of Miami. In 1847 he married Martha J. Brown, a daughter of Wil- 
liam Brown, a pioneer settler of this county. He embarked in the mercantile 
business at Miami, but three years later he sold out and settled on a farm six 
miles southwest of Miami, having bought one hundred and sixty acres of raw 
prairie land. He added to this land from time to time and at length Avas the 
owner of six hundred acres of well improved land. In 1862 he returned to 
Miami and in 1865 engaged in the commission business, to which he soon 
added general merchandise, in which lines he continued to be successfully en- 
gaged several years. During the Civil war he was robbed several times and 
suffered the loss of a large number of slaves. He reared a family of seven 
children, namely: Anna J., the wife of Doctor Edmonds ; Eva L., Mrs. George 
Hahn; Charles W., a fancier; Mattie B., the wife of Newton Myers, a mer- 
chant at Marshall; Darwin, who died in July, 1889, leaving a widow and two 

58 



914 



Asr AMI i'ki:si-:nt 



children: LiUitia. .Mrs. T. J. Hooper; Edna, Mrs. D. N. Burruss. Doctor 
and Mrs. Edmonds became the parents of five children, of whicli numl^er three 
died in infancy: those surviving- are Gussie P., the wife of W. T. Utley, a 
gDcer at Miami, and Raymond S. 

Ravmond S. Echnonds, the popular mayor of Miami, and successfully 
eng-aoed in the drug- l)usiness there, received his education in the Miami pub- 
he schools, graduating- from the high school in 1894. In the fall of the same 
vear he entered the State University at Columbia, where he graduated in the 
classical course in 1899. and the law course in 1900. During the Spanish- 
American war he enlisted in C'ompan}- I, the State University company, of 
which he was commissioned first lieutenant. 1diey started for the front, but 
when thev reached Chickamauga. Georgia, the)- were ordered home, the war 
having- ended. Erom 1900 to 1905 he had the management of the Miami Ncics, 
owned by his father, "fhe plant was sold in 1905 and in September of the 
same year he engaged in the drug business in partnership with J. L. Burr, and 
they have remained in the business, meeting with very gratifying success. 
Mr. Edmonds has taken an active part in local public affairs and has sen-ed 
as city attorney. He is an ardent Democrat and in April, 1909, was elected 
mayor of the city, being the present incumbent of that office, his administra- 
tion being to the entire satisfactioii of the citizens of the city. He is a worthy 
member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Modern Woodmen of America. 
He is a man of splendid personal qualifications and is deservedly popular in 
the communitv where he resides. 



AMOS .\. WHEELER. M. D. 

I )r. Amos .\. Wheeler, who for many years has been numbered among 
the i)ri.minent and successful medical practitioners of Saline county, was born 
in Miami township, this county, .\ugust 4. 1842. He was reared on a farm 
and received his elementary education in the common schools, supplementing 
this l)y attendance at the Miami Male Institute. Practically all schools were 
clo.-ed at the opening of the Civil war in t86t and the subject then enlisted 
in Cfilonel Robertson's command, which went into camp on the Blackwater, 
in this county. WhWe in camp they were surrounded by a large body of Fed- 
eral troops under Gen. Jeff Davis, and were com])elled to surrender. The 
prisoners were taken to St. Louis and confined in McDowell's College, being 
later taken to the iM-dcnil i)ri«>n at Alton. Illinois. In the following March 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 915 

the subject was paroled and immediately returned to his home. For a while 
he was employed in a drug store, during which time he also gave consider- 
able attention to the study of medicine, his preceptor being Doctor Rucker. 
He also engaged in teaching a couple of terms of school and continued his 
medical studies about a year, but the soldiers of both sides made things so un- 
pleasant for him that in 1864 he went to Colorado, where he remained until 
the close of the war the following year. In 1863 he had gone to Brunswick, 
in order to get away from trouble, and while there was taken sick. While 
in this condition and unable to care for himself, he was arrested and forced 
to work and othenvise abused. While in Colorado he prospected some for 
gold, raised hay and traveled much over the state. Subsequently he came to 
Nebraska City and thence home at the close of the war. He then resumed his 
medical studies and in 1866 he attended the medical course in the University 
of Michigan, and the following year matriculated in the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College, of New York City, where he graduated in 1868 with the 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. Returning at once to his home town, he en- 
tered upon the active practice of his profession, with which he was actively 
identified for forty-one years. He met with marked success in the practice 
and during this entire period he was one of the busiest doctors in the county. 
He not only commanded a large practice of his own, but he was frequentlv 
called into consultation by his professional brethren, who recognized and ac- 
knowledged his high learning and ability as a physician. Of recent years, be- 
cause of failing eyesight, the Doctor has relinquished much of his practice, 
though many of his old patrons insist on his services when required. The 
Doctor has taken a keen interest in the various affairs affecting the city of his 
residence, and in 1873 he assisted in organizing the Miami Savings Bank, 
being a heavy stockholder and a member of the board of directors. Besides 
the drug business, in which he was interested for a number of years, he owned 
a fine farm, which he operated with considerable success, but he has disposed 
of this property. In 1902 his son, G. P. Wheeler, went to Kingston, Okla- 
homa, and organized a national bank, which, however, did not gain the con- 
fidence of the public, and it was subsequently changed into a state bank, 
which, under the state guarantee law^ makes it absolutely safe for depositors. 
Dr. A. A. Wheeler gave his son material assistance in this enterprise and 
himself took thirty shares of stock, the bank now doing a large and constantly 
increasing business. Besides his fine residence and other properties in Miami, 
the Doctor is interested in two banks and is otherwise interested in the busi- 
ness interests of the community. 

Doctor \^'heeler has l)een married twice. He first married Alice \\-uiohn. 



9 1 6 



AM .\.\D PRESENT 



a native of Kentucky and a daughter of David and Elizabeth (Hardesty) 
Vau^-hn. both also natives of the Blue Grass state. They were early settlers 
in Miami township. Saline county, Mr. Vaughn subsequently going into the 
o-rain and implement business at Miami. Both were members of the Chris- 
tian church, of which he was an elder. To Doctor and Mrs. \Mieeler were 
horn the following children: One died in infancy; Elizabeth, who is married 
and living at Kansas City; Jessie W., of Miami; Ruth, Mrs. Hornbeck, of 
Lincoln. Nebraska; Emma J.. Mrs. W. S. Myers, of Whittier, California; 
Sidnev T-. of Kingston. Oklahoma; George P., also of Kingston; Sarena, 
Mr.'--. W. S. Duer; Kate A., Mrs. W. Edmonds, deceased. Mrs. Alice Wheeler 
died in 1890. and on February 16, 1894. the Doctor married Mary Louisa 
Huyett. who was b(M-n in Jefferson county. West Virginia, the daughter of 
Charles Huyett, a native of Virginia, a prominent farmer and slave owner. 
To the subject's second marriage has been born a daughter, Angelica M., born 
in 1896. Mrs. Louisa Wheeler is a member of the old-school Presbyterian 
clnu'ch. 

Doctor Wheeler takes an important part in the activities of the Christian 
church, of which he is an elder and superintendent of the Sunday school, as 
well as teacher of the Bible class. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic 
<)r(ier. having filled all the chairs in the blue lodge and being a member of the 
grand lodge. He has attained to the Royal Arch degree. In the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows he has filled all the chairs in the subordinate lodge and 
served as presiding officer of the grand lodge of the state. 

The parents of Doctor Amos \\' heeler were Alfred and Ruth (Perry) 
Wheeler, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter born in Cooper's 
Fort, Howard county, Missouri, in 1812, she being the first white child born 
of American parents west of St. Charles. Alfred Wheeler was born in Gar- 
rard county, Kentucky, August 30, 1807, and came with his mother to Saline 
county, Missouri, in 18 19, his marriage taking place here on July 9, 1830. 
His father, Thomas Wheeler, a native of Virginia, was killed at Dudley's 
defeat in the war of 1812, and the latter's father was a soldier in the war of 
the Revolution. The first members of the \\^heeler family in America were 
four brothers who came from England in a ver}- early day, two of the 
brothers settling in the New England states and two in Virginia, and from 
the latter branch the subject is descended. In politics the descendants of the 
Virginia branch are all Democrats, while the New England Wheelers were 
first Whigs and later Republicans. After Alfred Wheeler married he de- 
voted himself to farming, having entered land, which he developed into a 
good farm. He also assisted materially in the moral and social development 
of the new ronntr\ liclnino' io lav here the foundations of good government. 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI 917 

In an early clay he was inclined to support the Whig party, but later became 
an ardent Democrat. He was a deacon in the Baptist church at Miami, and 
was a Constitutional Union man prior to the Civil war, being opposed to se- 
cession. Though he was a Southern man and his sympathies naturally with 
the South, he took no part in the struggle, though he had sons in the army. 
The militia made things very unpleasant for him in many ways, robbing him 
of practically everything worth taking and even threatening him with bodily 
harm. After the war he again went to work to get his farm in shape for cul- 
tivation and was again soon on the road to success. He was a broad-minded, 
intelligent business man, a good neighbor and stanch friend, and was kind 
and generous to the needy. His death occurred December 24, 1882, being 
survived two years by his wife, whose death occurred on December 16, 1884. 
She also was a faithful member of the Baptist church. They were the par- 
ents of the following children : Humphrey, who was a teacher and was pre- 
paring to enter the ministry of the Baptist church when his death occurred 
on October 25, 1855; Syrena, Mrs. Caseholt; Bettie, Mrs. Dick; W. H., a 
prominent business man of Miami; Amos A., the immediate subject of this 
sketch; Alfred L. All of these children were born in Saline county, and all 
have been prominently identified with the history of the county, being highly 
respected for their genuine worth. 



WILLIAM H. W^HEELER. 

The record of Mr. Wheeler is that of a man who has worked his way 
from a modest beginning to a position of affluence and influence in the busi- 
ness world. His life has been of unceasing industry and perseverance, and 
the systematic and honorable methods which he has followed have won him 
the unbounded confidence of his fellow citizens of Miami and Saline county. 
Mr. Wheeler is descended from an honored pioneer family of Saline county, 
and was prominently identified with the early agricultural interests and, later, 
widi the banking and business interests of Miami. He was born in Miami 
township. Saline county, December 23, 1839, and was reared on the home- 
stead farm. He received his elementary education in the subscription schools 
of the period, supplementing this by attendance at the Miami Male Institute. 
He is the son of Alfred and Ruth (Perry) Wheeler, the former a native of 
Kentucky, and the latter bom in Cooper's Fort, Howard county, Missouri, 
in 1812, she being the first white child born of American parents west of St. 



giS PAST AND PRESENT 

Charles. Alfred W heeler was born in Garrard county, Kentucky, August 
30, 1807. and came with his mother to Saline county, Missouri, in 1819. his 
marriage taking^ place here on July 9. 1*830. His father. Thomas Wheeler, a 
native of Virginia, was killed at Dudley's defeat, in the war of 1812, and the 
latter'.^ father was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. The first members of 
the Wheeler famii}- in America were four brothers from England, of mixed 
Scotch. Irish and English blood, who came to this country in a very early 
(lav. two of the brothers settling in the New England states and two in Vir- 
ginia, and from the latter branch the subject is descended. In politics the 
descendants of the Virginia branch are generally Democrats, wlnie the New 
England Wheelers were first Whigs and later Republicans. .\fter Alfred 
U'heelcr married he devoted his attention to farming, having entered land, 
which he developed into a good farm. He also assisted materially in the 
moral and social development of the new country, helping to lav here the 
foundations of good government. In an early day he was inclined to support 
the \\^hig party, but later became an ardent Democrat. He was a deacon in 
the Baptist church at Miami, and prior to the Civil war he was a Constitu- 
tional Union man. being opposed to secession. Though he was a Southern 
man and his sympathies naturally with the South, he took nO' part in the 
struggle, though he had sons in the army. The militia made things very un- 
pleasant for him in many ways, robbing- him of practically everything worth 
taking and even threatening him w-ith bodily harm. After the war he again 
went to work to get his farm in shape for cultivation and was soon on the 
road to success. He was a broad-minded, intelligent business man. a good 
neighbor and stanch friend, and was kind and generous to the needy. His 
death occurred on December 24, 1882, being sur\nved two years by his wife, 
whose death occurred on December 16, 1884. She also was a faithful mem- 
ber of the Baptist church. They were the parents of the following children : 
Humphrey, who was a teacher and was preparing to enter the ministrv of 
the Baptist church, wdien his death occurred on October 25. 1855; Syrena, 
Mrs. Casebolt; Bettie. Mrs. Dick; W. H., a prominent business man of Mi- 
ami; Amos A., of Miami; Alfred L. 

\\'illiam H. Wheeler remained with his parents until shortlv after at- 
taining his majority, when he responded to Governor Jackson's call for 
troops and enlisted at Miami in the six-months sennce in Company A. of the 
State Troops. This company was assigned to General Price's command, and 
at once started for the South with the Third Regiment, under the immediate 
command of Colonel Dill and Lieut.-Col. James Mitchell, the latter a Metho- 
dist minister. Hie subject participated in two battles, Dry Wood and Lex- 



SALINE COUNTY^ MISSOURI QIQ 

ingion, and the command got as far SDiith as the Osage ri\'er. when their 
period of enhstment expired. Returning home too late to join Robertson's 
recruits, Mr. Wheeler remained at home a short time, during which period 
he engaged in teaching school. Later he joined Shelby's brigade and took 
part in Price's raid, during which time skirmishes and fighting was the reg- 
ular daily program. The company was in southern Missouri. Kansas, In- 
dian Territory, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, and in June, 1865, they sur- 
rendered at Shreveport, Louisiana. They were at once paroled and were 
furnished transportation home by steamboat. 

On his return home Mr. Wheeler assisted his father on the home farm, 
where he remained until January, 1867. when he accepted the position of su- 
perintendent of the Miami schools, this being immediately after the reorgan- 
ization of the public schools under the new laws enacted soon after the close 
of the war. Mr. Wheeler remained at the head of the Miami schools six 
years, during which time he also conducted farming operations, and alto- 
gether was engaged in teaching sixteen years. In 1879 he moved intrj the 
town of Miami and in February, 1880, he entered the Miami Bank as book- 
keeper, remaining there until January, 1903, during the latter part of which 
time he served as cashier and secretary of the board of directors. At the 
date mentioned the bank was reorganized and Mr. Wheeler was made presi- 
dent of the institution, v/hich position he still holds. This bank was started 
as a private bank in 1870 by J. H. Akin, who sold his interests in 1873, at 
which time the Miami Savings Bank was organized under the state law, with 
the following officiary : President, John G. Guthrie ; cashier, L. J. Hammer ; 
directors, John G. Guthrie, I. C. Withers. Martin Baker, F. H. Gilliam, John 

C. Scott, John L. Black, John Burruss, B. F. McDaniel and L. J. Hammer. 
The capital stock, which was unpaid, was fifty thousand dollars, it being- se- 
cured by real estate in Saline county. It was a bank of deposit and discount, 
bought and sold exchange and conducted a general banking business. In tlie 
reorganization in 1903 the capital stock was reduced to twenty-five thousand 
dollars. The bank is now considered one of the solid and influential financial 
institutions of Saline county, being also one of the oldest. Much of its suc- 
cess is due to the indefatigable energy, sound judgment and conservative 
methods of its president, who devotes the greater part of his time to its in- 
terests. He commands the unbounded confidence of the community, his in- 
tegrity and ability being recognized wherever he is known. 

In January, 1867, Mr. W^heeler married Jane E. Fishback, who was 
born at Georgetown. Pettis county, Missouri, in 1841, the daughter of John 

D. and Elizabeth (Sidensticker) Fishback, these parents being natives of Vir- 



()20 PAST AND PRESENT 

,i;n.na. Mr. Fishback came to Missouri in 1837, and located at Georgetown, 
where he followed his trade, that of a tailor, until his death. He was a man 
of splendid parts and was a worthy member of the Methodist church. After 
his death his widow married F. M. Minoe, of Virginia, and located near 
Miami. He was a veteran of the Confederate army and was held in high es- 
teem. John D. and Elizabeth Fishback had two children, Margaret (Mrs, 
Gilbreath) and Jane E.. wife of tlic subject. 1^) Mr. and Mrs. Minoe were 
born five children, namely : John, deceased ; Alfred T., of California ; Mary 
C. Mrs. W. M. Coleman: Thomas, a carpenter at Miami; Flora A., Mrs, 
Gilbert. 

Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are members of the Baptist church, 
to which they give an earnest and liberal support. Mr, Wheeler has always 
taken a keen interest in educational matters and for many years has been a 
member of the school board, being the present treasurer of the board. Though 
thev have no children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have made their 
home a haven and blessing for several orphans, they having cared for and 
educated four girls, three of whom were married at their home. The last 
one. whom they took as an orphan at the age of four years, was Maud Haw- 
kins, a daughter of William and Adeline (Guinn) Hawkins. The Rev. Abner 
Guinn was a pioneer Baptist minister who labored for the salvation of souls 
through the pioneer settlements. This child Mr. and Mrs. Wlieeler adopted, 
bestowing upon her all the affection and care that they could have given an 
own child. She was well educated and became a cultured and accomplished 
young woman, later becoming the wife of Lex McDaniel. a son of Giles R. 
McDaniel and grandson of Judge R. E. McDaniel, prominent and well known 
throughout the state. Lex McDaniel is now a successful business man in 
Kansas City, and his marriage has been blessed with two interesting children. 
Kirk and Elizabetli. Both these parents are worthy members of the Baptist 
chu'-ch at Kansas City, Mr. McDaniel being- a deacon in his church. 



JAMES C. HAYNIE, 



Descended from one of the ])rominent and lionored pioneer families of 
Saline county, and maintaining during the subsequent vears an active con- 
nection with its agricultural interests, the subject of this sketch is entitled to 
specific mention in a work of this character, Mr, Haynie is a native son of 
Missouri, having been born in Miami township, Saline county, on April 2, 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 921 

1861, and he is a son of Frederick and Eliza J. (Garrett) Haynie. These 
parents were born in Virginia, the former being the son of Max Haynie, also 
a native of Virginia, and one of four brothers who came to Missouri in 1836, 
all locating near Miami. Frederick Haynie was married in Saline coimty, 
and at once settled on a farm near Miami, where he continued operations 
until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in the cavalry service 
under Gen. Sterling- Price. He remained in the service until the close of the 
war, and was once wounded. He saw much hard service and took part in a 
number of hard-fought engagements and many skirmishes. After the close 
of the war he remained in Arkansas, where he died in 1885. His first wife 
remained on the Saline county farm and kept her family together, rearing' 
them to honorable and respectable lives. She was a consistent member of the 
Baptist church, and her death occurred in 1875. She was a daughter of Col. 
Laborn Garrett, of Virginia, who, as a pioneer settler, located north of Slater, 
where he developed a fine farm. In early years, when the militia met in gen- 
eral musters, he held coinmission as colonel of a regiment and was in other 
ways prominent in the early life of the county. He was also an early teacher 
and was a member of the Baptist church. His children were as follows: 
James. Doc, Georg-e, Laborn, Eliza J- (the subject's mother), Nancy (Mrs. 
Grandstaff), Mary (Mrs. Walker), Ann (Mrs. Storts), Xarcissa (Mrs. 
Orear). Frederick and Eliza Haynie became the parents of the following 
children: Rachael died unmarried in 1908, at the age of sixty-six years; 
Clements, deceased ; Laborn G. ; Charles, who lives in Oregon ; Max ; Nar- 
cissa J., Mrs. T. Prophet, deceased: Frederick, deceased; James C. the sub- 
ject. 

James C. Haynie was reared by his mother and received his education 
in the common schools, also attending one term at Malta Bend. He gave 
his mother valuable assistance in the operation of the home farm, and after 
his mother's death the family remained on the place. The subject has con- 
tinued his farming operations to the present time, having in 1891 located on 
his own farm in Miami township. He has been very successful and is num- 
bered among the leading farmers of the township. He raises all the crops 
common to this section of the country and also g'ives considerable attention 
to the raising and handling of live stock, in both of which lines he is meeting 
with excellent success. His business dealings are characterized by a spirit 
of fairness and justice, and among his employes is a colored man who has 
been with him for fifteen years, Mr. Haynie eventually buying his faithful 
helper a small farm, where the latter is now making a comfortable living. 

Politically Mr. Haynie is a strong Democrat, but in no sense an office 



gjj PAST AND PRESENT 

seeker, lie lias ire(|iKiiu} »-i\ed on the petit jury and as a member of the 
scliool board, he being a warm friend of education. His religious member- 
ship is with the Christian church, he being treasurer of the local organization. 
Mr. llaynie married Laura C. Martin, who was born and reared in 
Miami township, this county, a daughter of John and Amanda ( Crouder) 
]\[artin. Her father, who was a native of New York state, was a carpenter 
and ci'nlractor. being an exjjert mechanic. The Crouder family is from Il- 
linois, fohn Martin was doubly entitled to the term "veteran," having 
served in both the Mexican and Civil wars, being never wounded nor taken 
prisoner. He was a member of the Baptist church. He died in 1895, his 
wife having died in 1867. They were the parents of three children, namely: 
George, who was accidentally killed at Tacoma, Washington ; Mary, Mrs. L. 
G. Havnie; Laura, wife of the subject. To Mr. and Mrs. Haynie were bom 
three children, namely: Ola May, born in 1892; Maxy, born in 1897, died in 
1899; Aubrey, born in 1899. 



JOHN N. DUNLAP, M. D. 

On the 27th day of August, 1905, there passed away another one of 
those sturdy old pioneers of Saline county who did so much for the develop- 
ment and upbuilding of this section of the state and the influence of whose 
character is still felt in the community. Dr. John N. Dunlap, who, during- 
his active years, was a prominent and successful physician and surgeon at 
Miami, was born in Staunton, Augusta county, Virginia, July 29, 1822, and 
was a son of John Dunlap, who was a native of Virginia. The latter became 
a prominent merchant in his native county, where he continued until 1853, 
when he closed ont his business and came to Missouri, locating in Atchison 
county, where he engaged in farming, continuing in this line until his death. 
which occurred in 1861. He was a worthy member of the Persbyterian 
church and in politics was a Democrat. He was the father of four children, 
namely: Robert, a lawyer; James M.. farmer and merchant; Seabrook. a 
farmer, and John N., the immediate subject of this sketch. 

The subject was reared in his native town and secured a good educa- 
tion in the public schools, supplementing this by attendance at the Staunton 
Academy. At the early age of sixteen years he took up the reading of med- 
icine under the preceptorship of a prominent physician there, which he con- 
tinued until he was twenty years of age, when he entered the medical depart- 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 923 

ment of the University of Virg^inia, where he took a full course and gradu- 
ated in 1843. He at once commenced the active practice of his profession in 
Green Brier county, Virginia, where he remained until October, 1844, when 
he removed to Miami, Saline county, Missouri, and resumed the practice. 
At the opening of the war with Mexico, in 1846, Doctor Dunlaj) enlisted in 
Company K, Second Regiment Missouri Volunteer Infantry, \\ith which 
command he participated in a number of engagements and skirmishes in New 
Mexico. In March, 1847, ^''^ ^'^'^s promoted to assistant surgeon of the regi- 
ment, which position he filled until receiving his honorable discharge at Fort 
Leavenworth, in October, 1847. He then returned to Miami and resumed 
his professional work, in which he was successfully eng'ag'ed there until 1857, 
when he moved to Rockport, Atchison county, Missouri. There he went 
into the mercantile business, but fifteen months' experience in that line satis- 
fied him, and he returned to Miami a poorer but wiser man. Again taking 
up the practice of medicine, he remained there until i860, when he changed 
his field of effort to Arrow Rock, this county, where he remained until 1864, 
when, tiring of being constantly between the two fires. Federal and Confed- 
erate, he went to Canada, where he remained until March, 1865, when he 
resumed his practice at Arrow Rock. Subsequently he returned to the scene 
of his first success in this state, Miami, and remained there during the re- 
mainder of his life. The Civil war left him practically bankrupt, like many 
others about him, but by hard work and good management he was eventually 
able to amass a fair competency for his declining years. During- his many 
years of professional work he always commanded the unbounded confidence 
of the people and he enjoyed a large and extensive practice. He was an able 
physician and many extremely difficult cases were successfully handled by 
him, he being frequently called into consultation by his professional brethren. 
In May, 1850, Doctor Dunlap married Sarah M. Brown, a native of Vir- 
ginia and the daughter of Edmond Brown, a prominent farmer and slave 
owner of that state, who came to Miami township. Saline county, Missouri, 
in 1830. He was a worthy member of the Episcopal church. To Dr. John 
N. and Sarah Dunlap were born the following children: Sarah J., ^Irs. 
Charles Pavne ; Edmond J., a successful druggist at Gilliam, this county; 
John A., a lawyer at Miami. Mrs. Sarah Dunlap died in June, 1857, and sub- 
sequently the subject married Maria Alitchell, a daughter of ^^'illiam ^Mitchell, 
of Miami. To this union were born six children, namely : Two that died in 
infancy; Mar\^ M., unmarried; William E., a physician at Dallas, Texas; 
Arthur H., a civil engineer at Grand Falls, Texas: Robert R., a merchant at 
Chickasa, Oklahoma. 



ij24 PAST AND PRESENT 

))iici(ir 1 )unlap was an oniiiiN-uroiis reader and constant student, ever 
kecpinti" in close touch with the latest advances in the healino^ art, and he was 
als(^ well informed on all questions of a general nature relating to the public 
affairs of the state and nation. He was alive to the development and ad- 
vancement of the best interests of the community in which he lived and had 
business interests aside from his profession, having conducted a drug store at 
Miami, as well as being interested in a lumber and implement business. Po- 
litically he was a stanch Democrat, though he never aspired to public office 
of any nature. He was a broad minded, large hearted, intelligent business 
man, able physician, generous giver, kind neighbor, faithful friend and genial 
companion, and numbered a host of warm personal friends throughout the 
community. He acted as preceptor for many young medical students, some 
of whom afterwards attained to eminent standing in their profession, and by 
these he is remembered with feelings of reverence and affection. 



T. D. FRISTOE. 



Among the enterprising and progressive business men of Saline county 
is numbered the gentleman \vhose name appears at the head of these para- 
gr.nphs. and who is occupying the responsible position of assistant cashier of 
the ]\Iiami Savings Bank. Mr. Fristoe was born in Lafayette county, Mis- 
souri, June II. 1852, and is a son of William and Susanna (Estes) Fristoe, 
both of whom were natives of Kentucky. The Fristoe family was originally 
from Virginia, but members of the family were early settlers in Kentucky, 
where they became prominent and successful farmers, slave owarers and pro- 
fessional men. The subject's maternal grandfather, Littleberry Estes, was 
also from Kentucky and was a descendant of a prominent family of Virginia 
or North Carolina. He remained in Kentucky until about 181 5, when he 
came to Saline county, Missouri, but not being able to make permanent set- 
tlement on account of the hostile attitude of the Indians, he took his family 
to a fort. In 1816 he returned to this county and secured a farm, wdiich he 
unproved and cultivated for a few years, wdien he sold out and removed to 
Laiayette county, where he devoted his energies to the improvement of a sec- 
ond fami. He was said to be the first wdiite settler west of Arrow Rock, and, 
becoming friendly with the Indians, he did much trading with them. He \vas 
said to have been a man of generous disposition, the latchstring of his door 
bemg ever on the outside, and his honor and integrity were unquestioned. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 925 

He was a member of the Primitive Baptist church and Hved a useful and re- 
spected hfe. He spent his remaining years at the old homestead in Lafayette 
county. 

William Fristoe, the subject's father, was born and reared in Kentucky, 
and subsequently became one of the early pioneers of Missouri. He first 
located in Howard county, this state, spending much time in the vicinity of 
Old Franklin, and eventually in his prospecting trips drifted into Lafayette 
county, where he later formed the acquaintance of her who afterwards became 
his wife. After his marriage he returned to the vicinity of Old Franklin, 
where he did some farming, and later returned to Lafayette county, where 
he made permanent settlement and improved a farm, on which he lived until 
his death, which occurred on December 25, 1879. He was a strong Demo- 
crat in his political views, but never aspired to public office. He and his wife 
were consistent members of the Baptist church, he being a deacon in the same. 
His widow survived him until 1881. Their marriage was blessed with ten 
children. 

John D. Fristoe was reared under the parental roof and secured a good 
practical education in the public schools. He then began teaching school, in 
which line of effort he was employed for several terms. He then devoted 
himself to the operation of the old home farm, where he remained until June, 
1 88 1, when, his parents both being dead, he rented the farm and moved to 
Denver, Colorado, and engaged in the livery business. Later disposing of 
this business, he accepted employment with the Denver & Rio Grand Express 
Company, changing soon afterwards to the Denver Fire Clay Company. Six 
vears later he came to Marshall, Missouri, and eventually to Miami, where 
during the following five years he was engaged with G. N. Jackson in the 
mercantile business. During President Cleveland's administration he was 
appointed postmaster of Miami, but three years and a half later he resigned 
this position in order to accept that of depuy sheriff of Saline county. He 
then moved to Marshall and filled this position satisfactorily for four years, and 
at the end of his term he became bookkeeper for Rhae & Page Milling Com- 
panv, with whom he remained for two years, after which he served two years 
as deputv tax collector of SaHne county. Li 1901 he was elected assistant 
cashier of the Miami Savings Bank, which position he continues to fill. In all 
positions to which he has been called he has performed his duties to the entire 
satisfaction of all concerned and has acquitted himself with marked credit. 
He is a splendid accountant and possesses sound judgment, so that he is well 
qualified for the position which he now holds. He has disposed of the old 
homestead and has made wise investments, being a stockholder in the Miami 



()_>() PAST AND PRESENT 

Savings Bank, of which he is also a director, and he also owns other business 
interests. 

Politically Mr. Fristoe is a stanch Democrat, and has been an active 
worker in the ranks of his party. He has never been an aspirant for public of- 
hce. bavins^- been called to each office which he has filled. He is a consistent 
and active member of the Baptist church, while, fraternally, he is a member 
of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, having filled all the chairs in the lodg-es of both orders. 

Mr. Fristoe married Lucy Burruss. who was born in Texas in 1859, the 
daughter of John H. and Martha (Ballinger) Burruss. Both of these parents 
were natives of Kentucky, but in an early day moved to Texas, where the 
father became a successful farmer and stock raiser. Eventually he moved to 
Saline county, Missouri, making his permanent home at Miami. Because of 
failing health, he turned over his business affairs to his -sons. He w^as a 
stanch Democrat in politics and for a number of years he filled the office of 
justice of the peace. He possessed a classical education and was in close 
touch with the trend of modern thought on all the great questions of the day. 
He and his sons took a leading part in the development of the county, among 
their enterprises being the establishment of a transfer line between Miami 
and Marshall and the operation of a ferry boat at Miami. He and his wife 
died at ^liami. respected by all who knew them. They were the parents of 
seven children, namely: John. Henry, Frank, George, David M., Lucy (wife 
of the subject of this sketch), and Mary. To Mr. and Mrs. Fristoe has been 
born one child. John D., Jr.. who will soon graduate from the State Univer- 
sitv. at Columbia. 



THOMAS A. SMITH. M. D. 

'' Dr. Thomas A. Smith, the son of Dr. Crawford E. and Virginia (Penn) 
Smith, was torn at Experiment, his father's farm, September 10, 1858. His 
first schooling was from a private teacher at home. When he was about ten 
years of age, his father, with his entire family, moved down to St. Louis 
county on a farm belonging to his mother, given her by her father. Dr. George 
l>nn. the early Saline county physician frequently mentioned in this history. 
.\ fter a thorough elementary education by private tutors at home, he was sent 
to Kemper Academy, at Boonville. where he was graduated in June, 1876, 
afterwards taking a course in medicine at St. Louis. On October 12. 1880, 
he married Kate Hr)\v;ii-d. daughter of Col. William P. Howard, a prominent 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 927 

St. Louis merchant. He thereafter moved to the state of Arkansas, where 
he began the practice of his profession, deer hunting and studying the flora 
and fauna of that region, resting from the labors of the abbatoir, sometimes 
called a doctor's office. Remaining in Arkansas about one year, he returned 
to St. Louis county, where he located and practiced his profession success- 
fully for twelve years. His father having died, leaving him lands in this 
county, he moved back here with his wife and four children in 1894,- built a 
house on his lands immediately adjoining the town of Napton, where he has 
since resided, owning two hundred acres of the best land in the county. Since 
moving to Saline county he has declined professional business, but has become 
a successful farmer and extensive cattle feeder, bank director and all-around 
man of affairs, having abandoned all his sporting habits and proclivities of 
his early manhood. 

Doctor Smith 'has a good library and is a great reader and in fact one of 
the best infomied and most intelligent men in the countn,^, to all of which his 
friends and acquaintances must bear testimony. His family consists of his 
wife and three daughters, the elder daughter being the wife of S. S. Abney. 
who resides on a farm near the village of Napton. 



JOHN BLAIR. 



The paternal ancestors of the family of this name in Missouri came 
originallv from Asheville, North Carolina, but the descendants were long set- 
tled and numerous in Kentucky. The subject's maternal great-grandfather, 
Joseph Perrin. came with his brothers from France, and all settled at Char- 
lotte court house. V'irginia. All were soldiers in the war of 1812 and Gen. 
Josephus Perrin was in the battle of the Thames. The paternal grandfather. 
James Blair, who lived near Cynthiana, Harrison county, Kentucky, married, 
in 1820. Cvnthia Perrin, a daughter of Gen. Josephus Perrin. They moved 
to southern Indiana and four children were born to them, namely: James, 
Josephus Perrin. Leander and Amanda. James Blair died at his Indiana 
home, and sul)sequently his widow returned to her old Kentucky home, where 
she died. James Blair was a cousin to Gov. Francis P. Blair, of ^Missouri, 
and his sister, Amanda, became the wife of Maj. Hugh Newell, of Revolu- 
tionan- war fame. The families whose blood flows in the subject's veins — 
the Perrin s, Blairs and Berrys — were of those fine old Virginia families of 
whom we hear and read so much. Josephus Perrin Blair, who was born in 



i^j^ V \<\- WD l'KI-:SENT 

ll.-irrison C(»unt\-. Kentucky hccaiiie prnmincnt in several lines ;in(l rose to 
])i)siti()ns (.f intliienco in his coniniunity. I'nr }ears he was a merchant at 
I5errv and L'oleniansxille. in 1 larrison connty. was elected and re-elected jus- 
tice of the peace for many terms, and held other ])laces of trust. Through- 
out his hfe he was an enthusiastic temperance man and lost no opportunity to 
advocate the cause of sobriety. As Harriscju county was the scene of his 
life's activities, so it witnessed his departure when his eyes closed on this world 
in i<)07, after he had completed his eighty-seventh year. In early manhood 
he married Alvira Berry, whose parents were born in Harrison county, where 
the \illage of Berry was named in their honor. Col. George W. Berry, brother 
of Mrs. Blair, commanded a regiment in the Federal army during the Civil 
war. and was killed in an engagement at Cynthiana, Kentucky. His son, 
Cant. Robert Berry, was in the Confederate army; he died at Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, in 1909. The first Mrs. Blair died in 1859, after becoming the mother 
of seven children, namely : James Calvin, the eldest, resides at Okmulgee, In- 
dian Territory; Martin Luther, deceased; Amanda, widow of B. C. Day, 
lives at Colemansville, Kentucky ; Emma, wddow of James H. Swdnford, is a 
resident of Covington, Kentucky; John; Joel, deceased, and Clay, who also is 
a resident of Covington. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Blair mar- 
ried A. M. Limerick, of Colemansville, Kentucky, and there were five chil- 
dren by this union, namely: Roger P., the eldest, who was a member of the 
Kentucky Legislature from Harrison county wdien only twenty-four years 
old, is now an undertaker at Berry; Robert Lee. the third child, is a resident 
of Cincinnati ; Mrs. Mamie Allen resides in the state of Washington ; Charles 
and the younger child are both deceased, the latter dying at birth. 

John Blair, the fifth child by his father's first marriage, was born in Har- 
ri.son county, Kentucky, Januaiy 15, 1849, ^"^ spent the first thirty-five years 
ni his live in his native place. As the schools w^ere poor at best and entirely 
broken up during the Civil war, his opportunities for education were limited. 
For ten years he w^as engaged in the general mercantile business at Boyd and 
Bern-. He sei-ved an apprenticeship in telegraphy and bookkeeping under G. 
B. Durrant, w^orked for him six months and then purchased his interest in 
the general merchandise business. In 1884 a cyclone destroyed the town in 
which he lived and in the same year he removed to Missouri. Settling at 
Marshall in Scjitember, he engaged in the retail grocery business and contin- 
ued in that line for twelve years. In 1900 he was elected mayor of Marshall, 
re-elected two years later and made a fine ofificial record during his two terms. 
He was instrumental in building ten miles of paved streets and had all the old 
boarrl walks replaced by fine concrete and brick pavements. He also acted as 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 9^9. 

police judge during- his incumbency as mayor, and tried over eight hunch'ed 
cases in his judicial capacity. He had two hundred forty ordinances passed, 
affecting the welfare of the city, and altogether set an excellent example of an 
ofificial intent only on the public good. When he took office the city was bur- 
dened with an old water-works debt of one hundred twenty thousand dollars, 
which he succeeded in compromising for forty thousand dollars. A new 
warer plant was installed, a new location selected and paid for and deep wells 
put down, aft'ording an abundance of pure water for fire and commercial pur- 
poses. The city became the owner of the plant and has one of the best water 
works in the state, operated at a low cost to the tax payers and obtaining a 
lower rate of insurance, x^fter leaving the mayor's office Mr. Blair was en- 
g"aged four years in the real estate and fire insurance business. In 1908 h.e 
was elected county treasurer on the Democratic ticket and began serving his 
term on January i, 1909. 

October 27,, 1873, ^^^"- Blair was married in Pendleton county. Kentucky, 
to Nannie, daughter of James C. Garrard, a farmer of prominent family con- 
nections in that section, who died in 1889. Mrs. Blair died February 4, 1889. 
after becoming the mother of five children, namely: Wilder G., the eldest, is 
a resident of Kansas City ; Edwin B. is a conductor on the Santa Fe railroad, 
and lives in Raton, New Mexico; Kate, wife of G. F. Durrant, has one child, 
Nancy B., and resides with her father; James G. is an employe of the Santa 
Fe Railroad Compan3\ in New ^Mexico, and Frank P. remains under the 
parental roof. Mr. Blair is a Mason, Knight of Pythias, and has belonged 
to the Christian church since he was seventeen years old. 



CHURCHILL J. BLACKBURN. 

The gentleman to a brief review of whose life the following lines are de- 
voted is prominently connected with the journalism of Saline county, being 
the proprietor and editor of the Blackburn Record, one of the most popular 
papers of the county, comparing favorably with the best local sheets in this 
section of the state in news, editorial ability and mechanical execution. The 
county recognizes in Mr. Blackburn not only a keen newspaper man, but also 
a representative citizen, whose interest in all that affects the general welfare 
has been of such a character as to w^in for him a high place in the confidence 
and esteem of the people. 

Churchill J. Blackburn was born in Covington, Kentucky, on the loth 
day of July, 1862, and is a son of Frank A. and Lydia A. Blackburn. When 

59 



o:;.! PAST AND PRESENT 

the subject was six years old the family came to Saline county, Missouri, and 
located on a farm, a part of which is the present home of Mr. Blackburn. 
The latter received his education in the common schools, supplementing this 
bv four years' attendance at the Missouri State University, taking- the medi- 
cal course and graduating in June. 1883, with the degree of Doctor of Medi- 
cine. He then took a course in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New 
\'ork City, where, in March, 1884, he also received the degree of Doctor of 
Medicine. Immediately upon the completion of his professional education. 
Doctor Blackburn entered upon the active practice in (ireene county, this state, 
where he remained three years, at the end of which time he located on his 
fatlier's farm, where he gave his attention tO' its operation during the follow- 
ing four years. In 1891 Doctor Blackburn and his brother, Marshall P., 
went into the drug business at Blackburn, in which they were successfully en- 
gaged until 1903, when the Doctor changed his line of effort, buying the 
Blacklmni Record, which he still owns and publishes. The Record is a live 
and hustling sheet, a faithful chronicle of the current happenings and a pos- 
itive force in the community. The paper enjoys a splendid circulation, and 
is a welcome visitor in the homes where it goes. Doctor Blackburn is a man 
of splendid personal qualities and enjoys a large circle of warm personal 
friends, who esteem him for his genuine worth. 

Politically Mr. Blackburn gives an active support to the Democratic 
])arty and is a member of the county central committee. His religious mem- 
bership is with the Presbyterian church at Blackburn, of which he is a deacon. 
Fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, in which 
he has been honored officially, having served as worshipful master of the blue 
lodge, high priest of the Royal Arch chapter and eminent commander of the 
commandery of Knights Templar. 



JOHN JACOB SMITH. 



It is not an easy task to describe adequately a man who has led an emi- 
nently active and useful life and who has a position of relative distinction in 
the community with which his interests are allied. But biography finds its 
most perfect justification, nevertheless, in the tracing and recording of such 
a life history. It is, then, with a full appreciation of all that is demanded, 
and with a feeling of satisfaction that the writer essays the task of touching 
briefl)- upon the details of such a record as has been that of the honored sub- 
ject whose life now comes under this review. John J. Smith, of Sweet Springs, 
Saline county, Missouri. 



SALINE COUNTY, MISSOURI 93 ^ 

The subject is a son of George W. and Mary A. (Tyson) Smith. George 
W. is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born in Lancaster county, on De- 
cember 2, 1833. He is a son of Wilham B. and Mary A. (Shafer) Smith, the 
fon-ner of whom was a native of Alaryland and the latter of Lancaster county, 
Pennsylvania. William B. Smith was a shoemaker by vocation, and died in 
his native state at the age of seventy-eight years. He was the father of the 
following children: William S., Elizabeth, Mariah, Jacob, John, Emily, Mary, 
Louisa, Leah, George W., and one that died in infancy. George W. learned 
the trade of shoemaking and followed that vocation twelve years in his native 
state. In 1865 he removed to Sterling, Illinois, where he farmed until 1878, 
when he came to Alaryville, Missouri, and started a creamery, farming to 
some extent in connection. Subsequently he removed to Lincoln, Nebraska, 
but in 1883 he came to Sweet Springs, Saline county, and engaged in con- 
tracting and building. He erected and operated the first creamery here, and 
was fairly successful in this enterprise. In 1888 he was appointed postmaster 
of Sweet Springs, holding the office four years. At the expiration ot this 
term Mr. Smith and his son, the subject of this sketch, erected a creamery, 
in the operation of which they were engaged until 1896. when ^Ir. Smith 
again received the appointment as postmaster, and he has held the office con- 
tinuously to the present time, a period of fourteen years. Mr. Smith is a 
good business man and of an accommodating and obliging disposition so that 
his administration of this responsible position has been eminently satisfactory 
to the patrons of the office. In January, 1854. George W. Smith was mar- 
ried to Mary A. Tyson, a native of Pennsylvania, who died on July 3, 1900. 
They became the parents of the following children : W^illiam F., who is a 
successful farmer in North Dakota, married Mary A. Burch and they are the 
parents of two children, Vernon and Merle : John Jacob is the immediate sub- 
ject of this review: Amos, who is a farmer in New Mexico, married Louisa 
: , and they have three children. Hazel. Harold and Raymond : Augus- 
tus A is married and lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where he is a carpenter, 
painter and paper hanger; Ida, who is single and remains at home, is her 
father's assistant in the postoffice : Mary Ellen, unmarried, lives m New :^Iex- 
ico- Laura Jane is the wife of J. Harvey Dooly and lives m New Mexico. In 
politics Mr. Smith is a stanch Republican, and while a resident ot Pennsyl- 
vania he was a member of the state militia and stood ready during the Civil 
war to be called into active service. 

John Jacob Smith was born on the parental homestead in Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania, on November 12. 1856. He was reared on the tai-m 
and secured his education in the common schools near his home and at Ober- 
lin College, Ohio. In 1865 he accompanied his father on the removal to Ster- 



<>^-' 



PAST AND PRESENT 



lint;-. Illinois, and in 187X {o Marvville, Missouri. He was his father's part- 
ner antl assistant in several enterprises, referred to in foregoing- paragraphs. 
Thv family resided a short time at Lincoln, Nebraska, but in December, 1883, 
thcv finally located at Sweet Springs, this county, where they have since re- 
sided, being numbered now among the leading citizens of this prosperous com- 
nninitv. .\fter coming here the subject was interested with his father in the 
erection and operation of the creamery and also did a good deal of contract- 
ing. The creamery, which was built in 1896, was run with very satisfactory 
success a number of vears and was then sold. Mr. Smith has been active in 
manv wavs in advancing the material interests of the community, and has al- 
\\a\s been relied on to give a hearty support to every mo\ement having for 
its oj)ject the best interests of the town in any respect. 

In 1890 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Lucy Kelly, the daughter 
of Gen. W. H. and Afariah (Lawson) Kelly, early settlers of Ohio, but who 
in 1888 became residents of Missouri. Mrs. Smith died in 1905. 

In matters political Mr. Smith has been a stanch Republican from the 
time he attained his majority, and he has for several years been considered 
one of the most active and intluential members of the party in this section of 
the state. He has been prominent in local public afTairs. ha\'ing been elected 
mayor of Sweet Springs in 1902 and retained the office until 1908. He gave 
an able and satisfactory administration of the duties of the office and iTtired 
with the high regard of his fellow townsmen. In i8t}o he was chosen chair- 
man of the Republican centi"al committee of Saline county and served as such 
until 1896. giving able and efficient service to his party during this period. 
His ability to "do things" has been recognized in his selection as a member of 
the Republican state central committee, in which position he served for six 
years. He was a delegate from this congressional district to the Republican 
national convention which met at St. Louis in 1896 and he assisted materially 
in the nomination of William McKinley for the Presidency. He is a keen, 
shrewd and sagacious politician in the highest sense and his services as an ad- 
viser in the councils of his party have been recognized and appreciated by his 
fellow workers, among whom he occupies a high standing. 

fraternally ]\Ir. Smith is a inember of the time-honored order of An- 
cient Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has taken the degrees up to and 
including that r)f Knight Templar, and he is also a member of the auxiliary 
onler. the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in the work 
of which l)odies he takes a deep interest. Throughout his entire cai-eer, he 
has been industrious, energetic and successful, and he has won for himself an 
honorable name in business and political circles, while at all times he has re- 
reived the unlxmnded confidence of his fellow men. 



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